Senior Reporter

President Shirley Ann Jackson recently held her semi-annual President’s Town Meeting on Tuesday, entitled “Institutional Transformation: The Renaissance at Rensselaer Continues.” Jackson addressed a mostly-filled audience of faculty, administration members, staff, and students in DCC 308 regarding RPI’s continued growth.

Jackson spoke about some of the honors that RPI has received, including the Institute’s ranking as 44th among the top colleges and universities in U.S. & World News Report. “We are steadily building national and international stature as a top school,” she said.

The focus of discussion at the town meeting was Jackson’s three Ps: People, Platforms, and Partnerships.

The first of the three categories addressed was people. Jackson began by introducing new members of the administration, such as Provost Robert E. Palazzo, Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations William Walker, and Dean of the School of Science Wei Zhao.

With the new faculty hired at RPI over the past few years, the Institute has been able to reduce the student-to-faculty ratio from 17-to-1 to 14-to-1, and for undergraduate students, the ratio is even lower at 11-to-1, according to Jackson. The Institute hopes to hire up to 44 more faculty members by the end of the fiscal year, and 11 for the Constellation program.

Jackson went on to discuss new research being led by faculty members, such as the paper battery project and malaria link research, both being pushed forward by Ann and John H. Broadbent Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering Robert Linhardt.

There has been an increase in interest in RPI shown from prospective students, with around 62,000 inquiries for the Class of 2012 to date, according to Jackson. Last year, there had only been 54,000 for the Class of 2011 by the end of the entire cycle, meaning a 120 percent increase already, as well as a 100 percent increase in inquiries from women.

Jackson also spoke about this year’s freshman class, which was chosen from a record applicant pool and has set many new highs for RPI—among which are that almost a third of the class is composed of women and that 64 percent of the Class of 2011 was in the top tenth of their high school class.

The next category focused on was platforms. The first topic touched on was campus security. Since last year’s shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University as well as RPI’s tragedy in the CII building, security has been a priority to the Institute. Director of Public Safety Jerry Matthews is continually working on improving and updating security around campus, focusing mainly on cameras and mass notification systems. Although nothing has been finalized, Matthews said after the town meeting that he is looking into several systems at the moment and is currently working on rescheduling the practice drill with the Troy Police Department.

Also included within this topic was the various construction projects occurring on campus. An update was given on the East Campus Athletic Village construction, the groundbreaking for which was in early September. West Hall is also in the fourth stage of five in its restoration project, and construction on the Russell Sage Dining Hall is planned to start later this fall, and is to last about a year.

Also announced at the town meeting was that planning is underway to renovate and put an addition onto the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center. According to Jackson, this would add new research and wet-lab facilities to the Center, as well as improve existing ones.

The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center is also nearing completion, with almost 73 percent of the building finished. Landscaping is beginning on the surrounding area, and Jackson hopes to have EMPAC opened in the fall of next year with a three-day grand opening.

Also included under platforms was the capital campaign, which has raised $1.26 billion of the $1.4 billion promised.

The last of the three categories spoken about by Jackson was partnerships. The most notable of partnerships at RPI is that which brought the Institute the ribbon-cutting for the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations last month. The CCNI is part of a $100 million partnership between IBM, RPI, and New York State. The center promises much for both research and commercial use, according to Jackson.