Hello everyone. This is my second to last Poly column ever! I’d like to take it as an opportunity to highlight the Senate’s achievements. The senators deserve recognition for their hard work and dedication. This semester, the Senate changed the way it operates and hopefully planted a seed for the future. The Senators were responsible for accomplishing this. I’d like to begin by thanking each of them.
• From the graduate class: Ayala Cnaan, Grant Deffenbaugh, Vishnu Tekumall, and Mary Kate DiTursi.
• From the senior class: Horace Simms, Laura Crescenzo, Abbey Green, and Kristen Powers.
• From the junior class: Leslie Granger, Harol Baez, Anna Batorsky, and Shivi Duggas.
• From the sophomore class: Peter Naccarato, Michael Dillon, Martin Colwell, and Jim Letteney.
• From the freshman class: Max Yates, Cody Powers, Lindsay Denton, and Mike Goldenburg.
The Senate worked on a number of initiatives this year. They aggressively pursued a communication plan, speaking with more than half the fraternities on campus. The feedback received from students was compiled into a report and given to the Board of Trustees and key administrators. We used information directly obtained in the report in our advising task force, in prioritizing physical facilities renovations with Claude Rounds, vice president for adminstration, and in our projects second semester.
The advising task force set out to analyze ways to dramatically improve the advising system at Rensselaer. Senators worked diligently with faculty and administrators to gather data, conduct analysis, and create a recommendation for the President. The recommendation was completed and submitted to the President who has agreed to everything in the recommendation and more.
The Senate has worked closely with Claude Rounds and physical facilities to create a customer service center aimed at stepping up Rensselaer’s commitment to happy customers. We focused on ways to improve the ease of getting something fixed on campus by leveraging a new web-based IT system.
While the online class evaluation system was unfortunately not completed by this year’s registration, it will be finished by the end of this year and available to students by next year. The system allows students to evaluate classes and professors with an emphasis on amount learned and types of teaching styles. The project has thus far been a huge success. I think this will be tremendously beneficial to the campus.
The Senate has been working on an unofficial freshman guide to give freshmen practical advice from a student’s perspective. The Senate team responsible for this project is looking to publish the guide by the beginning of next term.
Another group has been working on concrete measures to increase attendance at athletic games. They will be distributing “sports packages” to all of the resident assistants containing hockey tickets and information about different teams and games to attend. Different dorms will compete for points by attending certain athletic events. The same principle will apply for the greek system. They will earn points for attending certain games in proportion to their house size.
As I’ve mentioned in several articles, we are working hard to provide some continuity as the new Senate takes over. We will work with them to identify improvements for projects and methods that have been used this semester. I look forward to working with the new Grand Marshal to help make a smooth transition.
I’m proud of what the Senate has accomplished this year. Nine months is not a lot of time but they were able to make substantial progress in many areas and make significant changes in how the Senate operates. There is no way to describe how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to lead this group this year—thank you. Good night everyone.
