The holidays offer us an opportunity to take a break from all the work (hopefully!) and give us the chance to reflect on what is most important in our lives. This is a great time to visit with relatives and family, reconnect with your friends, and attend religious services. I’ve also found this year end break provides us with the opportunity to pick up a new hobby or skill you’ve been just too busy to pursue. We will return to Rensselaer in the spring with a whole checklist of resolutions that I encourage you to meet. A little perseverance in your personal life can lead to major changes in your overall character.

With finals week rolling around, remember to take care of your physical self amidst all the studying. Get plenty of sleep, plenty of food, and try to make it to the gym. If none of that works, there will be masseuses to help alleviate any of your remaining tension. Finals are meant to tie all of the coursework together and give us a holistic view of the course. With the timing being so perfect, I would like to give you a brief view of what the Union Executive Board has accomplished thus far, and how you may help next semester.

I rarely write articles about the Executive Board, as some of you might find the information to be dry. However, we have working extremely hard behind the scenes to help make your time at Rensselaer more enjoyable. This year started slowly with small projects being undertaken and finished, and then really ramped up. A joint effort between the Executive Board, the Senate, the men’s hockey team, and many spirit organizations, we actually brought the Hockey Line back from years of atrophy. In the semester to come, we will be looking for motivated and enthusiastic individuals to participate in a campus spirit “task force” to help identify and program events that would bolster campus pride and improve attendance at all sporting events. We will also be offering some new food options in the McNeil room next semester, including the great Thunder Mountain Curry. If you have not had a chance to sample this great pan-Asian food, next semester will be your opportunity. Over next summer, if all stays on schedule, construction will begin on renovation of the games room. With your input from last year’s Union Challenge, and multiple focus groups, we have identified and begun to lay out the plans for the new games room. There will be a more intimate billiards area with a “pool-hall” feel, a relaxation room with an area to take an occasional nap, a room with a sports bar feel that will allow you to watch a multitude of games or even a movie in comfortable chairs, and finally an area including arcade games and perhaps a golf-simulator. The renovation will be extreme, along with the increased offerings for all students. Beyond these changes, there is a list of about 10 other goals, from small to large, that the E-Board is working on to help make your Rensselaer experience all the more enjoyable.

With all the goals and programs we wish to complete next semester, I encourage anyone interested in helping out to send me an email at pu@rpi.edu. If you are a graduate student, I encourage you to apply for the Executive Board as we still have that position open. There is much to do, and always room for enthusiastic students.