Monday morning brought me back to reality. The reality is that arrogance, apathy, and anxiety are pervasive on campus, and the accomplishment of the noble mission, which I described to these students and their parents, is in jeopardy. The administration and faculty have been clashing for some time, and it is intensifying. The casualties will not be either of the arguing parties, but the students. They will be denied the quality education they expect and deserve. Working at a university, helping to shape the future of our country and the world, is a privilege that must be cherished, not abused. How has this conflict been allowed to continue? Where is the leadership on both sides of this conflict?

I have always felt that teaching at RPI is a win-win situation. We all can achieve our individual goals while working together for the good of our students and university. Unfortunately, the leaders of the administration and faculty have a different point of view—one side wins only if the other side loses. Have they never heard that sharing a light does not make one’s light dimmer, but means there is more light for everyone? When everybody grows, there isn’t less of anybody; there’s more of—and for—everybody. What we have is arrogance—a strong feeling of proud self-importance expressed by treating other people with contempt and disregard—and it is poisoning our campus.

On February 23, an editorial I wrote was published in The Polytechnic entitled “Institute Seems Out of Balance.” In it, I raised the issue of the need for balance between education and research, as they are complementary, and that it seemed that the Institute had gotten out of balance. I also expressed my concern for the lack of any meaningful communication between the administration and faculty. I expected a flurry of editorials in the following weeks to appear in The Poly discussing these issues. To my surprise, it didn’t happen, and I received very few comments from my colleagues and none from the administration. Yet, walk the halls of the academic buildings or sit at a lunch table, and you will hear complaints about one thing or another. Only action solves problems; where is the problem-solving action on campus? There is a creeping apathy on campus—a lack of enthusiasm and interest in addressing and solving our problems. We could all take a lesson from the engineering profession: engineers focus on solving problems and welcome any and all suggestions. They work together as a team to determine the best possible solution. Why is that not happening here? It isn’t just apathy; many are anxious that there will be negative repercussions if they speak out. A university is the last place I want to find arrogance, apathy, and anxiety, yet we have it and we better do something to get rid of it.

There is a lack of effective leadership in both the administration and faculty which will lead to the collapse of this university and all it stands for. We need to capture the feeling that was infectious on Accepted Student Celebration Day—one of all working together to accomplish the most noble goal of shaping the future of the world through the young men and women we met that day.

Kevin Craig