Hey RPI!

The first week of classes is behind us, and the spring semester is off to a great start, with snow cancelling some classes to help ease the transition from break to school. This week, something very exciting happened for the Rensselaer Union. After months of work by students, the new website for the Rensselaer Union has launched! The first draft of this new website can be found at http://union.rpi.edu/.

Bringing an updated, attractive, easy-to-use web presence to the Rensselaer Union was one of my top campaign initiatives. The new website contains improved communication regarding events and a dynamic homepage showcasing the great activities and opportunities for involvement on campus. It also has personalized club landing pages for every club who has registered. (If your club has not registered, it is not too late! You can register your club here http://bit.ly/rpiclub.) One person in each club can have permission to edit the landing page (this is the designated webmaster in the registration form) where a club can choose its cover photo, post its meeting time and place, write about its club purpose and recent activities, share links to the club website and social media accounts, as well as put in contact information for officers. These club landing pages help each club advertise themselves year round to potential members and showcase all of the awesome activities they do each year. Current and potential students will now have one easy platform to really learn about the clubs and activities here at RPI.

This website redesign project has been in the works for many months and was built as a student initiative with students leading the coding, design, and implementation. I am so proud of everyone who has worked on this project and would like to give special thanks to the student who designed the website and built the template pages, Jordan Simonds ’15, and his team. The student team involved in this project knows that the website will continue to grow and change over time to meet students’ needs.

Please feel free to provide feedback for the student team using the form provided or by emailing website@union.rpi.edu. I also ask for your patience going forward, as the website will not be perfect, and there may be additional edits and updates needed regarding club pages and more in the future. This is an exciting time for the Union, and working together, we can put the final touches on an already amazing project.

In other exciting news, our beloved Big Red Freakout takes place! Our men’s hockey team will take on Yale on February 14 at 7 pm. This year, we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1994–95 ECAC