In an email to the Rensselaer community, President Shirley Ann Jackson spoke about changes to communication and Student Life moving forward. Read more...

Last week, I wrote this in my flying review: “It’s funny now to walk around and look at the towering buildings and tiring hills and think about how flat and small everything was from above. No matter how many times I fly, I always have those thoughts. Life is all about perspective, I guess.” I didn’t think about that last line much when I wrote it, but thoughts of perspective crept back to me this past week. Read more...

This past Friday was the Jewish holiday Passover, which celebrates God liberating the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. I myself am not Jewish; I am Seventh-Day Adventist. We are Christians, however, like members of the Jewish community, celebrate Sabbath on Saturday, participate in sun-down to sun-down laws, and eat food according to the Levitical dietary laws. Another interesting thing that perhaps not all Seventh-Day Adventists participate in, but my church back home does, is acknowledging the Jewish holiday, Passover. Read more...

For the first time since 2011, the Rensselaer women’s track walked away with a first place Liberty League title on Saturday at St. Lawrence University’s Merrick-Pinkard Track and Field Complex after a day of competition against St. Lawrence University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Vassar College, Union College, and Bard College, whose women’s teams place second through sixth, respectively. The men also finished out the day as winners 98 points ahead of RIT. Read more...

On Monday, April 25, the visiting committee from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education held an open forum with members of the Rensselaer community. Read more...

These days, I cannot help feeling sentimental about how fast time flies. I still clearly remember how I befriended my best friend in life the first day I went to middle school. Now, in less than one month, my freshman year of college will end. It is so hard to believe that we’ve been friends for almost eight years. As an international student, I can, at most, fly back home twice a year, staying here for all the short breaks, including Thanksgiving and Spring Break. We haven’t seen each other for the past four months. Read more...

Released in 2009, the movie Coraline serves as a stop-motion reimagining of Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name. Written and directed by Henry Selick, along with the support and approval of Gaiman, the dark children’s film opened for the Portland International Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim. Initially, critics responded to the film’s juvenile take to the modern horror genre; Coraline manages to be frightening without the crutches of violence or morbidity, and it’s intriguing that Selick’s creation manages to be simultaneously horrifying yet acceptable for children to watch. The film is dark, inspired, and frightening in an entirely unconventional way. Read more...

In a game in which neither team led by more than one goal at any time, the St. Lawrence Saints defeated the RPI Engineers 8-7 in overtime last Saturday at East Campus Stadium. Then, in the wet conditions of Tuesday evening, the Engineers scored the first 10 goals of their game against Drew University en route to a 13-4 victory. Read more...

This week, I’ve spent a lot of time preparing for and running Student Senate committee chair interviews, which, by the way, are still open; you should totally apply online at http://poly.rpi.edu/s/16senateofficer/. One of the first questions I ask in each interview is “What does the Senate mean to you?” Talking to people about this and the time spent working on our Middle States reaccreditation meetings led to me thinking about it myself, and the Rensselaer Union in general. Read more...

I was a bit skeptical about Rocket League at first. I’d seen some GIFs, maybe watched a video, but not much more. I put it on my Steam wishlist just so I’d know when the price was knocked down, and then maybe I would consider it. This past weekend, the PC version of game was free on Steam, so I gave it a shot. And, here I am, many hours later, writing this review to tell you how wrong I was to wait. Read more...

The men’s tennis team swept Union College on Wednesday, April 20, taking wins in all three doubles and all six singles matches. The Engineers saw their Liberty League ranking rise to 4-2, while the Dutchmen saw their conference record fall to 1-5. Read more...

The Editorial Board would like to thank President Shirley Ann Jackson for the email she sent the community this past Tuesday. We appreciate that our feedback has been heard and has made a meaningful impact on the course of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—here’s to hoping that this represents a positive future for student-administration relations. Read more...

As I’ve stated, and many others have probably noticed, it is the silver screen age of comic books. With continued success of the Marvel franchises, and mixed success on DC’s part, it’s no surprise that the most successful enterprise for DC, their CW shows Arrow and The Flash, would get a new sister show in Legends of Tomorrow. But while the first two shows in this universe are based on specific heroes, Legends of Tomorrow is a team of misfit sidekicks and villains stolen in time by a Time Master for the express purpose of stopping Vandal Savage, who is basically an immortal version of Adolf Hitler. I don’t know if this short description really describes how weird it is, so I think it’s worth just going into the cast of characters. Read more...

Four games, one weekend; three wins, one loss brings Rensselaer’s softball team to a 25-7 overall record. Read more...

Hi again!

Today is the last day to apply to be a member of the 2016–2017 Executive Board. That being said, I’m going to continue pushing Executive Board applications as long as possible. So, in my Derby this week, I will give you some background on the Board and what an E-Board representative does. Read more...

In light of my most recent editorial, I was able to meet with Medical Director of the Student Health Center Leslie Stephen Lawrence, MD. I would like to encourage students who didn’t read my previous piece to do so at http://poly.rpi.edu/s/MentalHealth/. I was able to receive some answers for what happened during my struggle with mental health at RPI, and I couldn’t be more thankful to Dr. Lawrence for that. Read more...

Friday, April 15 saw the announcement of election results for all offices elected during Grand Marshal Week 2016. Read more...

An open and protected discourse is vital to a healthy democracy. Documents released over the past few years have revealed that the surveillance and monitoring capabilities of the United States government are far more advanced than previously known. Read more...