Sean Waclawik '18 has released the following statement:
Community of Rensselaer,
In light of the recent events I would like to explain what happened regarding candidate Greg Bartell’s poster and my involvement. First, I would like to sincerely apologize for what happened that night. What happened was completely unacceptable for anyone seeking authority in any office. Second, I do not approve of anyone tampering with anyone’s campaign material. I know as well as anyone how frustrating and demeaning it is to have your posters stolen or destroyed. Most of my posters were missing or just ripped up and left on the ground within a matter of days after posting. I want to explain what happened that night, not to provide excuses, but shed light on the events of that night.
Earlier that night, Steve Sperazza and I decided that we would put up a second round of posters for ourselves to make up for all the ones that were removed. We invited our friend and fellow candidate Kayla Cinnamon to come along for the walk and talk while we postered. In the DCC we ran into Sudano who also was postering who asked if we would come along with him. After putting up several posters, we eventually came to the wall with the Bartell’s tape sign. I was told directly by Sudano that he had permission by the head of the Judicial Board to remove the tape sign as it was not a legal poster. What followed is well documented in the video released by RPI TV and shows that we (referring to myself, Steve, and Kayla) did not tamper with Bartell’s sign in anyway nor encourage Sudano’s actions. However, I am ashamed of myself for not taking action to prevent the removal of Bartell’s campaign material.
We believed at the time that Sudano had authority to remove the tape, and did not interfere. I wish things went differently that night, and I am sorry that Greg had his material wrongfully removed. I know personally how it feels to have your campaign materials tampered with. I sincerely apologize for any doubt cast on the hard work done by everyone in student government due my part in this event. I want this statement to go into the records for all to see long after my career at RPI is over. I hope this will shed light on the events of that night, I hope that student body will better understand what happened that night, and I sincerely apologize for what took place.
Respectfully,
Sean Waclawik Read more...

To conclude their last Senate meeting, the 45th Student Senate looked at their year in review. Each committee chair presented to the Senate on what they achieved, what is still in the works, and what they hope to accomplish the following year. Read more...

As a media organization, The Polytechnic strongly endorses freedom of expression. Expression includes, but is not limited to, speaking, writing, behaving, acting, and not acting. To emphasize, the decision of an entity to act or not act constitutes expression equally to conventional speech (film, writing, speaking, etc.). Read more...

At a certain point, I’m scared I’ll be tired of the superhero genre. With five television shows, out currently dealing with them, to my knowledge, and countless films being released now and in the future, it’s hard to think I’ll have time, or need to make time, to check these out. But, I haven’t reached the breaking point yet, and with Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil, I don’t think I will anytime soon. Read more...

Rensselaer baseball played four games against the Bard College Raptors this past weekend; two on Saturday at Robison Field and two on Sunday at Bard. The Engineers won all four games by a combined score of 31-7. Read more...

On March 18, 2015, the Student Senate rolled out the RPI Petitions website. The purpose of RPI Petitions is to give students a place to voice their concerns and promote causes they care about. Any student can create and promote a petition. RPI Petitions is based off of Rochester Institute of Technology’s student petition website, PawPrints, which was released in Fall 2014. The RPI Student Senate, led by Kyle Keraga ’15, collaborated with RIT’s Student Government President Ashley Carrington ’15 to kickstart the project. Actual development of the website was led by Chief Information Officer Gabe Perez ’16 and the Web Technologies Group. Read more...

I don’t know if I’ve been particularly unlucky, but I’ve had the misfortune of having some pretty bad neighbors since coming to RPI. I personally was yelled at by a local resident last year for parking in my friend’s parking spot that was included in her apartment lease. Her neighbor threatened to have my car towed and berated me as I moved my car from the spot. Read more...

Editor’s Note: The Polytechnic solicited Francesca Huber ’16, president of Comma, RPI’s creative writing club, to interview Alice McDermott, the 2015 McKinney visiting author. The contents of the written interview are below. Read more...

In their last meeting of their term, the 45th Student Senate met to tie up loose ends and look at their year in review. Since the previous week’s meeting ended in the middle of discussion on poster takedown dates and visible content on both sides, the Senate resumed with that queue. Paul Ilori ’17, as head of the Rules and Elections committee, motioned to withdraw the amendments since it was so far into campaigning. This passed 16-1-1 and the Senate moved on. Read more...

Hello Rensselaer. This is my final Top Hat as the 149th Grand Marshal. GM Week is here, and with it, a rush of bittersweet emotion as we review all that we’ve been able to do this past year. In my final public address through The Polytechnic, I would like to review this past year, thank everyone who has played a part in our efforts and many successes, and leave my last advice toward the future of student leadership. Read more...

You’re holding the controller in your hands. Somehow, this odd-shaped piece of plastic translates into a gun on the screen that you can run around with in a wasteland, shooting enemies. You smash a button and the gun fires. In your mind, pushing the button equates to pulling the trigger, but what if you could actually pull the trigger? Sebastian Sarbora ’16 had this very inkling as he was finishing up his high school career but never had the resources to execute it. Now in his third year at RPI, Sarbora has made his idea a reality with the help of an impressive team. Read more...

Hey RPI,

This is my last Derby; as elections are tomorrow, you will soon have a new fearless leader of the Rensselaer Union. I was going to use this last Derby to give a history of Grand Marshal Week, encourage everyone to vote, thank everyone for a great year, and wish everyone luck in their future endeavors. However, in light of recent events, I would like to talk about the events on campus surrounding the American Sniper screening, from the perspective of a student leader who has family in the military. Read more...

When I mention a book like Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham, I generally get two types of reactions. The first is something similar to Sheldon Cooper’s reaction to Brian Greene in the Big Bang Theory. Read more...

The Graduate Student Council met with the candidates for Grand Marshal and President of the Union this week to listen to their platforms and assess how they would benefit graduate students. Read more...

On Wednesday April 22, from 9 am–12:30 pm, the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute will be having an Earth Day event in the Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies building. Come see the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner who will be speaking there! The event will feature job opportunities for students and a chance to meet professionals in the industry, including representatives from Baldwin Richardson Foods Co, New Pig, Counterparts Chemistry, Full Circle Feed, and others. NYSP2I will be giving out free coffee and travel mugs, the mugs can also be used to get free coffee from Jazzman’s Café until 5pm! Read more...

The Polytechnic endorses Marcus Flowers ’16 as Grand Marshal. As the highest elected student official at RPI, the GM serves as not only the head of the Student Senate but also the student body. It is his or her responsibility to understand and voice the concerns of the student body to the proper parties. Consequently, the GM holds a significant amount of responsibility to not just those in the Senate but also those of the entire RPI campus. Read more...

For the 2015 election cycle, The Polytechnic’s relationship to the race for President of the Union is unique and dramatically different than it has been compared with any other year in recent memory. This is due to one of the candidates being a former member of our Editorial Board. Andrew Sudano ’17 served as the News editor for the Fall semester and for the portion of the current semester before campaigning began. Because of this fact, every member of our current Editorial Board has built both working and personal relationships with Sudano. In the effort of fairness, The Polytechnic held the standard endorsement proceedings for both candidates. Following this, the Editorial Board came to the unanimous conclusion that this special case prevents us from remaining objective in a way that is fair to both candidates. We will therefore not be endorsing any candidate for the position of President of the Union in 2015. Read more...

During the 2014–15 academic year, the Rensselaer Student Senate Constitution Committee, along with the Senate as a whole, worked to bring amendments to the Rensselaer Union Constitution to vote in the Senate. For those who don’t know, once these amendments are passed by the Senate, they must also be approved in vote open to all members of the Rensselaer Union before they can be put into place. After the poorly received amendments, and their voting outcome along with other controversies that were brought to light last April, The Polytechnic Editorial Board was interested, yet hesitant to endorse the new amendments. For this election cycle, there are eight amendments which will be on Thursday’s ballot. Our Editorial Board has unanimously decided to endorse YES on the passing of seven out of eight (Amendments 1-4, and Amendments 6-8), but has also unanimously passed endorsing a NO vote on Amendment 5: Judicial Procedure. Read more...

Why do you want to be Grand Marshal? Read more...

Why do you want to be President of the Union? Read more...