One of the most constant complaints on our campus is that everybody is apathetic. I’ve always found this statement to be somewhat odd, because there has to be someone to complain about the general apathy to begin with. Also, it seems to be something that everyone is complaining about, not just a select few. Personally, I believe that the problem is more that people don’t know enough about what is going on to be participating in the things that they’re interested in. Getting the information can be difficult at times, but it can be well-worth the effort.
I am certainly in no position to provide information about every club on campus—I actually happen to only be an active member of one. I am, however, in a very good position to give a lot of information about The Polytechnic.
We are not a typical club in that our focus is to put out a paper every week. Our members all play a role in the production of our paper, and we can always use production staff.
The one thing that we can particularly use is writers. The news section needs people to cover events around campus; the features sections needs writers to review shows, CDs, or movies; and the sports section needs people to cover RPI sporting events—both home and away.
Also, new columns are welcome. We require three sample articles and a general idea of what the column will be about for the Editorial Board to vote on.
You don’t have to be a wonderful writer to write for us either. We have a wonderful staff of editors who will sit down with you to work out bad writing habits, and we have a copy staff who can brush up bad grammar as well.
While a good part of the work on The Poly is done by the writers, there is still a lot to be done that doesn’t involve writing. Photographers are needed to take pictures of campus events and sports. Our copy staff could always use a few extra readers to check our articles over (and copy is the least time-intensive job on The Poly). Or, if you’re interested in design, we need people to help layout the paper and constantly update our style as well.
Beyond that, we need a systems administrator for our Windows-based computer system. We have 10 computers, our own server, and two printers to be managed. We also run our own website, and I’m sure our web staff would like to have some additonal help, too.
Finally, we need ad representatives and a business manager. Ad representatives sell ads, which bring in the money that allow us to publish week to week. The business manager oversees the business practices of The Poly—depositing money, paying bills, and countless of other tasks that keep our paper running.
At The Poly we always appreciate new staff members from any class year. And, while you may have heard horror stories about senior staff members spending countless hours in the office, we welcome any level of participation (even just an hour a week).
You don’t need to have a lot of past experience to be able to help us out either. We can train people to do anything they’re interested in doing.
Joining isn’t very difficult: just e-mail poly@rpi.edu or show up on Tuesday nights. If you’re interested in joining, but don’t know what you want to do, we can help you find a place.
