The Student Life Performance Plan presentation was given during the Student Senate meeting on Monday. The Student Life Performance Plan is part of RPI’s new plan, The Rensselaer Plan 2024, which will improve upon The Rensselaer Plan, which was initiated by President Shirley Ann Jackson in May of 2000. Vice President of Student Life Timothy Sams stated that The Rensselaer Plan needed to be “refreshed.” With the 200 year anniversary of the school rapidly approaching, the leaders of RPI feel that the school’s accomplishments should be showcased in time for 2024. With most of the goals in The Rensselaer Plan achieved, the RPI administration feels that the school needs a new challenge. Sams states that The Rensselaer Plan 2024 not only “speaks as to who we are as an institution, but it also speaks about who we are going to be.” The meeting then proceeded with heads of nearly every department on campus discussing what changes will be made within their various realms of control. Read more...

The Poly doesn’t often write about things related to the world at large; most of the time we write about advice and goings-on in the context of college life. It’s something we’re more comfortable with, most of us being veteran students who have handled the massive workload of classes and extracurriculars. But in this issue, we’re going to discuss something much broader than college life, something that’s much more prevalent outside of Rensselaer than inside. Read more...

Buffalo’s champion rock and rollers moe. brought their New Year’s party to the Palace Theatre in Albany this year. Night one of this two-night stand was no mere warm-up for New Year’s Eve, which saw the band deliver three delicious sets and dress up as animals. Read more...

The first weekend of hockey after Winter Break was about as exciting as anyone could have hoped for. The Engineers played Dartmouth at home on Friday and came up with a 4-2 win. However, the big game was played against Union on Saturday. The Engineers and Dutchmen faced off for the Second Annual Mayor’s Cup at the Times Union Center in front of 7,100 spectators. Fans from Troy, Schenectady, and the rest of the Capitol Region filed into the arena to watch the two rivals square off. Read more...

The academic side of campus at RPI was hit with multiple water issues on Thursday, January 23. Sometime in the previous overnight hours, an initially unknown source of water began spewing from the ground in the open area between the rear entrance of Darrin Communications Center and the front entrance of the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center. The water flooded this area, before freezing and forming a layer of ice due to the extremely low temperature. Read more...

I love romantic comedies, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Through their clever lines and touching character development, rom coms speak to the heart. I’m a sensitive guy, so the constant tension between the main characters drives me crazy, in a good way. Kind of like why people go to amusement parks, I live for the rollercoaster of emotions rom coms offer. Read more...

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a stockbroker…” Who wouldn’t want to be a stockbroker in today’s lovely economic conditions? Read more...

Every year, the Executive Board creates the budget for the Rensselaer Union, including club subsidies. This year, the subsidy for club travel was increased from 40 percent to 50 percent of costs. Subsidies for food were taken away, except for a once-per-semester reception fund for most clubs. Some clubs felt that there were problems with communication and transparency in these changes, especially the changes in food policy. Read more...

With my time at RPI dwindling, my remaining time on the staff of The Polytechnic is also shrinking. My involvement in The Poly could be seen as an accident. When I first came to RPI in the fall of 2009, I was just getting started in photography. I inherited my father’s DSLR, the original Canon EOS Digital Rebel with a kit lens. It’s not a bad camera by any means, but it was incredibly outdated at the time. I used it to learn over the summer and brought it with me when I came to RPI in the fall. I used it to take pictures of a Yankee’s game and the campus after the first major snowfall that semester. Read more...

Each year, the American film industry seems to release more and more sequels to previously successful films, and no, not critically successful films, financially successful films. It has become rarer and rarer for an original entity to come along and get the full package of production, meaning that the final product is a quality film and a film that the general public is aware of and willing to spend their money on seeing. Read more...

During Winter Break, the RPI website’s home page changed to a year-in-review format. While the page was meant to represent highlights RPI had during the past year, some students found the design lacking. Read more...

The second semester of school is underway and we are now already in our second week. Hopefully everyone enjoyed their first week back to school and things are starting to settle down. Probably one of the most notable events of the weekend was the Mayor’s Cup matchup between RPI and the third-ranked Union. RPI won the game in the final minutes of play, and then an impressive brawl broke out right as the game ended. Both the goal to beat Union and the fight were very exciting, and if you want to see them again or for the first time, look online for the videos that were taken in the Times Union Center. Read more...

Tuesday, January 21

• Player’s Lounge Read more...

Hello RPI! I hope the first week of classes has brought promises for a great semester. The annual Mayor’s Cup game was held this past weekend. Our hockey team hosted Union at the Times Union Center, and the game was very exciting. Red Army, the club that supports spirit for our hockey team, orchestrated a bussing system to take students to and from the game. Red Army also distributed rally towels at the Times Union Center, which looked great as we all cheered on our team! Despite Union scoring the first goal, RPI came back to score two goals, winning the game 2-1. Scott Diebold played excellently, with 28 saves on goal and top-notch support from the team. It was a great game to watch and attend! Read more...

Hello RPI and welcome back to school! I hope you’ve all had a nice, relaxing holiday break and an excellent first week of classes. As the workload remains light these first two weeks, take your time to get situated and readjust to campus life. Currently, there’s a number of exciting goings on around campus: be sure to take the opportunity to get out, enjoy these events, and otherwise have a good time with your friends before classes pick up. Read more...

Sunday, December 1

• Warren Hall Read more...

Over Winter Break, the Mueller Center weight room got a new floor. Instead of a concrete floor with thin, worn-out rubber matting, the weight room now has a floor of tiles made from recycled tires. The color of the tiles matches the overall color system of the weight room, which is located in the lower level of the Mueller Center. Read more...

Did you know that you don’t need to be an editor on our staff to have your work published? Remember, if you are a member of the RPI community, The Poly is your media organization! We are always open to printing something that is submitted to us. Since we are returning to a weekly printing schedule starting next week (1/28), now is the perfect time to consider doing just that. If you feel we aren’t covering something going on, wherever that may be, more than likely the only reason we haven’t published content on it is because we didn’t have anyone to write about it. Read more...