Hello RPI. This past Thursday, the Student Senate had the public safety forum in the Shelnutt Gallery. The purpose of this event is to provide students an opportunity to have an open discussion and raise concerns related to their safety on and off campus. To help address any concerns at the forum we had several staff come in. Among those that attended were Chief of Public Safety Roger Johnson, Associate Dean of the Greek Life Commons Matt Hunt, Associate Dean of Off-Campus Commons Cary Dresher, Assistant Dean of Residence Life Randi Mogul and Director of Auxiliary Services Alex da Silva. Read more...

Hello RPI! As some of you may already know, the Executive Board’s Marketing, Advertising and Publicity Committee has been very busy planning and hosting the Club Officer Symposiums. The purpose of these events is to educate our clubs and organizations in order to help them better utilize the marketing strategies available to them. Holly Nelson, the new Communications Specialist for the Student Union, gives a presentation describing the ways that clubs can promote a consistent image and message. By having more focused marketing campaigns, we can more effectively communicate specific messages and information. This is an area for improvement for all of our clubs, and I hope that soon we will see this information implemented. Read more...

Brewery: Keegan Ales

Bio: Keegan Ales was set up in early 2003 by Tommy Keegan in Kingston, New York. The first batch Keegan brewed was finished August 1 2003. After finishing, he proceeded to sell his beer at local restaurants and bars. Later that month, Keegan Ales had entered into a competition at Hunter Mountain, where Mother’s Milk took home a gold medal. Up until 2004 Keegan Ales was not able to bottle any of their beer due to a defunct bottling machine; they only sold kegs during this period. Since then, they have won countless awards and recognitions including best beer in the Hudson Valley and best brewery in New York State. In 2010 New York Times declared Mother’s Milk to be one of the top 10 stouts made in North America. Read more...

Recently, City Station changed management. Graduate students living there have found themselves frustrated by some of the changes in policy and general management. Concerns voiced by graduate student residents of City Station to The Poly, some of whom wished to remain anonymous, include lease updates, lease length, fees to let locked-out students back into their rooms, package delivery, privacy, and parking. Read more...

The end of the year is approaching quickly. With only four weeks left in the semester, keep your work ethic strong in your studies. Midterms have mostly likely ended at this time and the third round of exams should be on the horizon. After that is the ever dreaded final exam that most of us must take. Please remember to be vigilante with your studies in these final weeks because they can really make or break your grades. Also, try to get your work done before Thanksgiving break so that you can enjoy the time off with family. I remember procrastinating sophomore year with my work and ended up having to type a 60 page report over the holiday, which I’ll tell you now was not enjoyable. Read more...

This past Saturday, the Calder Quartet performed to a sold-out crowd at EMPAC’s Studio 2. The Calder Quartet is a string quartet consisting of two violinists, a cellist, and a violist who play a large range of works, from shows with the rock band, The National, to classical performances at Carnegie Hall. Read more...

The football game against the United States Merchant Marine Academy finally took place this past Saturday—after the government shutdown required it to be postponed from October 5—and resulted in a ‘W’ for the Engineers, as they plowed past in a 28-13 win. This lifted RPI out of its four-game losing streak and brought them to a conference record of 1-4 and an overall record of 4-4, while the Mariners fell to 1-2 and 4-2. Read more...

At its weekly general body meeting on Monday, November 4, the Student Senate’s standard discourse went on. This meeting specifically focused on the new academic excuse policy the senate is trying to pass for the greater good of RPI students. Read more...

Not owning a car can be difficult. Too often, it means bugging friends for rides, trudging to class on frigid mornings, and making the exhausting hike up and down the Approach just to visit a friend at Blitman or grab a bite to eat downtown. Living close to campus can mitigate some of these problems, but ultimately, there’s so much to see and do in and around campus that some form of transportation will be necessary. Read more...

Brewery: Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company

Beer: Leinenkugel Oktoberfest Read more...

The Engineers remained at No. 10 in the USCHO.com poll after their road trip to Harvard and Dartmouth. After playing to a 3-3 tie last Tuesday against Harvard, the Red and White fell to the Crimson at Harvard over the weekend. They bounced back with a decisive 7-1 win against Dartmouth on Saturday. The win over Dartmouth gives RPI a 5-2-1 record so far this season. The Engineers have been fueled by their explosive offense, scoring three or more goals in all but their two losses and have scored six or more three times. Junior forward Ryan Haggerty is the leading scorer for the Engineers, with his efforts earning him the ECAC Player Of The Month for October. His nation leading ten goals with two game winners and four coming on the power play make Haggerty one of the most prolific goal scorers so far this season. However, RPI’s success is the result of a team effort with many other players getting in the mix. Senior Forward Brock Higgs has contributed 11 points thus far in the form of six goals and five assists. Junior Forward Jacob Laliberte leads the team in assists with seven. Through the opening part of the season, 13 players have scored for the Engineers (senior forwards Johnny Rogic, Brock Higgs, Matt Tinordi; junior forwards Ryan Haggerty, Matt Neal, Jacob Laliberte; junior defenseman Luke Curadi; sophomore forwards Mark Miller, and Milos Bubela; freshman forwards Jake Wood and Jimmy Devito; and freshman defender Parker Reno)a. The RPI fans haven’t seen sophomore goaltender Jason Kasdorf much as he has been out with an injury. However, junior goaltender Scott Diebold has been more than solid in net for the Engineers with a .946 save percentage and only allowing 1.58 goals a game. Diebold’s fantastic play in the blue paint gives the Engineers a chance to win every night. The Engineers return to the Houston Field House this Friday to play No. 15 Cornell. Cornell comes into Troy having been blanked at Quinnipiac in their last contest. The Engineers then play unranked Colgate on Saturday. Read more...

It really seems like no one reads books anymore with the popularity of the internet in finding ways to spend time. Think about it: when was the last time you opened up a book and read through it when it wasn’t required for, or related to, a class? Probably not any time in the past year. And we’re at a research university;we’re supposed to be some of the more intelligent people in the country! This situation reminds me of a book I read in high school called The Futurological Congress, written by none other than my favorite author, Stanislaw Lem. In The Futurological Congress, the space explorer Ijon Tichy is visiting a conference on the world overpopulation crisis at the Costa Rica Hilton. A riot breaks out at the hotel, and Tichy hides in the sewers with a few other conference-goers. However, (and here the book really gets going) he has drunk some of the drugged tap water meant to stop the riot by causing hallucinations. He starts envisioning a dystopian future in which every part of life is regulated and maintained through mind-altering drugs. In this world, people learn and read by ingesting pills that directly deliver information to their minds. This future in part is a great example of Lem’s method of social commentary through satire and metaphor. Read more...

Hi! I’m Elizabeth Anderson, co-chair of the Student Sustainability Task Force. This semester, SSTF is working on several projects to encourage sustainability at Rensselaer. Read more...

On Saturday, November 2, both the men’s and women’s varsity cross country teams travelled to Bard College to compete in the Liberty League championships. The women opened the day with a 6,000 meter race; senior Grace Tilton, took first place overall to lead RPI to second place out of the eight-team field. Tilton also set a new meet record, with a time of 21:23—an average pace of 5:44 per mile. The women scored a total of 57 points, which was second to St. Lawrence with 27. Also contributing to RPI’s successful day were juniors Christine Artim and Hayley Beyer, both of whom finished in the top 10, and sophomores Emily Stickles, Alexa Sakorafos, and Shannon Trant who all finished in the top 20 to round out Rennselaer’s top 15. Read more...

Inside the brick walls of the innocuous-looking Cogswell Laboratory on the southern end of campus, the soft hum of sophisticated magnetic resonance machines can be heard day and night. The Lakshmi Lab, headed by its namesake Dr. K. V. Lakshmi, spearheads the work of the Baruch ’60 Center for Biochemical Solar Research. Its goal is to advance the world’s progress toward reliable, renewable sources of fuel production. Keeping in mind the Kardashev scale of measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement, Dr. Lakshmi and her lab have looked to the sun. In an attempt to improve the inefficient conversion of light energy to electrical energy that already exists in photovoltaic cells, they have looked to the vastly more efficient process of photosynthesis. Read more...

Hello RPI! I’m Kyle Keraga, Class of 2015 senator and president of the Undergraduate Council, here to fill you in on exciting recent and upcoming class events on campus and explain what class councils do for you. Read more...