The Engineers had a victorious weekend, with both swimming and diving teams winning against Vassar College and Hartwick College. Read more...

For its 10th meeting of the semester, the Executive Board had a busy agenda that included a presentation from Sodexo, four clubs seeking some sort of status within the Union, and a proposal from RPI Ambulance. The meeting opened with a presentation from Rensselaer Hospitality Services General Manager Matt Mueller and Retail Director Louis Herman. Read more...

I had a pretty rough October, mostly for personal reasons that I won’t quite get to in this article. However, if anything good came from it, it’s that, overall, it was a fairly insightful month for me. I learned to get more in touch with my feelings, to become attuned to the diverse range of emotions I felt, and to handle things optimistically with dignity and self-respect… Look, I’m probably the last person who should be giving advice about life—I’ve never thought that I was particularly good at it—but I feel it’s important to express the things that were running through my head during a time when I believed things wouldn’t get any better. Read more...

On Saturday in the Darrin Communications Center, HackRPI kicked off its hackathon as a part of the 18th Major League Hacking season. The annual hackathon is a 24-hour competition where participants are encouraged to work on any project they can create within the allotted time, with a focus on software and hardware hacks. The event was sponsored by several companies, including TripAdvisor and Bloomberg. Teams competed in several categories, which included the best use of Amazon AWS, the best hardware hack, and some specific competition areas like best use of the new Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c. Read more...

Due to visa restrictions, Ali Moini was unable to join the Rensselaer community to exhibit his signature performance, My Paradoxical Knives, in the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. Moini, a choreographer and performer, was hosted on Thursday via Skype call, and fans of his could have a dialogue about his artistic process. Read more...

Classmates,

Several students have informed us that they were contacted by the Dean of Students Office, either by email from a staff member or through a formal judicial inquiry notice, as they have been identified as allegedly participating in a peaceful demonstration that occurred on October 13, 2017. Read more...

Arcadia consists of two distinctly separate, but intrinsically intertwined storylines, that span the year of 1809 and the present day. The first tells the tale of young Thomasina Coverly, played by graduate student Hannah De Los Santos, and her tutor Septimus Hodge, played by Matt Fields ’18. The second revolves around Hannah Jarvis, played by Sam Primm ’21; Bernard Nightingale, played by Sam O’Connor ’21; and Valentine Coverly, played by graduate student Marcus J. Barbret, who are working to uncover the mysteries of what happened in the manor almost a century ago. Read more...

The Student Senate had four major motions brought before it on November 13: two motions to approve amendments to the Bylaws of the Rensselaer Union Student Senate, a motion to endorse the revisions to the Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities, and a motion to denounce the actions taken against students with regards to the protest. The first three motions passed, while the fourth was postponed indefinitely. Read more...

Recently, RPI NROTC underwent leadership labs run by the Archer Center for Student Leadership Development in order to increase unit cohesion and enhance skills that will be utilized by midshipmen in their future naval careers. The Archer Center personnel organized several fun stations that emphasized teamwork and communication in order to complete a task. Read more...

President Shirley Ann Jackson held her annual Fall Town Meeting on Thursday, November 2. The objective of these meetings is to allow members of the Rensselaer community to learn about recent and upcoming events at the Institute. Read more...

I would like to respond to Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Travis T. Apgar briefly: Read more...

The Dean of Students Office has begun pursuing judicial inquiries involving students who participated in the Friday, October 13 demonstration outside of Rensselaer’s capital campaign launch. Read more...

Former Director of the Union Rick Hartt ’70 spoke about his experiences at Rensselaer on Sunday, October 29 in a phone interview with Brookelyn Parslow, a reporter for The Polytechnic. Read more...

Imagine you were in charge of budgeting for a person’s salary, but had no decision-making say in the job responsibilities that person was expected to uphold or in how that person was to be evaluated each year. This is the current situation in the Rensselaer Union. Read more...

This past Saturday, as part of UPAC Concerts’ Fall Concert Series, Shane & Emily performed in Mother’s Wine Emporium from 8 to 9:30 pm. The charming couple played a wide range of music, with lots of covers and originals. Their sound is pop, acoustic, and folk with a lot of voice harmonization that fits perfectly. They gave off positive vibes, as well as a sort of sweet, romantic vibe that is accentuated by the way they act on stage. Their performance was full of cute back stories to their relationship, lots of dad jokes, and jokes about their future babies. However, the main attraction was really how well their voices harmonized together and their ability to put their own spin on songs that the audience requested through an app. Read more...

Rensselaer won 63-14 against the University of Rochester at home on Saturday, November 4. The game took place on Senior Day and Military Appreciation Day. The victory puts the Engineers at 7-2 for the season and 3-1 in the Liberty League. Read more...

President Shirley Ann Jackson “dispense[d] with a formal presentation” at the annual Fall Town Meeting on November 2. She took barely over 10 minutes to speak and show a short video that was also played at the capital campaign launch event before opening up to questions. Read more...

Recently, a document that was sent to members of the Executive Board was leaked via Reddit. This document was a pledge of confidentiality that members of the Board were asked to sign prior to participating in interviews for the director of the Union position. From my understanding, this document was intended to ensure that the integrity of the search and that the identities of the candidates would not be compromised. Read more...

On November 3, Maroon 5 released its sixth studio album, delivering the band’s latest sound wrapped in a quirky album cover and album name featuring references to the 1999 sci-fi action film The Matrix. Red Pill Blues plays with the idea of deciding between a blue pill or a red pill: a safe option permitting obliviousness, or a risk permitting truth. As a result, the album title may hint at the consequences of knowledge, or “blues,” as most tracks on the album have gloomy titles like “Help Me Out” and “Cold.” Regardless, it is no doubt that Maroon 5 has evolved into a whole new animal. Read more...