Hello everyone. This has been an extremely busy week academically and for the Senate! As exam dates draw nearer, stress levels sky rocket. Hang in there, it will soon be over. In addition, this past weekend the Rensselaer Board of Trustees came to visit. For those who don’t know, the Trustees are similar to a Board of Directors for a company. They visit four times a year and meet with different committees comprised of students, faculty, and for some, Dr. Jackson. The four committees are Finance, Student Life, Physical Facilities and Administration, and Academics. The Senate appoints two to three students to each committee. We will be posting information about each meeting on our web site—senate.union.rpi.edu—this week.
Last night the Senate went to each dining hall in an effort to relay information about projects we’re working on and get feedback and concerns with a particular focus on the level of customer service at Rensselaer. We are working very hard with Public Safety and Physical Facilities to develop customer service plans and last night will help us very much. Since I wrote this article last Sunday—confusing I know—you’ll have to wait until next week to get a summary of the visits. I also want to be very clear that we will also be visiting the upper class dorms, the greeks and graduate students this semester. We will post the full schedule and further communication plans on our website shortly.
I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our newly elected freshmen. I was impressed with all of your campaigns. I want to stress that even if you did not win, you can still contribute to your class’ or Senate’s efforts by joining a committee or working on a specific project. It is a tremendous learning opportunity whether you have been elected or not. I’ve seen the freshman class in action. I’m convinced that they will bring a lot of energy to this campus and a lot of value to student government and other organizations.
Finally I’d like to call upon people from all class years to get involved. We have three graduate Senate seats available. I understand that graduates are on a different planet academically and we do our best to accommodate their difficult time constraints on the Senate. Graduate representation is extremely important. I urge you to get involved even if it’s just for one project.
I wish everyone the best of luck on your exams. Come visit me if you have any questions, ideas or comments about Student Government or the school. Good night everyone.
