At the beginning of the meeting, Grand Marshal Marcus Flowers ’16 told the Student Senate that, due to some last-minute changes, no items other than regular business were on the agenda for the week. Read more...

Photography is a unique combination of art and technology. Similar to most publications, photos in The Polytechnic augment articles and can greatly influence how readers perceive news. There are a couple of projects I am currently involved with that use technology to make our photos available to the community in a faster and more meaningful way. Read more...

Florence + Machine’s debut album Lungs was released on the back of a lion; despite the band’s relatively young timeline, the first album managed to grab the second place on the UK Albums Chart for five weeks upon release. Headed by lead singer and namesake Florence Welch, the album holds itself to a sense of artistic integrity and deep introspection. Pitchfork reviewer Ryan Dombal described the work of the album as a “mystic brand of pop that’s part Annie Lennox, Grace Slick, and Joanna Newsom.” Welch carries the album on a belting, intensely emotional connection to her music, backed with orchestral accompaniment and harp serenades. Read more...

RPI women’s lacrosse won in dramatic fashion last Thursday at Oneonta to open their 2016 season. Senior midfielder Mackenzie O’Neil scored five goals, including the game-winner, leading the Engineers to a 11-10 victory over the Red Dragons. However, in their first home game of the season on Tuesday night, RPI struggled to score against No. 4 ranked Middlebury College, losing 17-5. Read more...

The Executive Board meeting opened Thursday, March 3, with an appeal for funds from the RPI Wrestling Team. Their requested sum was $2,792 for 20 warmup jackets, which would remain the property of the Rensselaer Union. Read more...

In less than two weeks, this harsh, cold, unforgiving, snow-filled “winter” will come to an end. With it arrives the season of flowers, warmth, Spring Break, and way, way too much pollen. To celebrate, The Poly would like to go over some of our favorite Spring-related things. Read more...

Advertised and hyped up for the past year, Deadpool hit theaters with a record-breaking release on February 12. The viral marketing for the film was phenomenal; one advertising campaign portrayed Deadpool as a romantic movie for couples to watch on Valentine’s Day. In a viral video, Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds, asked viewers to check themselves for testicular cancer, the most common cancer in males aged 15-35. Additionally, a promotional poster portrayed Deadpool spray painting his insignia on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice promotion boards in a movie theater. Even Betty White promoted the movie with a tongue-in-cheek review filled with swear words. With posts regularly scoring high on social media sites, it was no surprise the film performed well with the college-aged to mid-thirties demographic Read more...

In their first home game of the season against then-No. 18 ranked Ithaca College at East Campus Athletic Village Stadium, the Rensselaer men’s lacrosse team fought to take back the lead as the clock ticked away in the final quarter. The final goal of the day by junior Breanainn McNeally with 5:26 left in play relinquished the 7-7 tie to give the Engineers the advantage that would result in an 8-7 victory. Read more...

On March 7, 2016, five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova released a report in which she stated that she tested positive for meldonium, a performance enhancing drug, following her participation at the Australian Open in mid-January. Currently ranked number 7 by the Women’s Tennis Association, Sharapova’s release caused a stir in the tennis community as people brought into question her 35 single titles; at this point, the International Tennis Federation has placed a provisional ban on Sharapova’s participation in further tournaments, pending investigation. In reference to several other recent high-profile doping cases, it will likely be several months before the ITF will be able to come to a verdict. As it stands, Sharapova could face a ban of anywhere from two to four years if she is found to have been using the drug for the purpose of increasing her performance in competition. Read more...

Hello!

We did it! For the first time in the last five years, Engineers hockey won a home playoff series, and against Brown University’s Brown Bears! Our boys took a win Friday night 3-2, then battled back full throttle Saturday from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3. It has been a rocky road this season, but we are fighting hard through the playoffs. Our next opponent will be Harvard, who we have one win, one tie, and one loss to this season. I wish them the absolute best, and I’ll be listening to it live on WRPI. Read more...

At 1 pm on Sunday, March 6, the Rensselaer women’s tennis team returned to the court for the first time since the fall season. RPI’s overall record fell, while New York University improved to 3-0 and moved up to the 18th regional ranking, ahead of the Engineers. NYU won 2-1 against RPI in doubles, with NYU taking the first and second 8-1 and 8-3 and RPI stealing the third 8-5. Read more...

Greetings!

My first eight months at Rensselaer as the new Vice President of Student Life have been great, and I have had the fortune of meeting so many wonderful people. It is my honor to lead the team in the Division of Student Life, and I appreciate my colleagues for their hard work and commitment to our students. I am so glad to be part of the RPI family and I thank everyone for the continued warm welcome to my family and me. Read more...

On Monday, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association released the latest version of the weekly National Team Computer Rankings for NCAA Division III 2016 Indoor Track & Field, revealing that the RPI women had jumped up 17 positions over the weekend to No. 23 in the nation. Read more...

In the 2015 update of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Rensselaer saw its ranking among research institutions fall from the “highest” classification to “higher” in the category of “doctoral universities—higher research activity.” Read more...

One tip that I will tell anyone who will listen is that you need to be able to find your niche in order to truly be successful here at RPI. You cannot possibly hope to do everything that is going on around campus, but it is important to try as many new activities as possible while reserving enough time in your life in order to study for and do well in your classes. In fact, I spent my first semester finding out what I wanted to do during my second semester. Some hard decisions had to be made about exactly how I wanted to spend my time this semester. Winter Break provided me a good opportunity to, away from the hustle and bustle of life at RPI, finalize some of those decisions. Read more...

Last Saturday, the Black Students’ Alliance hosted its annual BSA Fashion Show. The event, which is held each February to celebrate Black History Month, provides participating students with the opportunity to express themselves through a means that is not commonly celebrated in the RPI community: fashion. Read more...

Heading into the final weekend of regular season play, the Engineers needed to win both of their games in order to secure a first round bye for the ECAC Hockey playoffs. Given the opportunity to head into the post season with momentum, RPI instead limped out of the regular season, failing to beat either opponent they faced. Read more...

Last Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting began with a brief recess to give Grand Marshal Marcus Flowers ’16 the opportunity to retrieve the new Senate polos from the Student Government Suite. Once the senators had received their polos, the meeting began with committee reports. Read more...

Growing comfortable with civilized life is very easy to do. Modern conveniences allow us to cruise through each day far more effortlessly than previous generations ever could. Now that pa doesn’t have to go hunt for dinner and sis doesn’t have to go milk the cows each morning, life has become more centered on indoor environments. Basically, humans aren’t required to spend as much time outside as they once had to in order to survive. Read more...