On one hand, Dean Smith argues that declining greek participation is a problem. Then, he wants to ban alcohol. Huh? This may be shocking to some, but RPI is a boring place with dissatisfied students. Parties with booze are a great way to blow off the steam that you undergrads build under the ridiculous workload they force on you. What reason would there be to live in a house that is dry?

I may be wrong, but I think that the administration is using the suggestions of the accreditation board as some sort of pseudo-justification for its policy. What a bunch of stuffed shirts know about campus life is beyond me. They are not members of RPI, they don’t go to class here, and their suggestions have all the inspiration and thoughtfulness—more bureaucracy, fewer freedoms—of a state budget meeting.

The DOSO directive is unwanted paternalism. You are all adults; none of your parents transferred guardianship to President Shirley Ann Jackson. What you want to do in your house should not be of the RPI administration’s concern.

Many of the social events that we run in graduate school have beer or hard alcohol as an element. Most of us aren’t in fraternities, but for some reason the Troy Building wants to shut us down.

Many people obviously agree with me, but how do we enact change?

Writing to The Poly is a great way to vent, but President Jackson—and make no mistake, all policy comes from her and her alone—has made it clear that she is willing to run roughshod over the faculty and the students alike. Your dissatisfaction alone will not sway her. Realize that she lives in a world of millionaires; she sits on the NYSE board, schmoozes with Hillary Clinton, and has a chauffeur. We are pawns used for the advancement of her career; our griping is a dull buzz in her ears at most. It is necessary to direct your dissatisfaction in ways that get her attention.

I have the following suggestions: Write to the Board of Trustees, alumni, Senator Bruno, and anyone else who has an influence on the finances of the school and the president’s reputation. Tell them that you and your parents will refuse to make any donations to the school while the ban is in force, and that you suggest that they withhold funding as well. The student government can threaten a vote of no confidence in the president; this is symbolic, but it could get the press involved and damage Jackson’s reputation—a great worry for ambitious people. More drastic measures include a campus-wide walkout, sit-in, etc.

These things all take commitment, effort, and risk, but nothing short of that will get any attention or hope for change.

President Jackson is choosing to try and make RPI “safer” at the risk of pushing student morale even lower. That’s not leadership. She is committing the worst sin in a university: making it more boring. She is failing all of us.