Regardless of your opinions on Edward Snowden’s 2014 disclosures about national and global surveillance, there are a few things Oliver Stone’s Snowden does well to narrate Snowden’s story. However, as with almost any movie, there are some cringeworthy moments and things that don’t jibe well with Snowden’s motivations or overall message. Read more...

Coming off a loss to Alfred State College, RPI football looked to bounce back at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last weekend. After the MIT Engineers made an early field goal to take a 3-0 lead, the Engineers hit their stride, rattling off 24 unanswered points to put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter. Rensselaer’s defense overwhelmed the MIT Engineers, intercepting quarterback Udgam Goyal four times and recovering a fumble, and led the Engineers to a decisive 31-10 win. Read more...

Just prior to 3 pm on Friday, September 16, Acting Dean of Students Cary Dresher sent an email titled “Sign Policy Violations” to the Rensselaer community. In it, Dresher said, “There are numerous signs currently displayed on campus that are in violation of the campus sign policy and they will be immediately removed.” Read more...

As a junior with the career fair coming up next week, it is about time I get serious about looking for an internship. I have never been to the Career Fair, and before last week I didn’t have a resume. Well I had one, but it wasn’t one I was proud of. Thanks to the Center for Career and Professional Development and Marie Dieffenbach, I feel ready to take it on. Read more...

Last Tuesday, September 13, Matt Roloff from Little People, Big World spoke to Rensselaer students in the EMPAC Concert Hall. He was the first talk of the year for the Rensselaer Union Speakers Forum. Roloff gave an inspirational talk on how, through gritty self-determination, anyone can overcome any obstacle in their lives. He commented that despite his physical disabilities and short stature, he accomplishes all of the ambitious goals that he continues to set for his life. Read more...

Women’s soccer saw mixed over the weekend, shutting out State University of New York New Paltz in a 3-0 victory on Friday. But on Sunday, first ranked Williams College overturned the Engineers 1-0. Read more...

The meeting started out with the approval of President of the Union Chip Kirchner ’17 making new appointments to the Executive Board. Ananya Murali ’20 and Anissa Choinier ’20 were both confirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate to the class of 2020 and member at large seats, respectively. Since neither of them could attend the meeting due to prior commitments, Kirchner presented to the Senate on their behalf. Both new members will have voting rights on the Board for the 2016-2017 academic year. Read more...

Student government is a weird thing to get involved in. And this is coming from someone who’s been over involved in it since he got on campus. With all the options you have as a new student, it’s interesting to see what direction people go in. Some stay on the same trajectories, doing similar activities to those they did before, while others branch out to some new interest. Read more...

Published in the Netherlands in 2006, Diary of an Oxygen Thief first catches a reader’s attention because it has no author—in an act staying with the character of the book, the cover of the novel is printed with a simple “Anonymous.” The novel was originally a self-published experiment from the writer, but was acquired by publishing house Simon & Schuster after selling 100,000 copies. Diary of an Oxygen Thief quickly gathered a cult fanbase; New York Magazine described the book as “a surprising dark-horse Williamsburg bestseller.” Throughout the novel’s rise to commercial success, it was championed for its direct voice and honest observation of dark themes. Read more...

This past weekend, both the men’s and the women’s teams spent a lot of time on the courts, both playing on Saturday and Sunday. For the women’s team, the weekend consisted of a victorious home opener on the Sharp Courts on Saturday and an invitational on Sunday. For the men’s team, the weekend consisted of a two-day invitational. Read more...

The Faculty Senate assembled this past Wednesday, September 14, to discuss several topics. The meeting took place in the Fischbach Room of the Folsom Library. Following a detailed agenda, the meeting commenced with opening regards from Faculty Senate John Tichy and from Provost Prabhat Hajela. Tichy welcomed all the attendees and proceeded to express his hope of having a productive year and his goal of changing “little by little” the perception of the Faculty Senate to “important, without skepticism.” Tichy plans to accomplish his goal by carrying out meaningful projects for the Institute. Read more...

Hello again RPI! As always, a great many things happened across campus this past week; I’ll start on a lighter note. This past Monday, the Executive Board gained four new members: Ananya Murali ’20 and Anissa Choiniere ’20 will join the board as two regular voting members and Class of 2020 representative and member at large, respectively; Caitlin Kennedy will join the E-Board as a non-voting officer who is focused on providing initial funding to new and unfunded clubs in the Union; and Majken Rasmussen ’20 will join the board as a non-voting officer focused on working with existing clubs and on E-Board projects. Murali, Choiniere, Kennedy and Rasmussen are all members of the Class of 2020 and the E-Board and I are all excited to begin working with these new members and we are looking forward to a great year ahead for the team. Read more...

Men’s soccer had a rough week on the road, losing both games by one goal. The Engineers faced the State University of New York at Oneonta on Tuesday, September 13, and SUNY Potsdam the following Saturday. The Engineers are currently 2–3–1. Read more...

The RPI Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils have been tabling this week in the Rensselaer Union in honor of National Hazing Prevention Week, a nationwide initiative on college campuses, at high schools, in communities, and within organizations to raise awareness of the problems with hazing. Hazing is defined in The Rensselaer Handbook as “any conduct that subjects another person, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or psychologically, to anything that may endanger, abuse, degrades or intimidates the person as a condition of association with a group or organization, regardless of the person’s consent or lack of consent.” RPI supports a zero tolerance policy on hazing, and Greek life at RPI is here to support that policy. In honor of NHPW, we have been making a banner with the slogan “These Hands Don’t Haze” as a pledge by our members to not haze within their organizations. This Friday, we will also be having a social media campaign titled “These Letters Don’t Haze.” Any Greek-affiliated member who posts a picture this Friday, September 23 with themselves in letters, uses the tag “#TheseLettersDontHaze”, and tags @rpipanhellenic, @rpigreeklife, or @rpiifc will be entered to win a free pair of letters. You can also send a Snapchat to @letters4letters to be entered. Thank you to those who have come out in support of our cause! Read more...

The Engineers fought through wet and windy weather at their third tournament of the semester last Saturday and Sunday. The Rensselaer men’s golf team traveled to Ralph Myhre Golf Course on the campus of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. They finished in eighth place out of 22 teams at the 33rd Annual Duke Nelson Tournament. Three days remain until the Rensselaer men’s golf team tees off at Timber Banks Golf Club in Baldwinsville, New York, for the two-day Fall Liberty League Championship. Read more...

One has to admire the audacity that Dr. Frank E. Ross continues to have. The email sent out on September 13 was one of the most breathtaking examples of revisionist history I’ve ever seen. So I’d like to ask: Dr. Ross, why are you bringing up the fact a specific job was removed? One has to wonder, given the tone of the email and the blatant doublespeak, if he imagines the RPI student body can read. His point though, in stating that a specific job was removed, makes me wonder if it’s perhaps projection. Let’s consider why there was outrage to the job offer being placed out there. I highly doubt that it was the creation of a job at all, it would seem bizarre since such protests aren’t commonplace. Now, while Dr. Ross might feign ignorance, protesting that he wasn’t here for other jobs, as he commonly does to escape responsibility, he can ask around, there being a listing for a job doesn’t seem to be sufficient for the student body to be up in protest. Perhaps then it’s the nature of the job, where student autonomy is taken away and given to the administration. But that would seem to imply that the current uproar is once again over student autonomy being violated. So one has to marvel at Dr. Ross saying that the specific job title has vanished, as it’s strikingly irrelevant. I can’t begin to guess whether this is malice, in an attempt to deceive the student body, or just sheer incompetence in not understanding the issue. In either event, I’d like to politely suggest to Dr. Ross that he stop embarrassing himself, though given the regularity of the occurrence it might prove difficult. Read more...

Winning their past two games, the Engineers clobbered the Utica College Pioneers on Wednesday, September 14 5–1, and narrowly rushed to score the only goal of the game on Sunday 1:28 into overtime to defeat the Montclair State University Red Hawks. They now hold a 4–2 season record with no home losses. Read more...

Last year, the Rensselaer Union celebrated its 125th anniversary. For 125 years, students have led themselves in budgeting, governance, and defending the rights and interests of their peers. Hundreds of theatrical performances, hundreds of sports teams, and over 150 student elections have been run by students. Read more...

Editor's note: an updated version of this article is available in the September 21, 2016 issue of The Poly. Read more...