I was very excited to see the summer edition of The Poly published, as I knew it meant classes aren’t too far away from resuming, and it is always a nice break at my summer job to do the puzzles and read the comics that I enjoy. However, being the SO edition, I knew there would be some stuff for the SO parents and students to read about the new stuff going on at the school and what it’s like here. I remember the dictionary of RPI lingo from my SO newspaper and went to check it out to see what was new. I was shocked and appalled when I reached page 14 and found some of the words The Polytechnic had chosen for definition, not to mention some of the words they used as definitions.

I’ll elaborate with some examples: The recursion and endless-loop jokes were funny for any Computer Science majors in the audience, but very few people got that, and you included no other major-themed jokes, though, understandably, there is little space.

I have never heard of Diffy-Screw before, because most people don’t hate that class—it’s Diff-Eq; and that is merely one example of either wrong or outdated jokes. “Flunking in” really doesn’t apply anymore, and what is “the Rath”? No one I know has ever called it that.

Two that I found particularly offensive included “the ‘Tute Screw” and “RIBS.” Granted in all fun and games, they are things we use on campus from time to time, and The Poly is definitely something I respect for being able to poke fun at the school, but this example was used with poor time and horrible taste. My sister will be attending school here in the fall and is very excited about it, but needless to say neither she nor my parents were impressed with the lack of respect given in that particular article, and I can only imagine that many other parents who viewed the article were very displeased.

Being that these new students have no idea what The Poly is about, or that the article was written in jest, it definitely shows you in a very negative light. I would think that the summer staff of The Polytechnic would have been more understanding and more respectful to these new students as well as those that are already here. At least three female colleagues that I spoke to about the article said they were highly offended that your paper even featured RIBS, and beyond that were brash enough to use the B-word in the article as though it weren’t offensive.

I implore you to please take the consideration of the entire student body, whom you are supposed to represent the majority of and inform the majority of, before publishing another article like this one and realizing that your jest may not be taken the same by everyone that sees, especially at this early stage for our incoming students. I will continue to read and enjoy the great articles and satire The Poly can put out for the student body.

I would like to clarify that I in no way support censorship, only the limitation of offensive and slanderous language.

Mark Giffen

BIOL/PSYC ‘09

Cait Mounts