In mid-May we broke ground for the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies on the south campus facing 15th Street. Con-struction on that facility and a 500-car parking garage on College Avenue has continued at a brisk pace over the summer. The construction site is fenced off, and the south campus entrance has moved to College Avenue. This fall, site work will begin on the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center.

As you know, campus parking—especially for commuting students and staff—will be impacted by the ongoing construction. Please know that we are working hard to keep any disruptions in your day-to-day lives on the campus to a minimum. Of course, this is a temporary state of af-fairs, and the resulting facilities will be well worth the short-term dis-ruptions. The biotechnology center, for example, will further propel the Institute into the top-tier of research universities and will attract world-class researchers to Rensselaer. The benefits of the new construction to the entire Rensselaer community—students, faculty, alumni, and staff—will be significant.

We have made a strong com-mitment to informing you in a timely manner of the progress of construction and its impact on you. I encourage you to visit the south campus development project website, http://www.rpi.edu/dept/gov/construct/index.html, for regular updates, and to read Campus News, http://www.rpi.edu/web/Campus.News/, which now is delivered to your Rens-selaer e-mail address, as well as the Poly. In turn, I am counting on you to let us know your questions and concerns about the construction project. As students, there are many ways for you to communicate with the Institute administration. The construction website, for example, offers a hotline and e-mail address for this purpose. In addition, I urge you to get involved in student gov-ernment and to bring your concerns to the attention of your student senators and your Grand Marshal, Chris Mather. They are there to represent you and your interests.

Change is challenging. Indeed, the work of transforming Rensselaer has called upon everyone in our community to go the extra mile and to adapt to new ways of thinking about and charting the future for the Institute. In that spirit, I ask for your help as well. I ask for your patience, understanding, and good humor as we continue to realize the promise of The Rensselaer Plan. Indeed, we are on track to becoming one of the premier universities of the 21st century. For this reason, it is an exciting time to be a student at Rensselaer.