On Wednesday of Grand Marshal Week, the Information and Personnel Assistance Center held its annual Stump IPAC event. For those that don’t know, IPAC answers non-homework questions through phone and text for RPI students. Informally, it is known as the “chacha” of RPI and is mainly run by students. From noon–4 pm on Wednesday, they held a table in the Voorhees Computing Center North Quad area, where the main festivities were. IPAC members beckoned passersby to fill out a form including their question, name and e-mail. If IPAC could not provide an answer, then the person that submitted the question would win a T-shirt. There were a variety of challenging questions that IPAC answered. For example, someone asked where the old electronics club was located, to which IPAC truthfully responded, the basement of the Darrin Communications Center, a few doors down from room 308 (and was closed for failing a fire safety inspection). IPAC knew that Chad Schweitzer was the youngest DeLorean owner in 2003. Ever wonder when the Department of Public Safety came to campus? Well, IPAC found out that the DPS was created in the 1980s. In addition, it knew that The Poly was a Columbian medalist award winner in 1988. Members of IPAC even went so far as to count the total number of steps on campus. On that note, the Approach contains 153 steps. However, there was a question that stumped IPAC.
The inquiry was, “Who is the Outpost Village Chief for the summer of 2013 at Frost Valley YMCA?” IPAC’s first response was Jacob Gordon; however, he was the Valley Chief last year. IPAC is still stumped by this question, and the first to answer it correctly will win a T-shirt!
The IPAC office is situated in the Quad Archway and is open from 10 am–midnight daily. For concerns or, of course, questions, call IPAC at 518-276-IPAC, text at 77-IPAC-TEXT, or e-mail at askipac@gmail.com.