Major projects take a lot of time to plan, execute, and sustain, but students haven’t let this stagnate productivity. We’ve worked to ensure the continuation of Pizza with the President and Pizza with the Mayor series that were developed over two years ago. We’re developing a Cooperative Community Service Program, in conjunction with Troy residents, to improve our community. We’re piloting a program to install digital signage, an innovative approach to relaying information to the campus, available for use by campus clubs, departments, and organizations. We’re planning and hosting a forum to discuss academic integrity and the possibility of an honor code at RPI on April 9, after working alongside Dean of Students Mark Smith and dedicated faculty members like Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Deanna Thompson, made possible by Provost Robert Palazzo’s support. We’ve made sustainability a priority and in doing so, have been making dramatic reductions in waste on campus. We’ve developed an off-campus RAD program, with the expected launch being Fall 2008, pending approval by President Jackson and the Board of Trustees. We’ve worked with Public Safety, administrators, and local officials, including Mayor Harry Tutunjian, to improve safety on our campus and in our surrounding community, and along the same lines, ensure that there’s a reliable way to contact any and all students in emergency situations. We’ve made great headway with the absentee landlordism initiative, created to help students living off-campus become knowledgeable of their rights as tenants and to combat the growing problem of landlords who are never around. We’ve developed and will soon debut a website made by the students, for the students—myRPI—making it easier for you to suggest ideas and improvements to campus as your comments will go directly to the appropriate person or Senate committee to address. We’re working to improve teaching assistant standards, already underway. We’re also working alongside Acting Dean of Graduate Education Lester Gerhardt for the study abroad initiatives. In the upcoming weeks, will be working with Vice President for Finance Virginia Gregg to demystify where your tuition money really goes, and to determine additional ways to curb waste on campus and consequently minimize costs.

I’ve worked closely with the Friends of the Folsom Library to have a local author, Daniel Hayes, speak at RPI on Wednesday, March 19, at 4 pm. I highly recommend stopping by the Fischbach Room in the Folsom Library to hear him speak, as this is a phenomenal opportunity. It may have been a decade ago, but you probably read at least one of his young adult novels, such as The Trouble with Lemons. If you’re friendly enough, he just might autograph that old copy you have …

There are many improvements that can be made, and we have been working to fix these as they are realized. Communication has always been the first area that jumps to mind—particularly, how to convey information to you, the people we serve. If you have any thoughts on this, please share them with me. The only thing I know with any certainty is that you don’t like spam in your inbox.

Notably, it is important to keep in mind that the administration at RPI has the final say in a lot of this; sadly, I can’t just wave my top hat and make things happen. In working with all of our administrators for the past year, though, I am confident that they will support us in the above outlined initiatives—and more—so long as we express and stress the importance of each.