The campus is filled with ideas to make Rensselaer a better place and a more effective university. Students continually come to the Executive Board with plans of improving campus communication, fostering school spirit, and complimenting the services we offer—there is never a shortage of ideas to improve. I can remember President Jackson once remarking that if she only had $1 billion dollars she could fix every gap and crack that had built up over decades of neglect that continue to bubble to the surface even today. We are well on our way to $1 billion and a level of performance commensurate that with our aspirate institutions, but in the meantime there have been other groups that have followed suit with the standard of excellence set on this campus by the president.
As a student body, we do have a say—to some extent—on the appropriations and investments that occur on campus. The E-Board has taken note of this fact and forged ahead this year with the mission of simply making the Union a better place. At the mid-point in the year, the Board has set the foundations of a platform for excellence.
Next semester students will return to a Union in which printing will be guaranteed, desktop computing will be an option, and the Rathskellar Level will have been renovated, offering students both atmosphere and ambiance when choosing to dine downstairs. At the close of the next semester, renovations will have been planned and funded for the games area and the dining area within the McNeil Room.
Aside from the Union, this has been a remarkable semester. A semester that has seen its feats, and falls. A semester that saw the women’s hockey team take Division I by storm posting an undefeated record through 10 games. A semester that saw the Student Senate put forth an alternative to illegal file sharing; founded Go Be Red, which injected the campus with school spirit; and changed the paradigm for student senates. A semester that we have seen two of our fellow students pass, yet many more rise. A semester that the E-board planned a renovation covering hundreds of square feet and appropriated funds for new services that raise the bar for Union E-boards to come.
Ultimately, this was a semester that mirrors the overall direction of Rensselaer—one in which we see others taking the example of the overall Institute directions and looking internally as to how we can improve. The campus continues to move forward, and our student body continues to excel each day. As a Union we have grown once again with over 3,000 students active in clubs and organizations this semester and that number expected to rise as clubs turn in membership numbers—up from 2,800 just a year ago. For the E-Board, the Student Senate, and the student body: In the end we will be measured not by what we have maintained, but by how far we have come.
