A debate on the Institute’s name has been renewed among students and alumni after the school’s network on Facebook was changed from “RPI” to “Rensselaer.”
In response, Chris Monthie ’10 created a Facebook group called, “I go to RPI, not ‘Rensselaer,’” the popularity of which has boomed over the past couple weeks. Membership in the group surpassed 880 community members.
This change has again ignited the question in students’ minds of whether the Institute is moving away from its engineering roots.
“Facebook’s change to our network name has ignited a massive firestorm among the alumni, who believe this change could only have originated within the school’s administration or misguided marketing entity,” said Jyri Palm ’98. “The attempt to foist ‘Rensselaer’ upon us has been a sore spot among alumni for two decades now.”
Although some, like Palm, assumed the change was at the administration’s request, RPI spokesman Jason Gorss told The Times Union that to his knowledge, no administrators had contacted Facebook to do so.
Gorss pointed out that the Institute decided to refer to itself as Rensselaer because of the both national and international expansion the school had undergone.
Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations William Walker also confirmed at the Student Senate’s training seminar held August 23 that the administration was not involved and didn’t know why the change had happened.
“The name change is even more alarming, because we can’t seem to find out just who initiated the change in the first place,” said Monthie.
Students, however, still continue to blame the administration. “This is a very politically-charged issue on campus, and Facebook should not impose RPI administration’s will on its users,” said Hagop Hagopian ’93.
“I feel very strongly that I went to ‘RPI,’ or ‘Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,’ not ‘Rensselaer,’ which locally creates confusion with the county we are in and the city,” said Palm.
Monthie said, “Everyone knows ‘RPI’; sure, some people confuse it with RIT, and others think of ITT Tech and similar trade schools. But why should that force us to change who we are?”
He continued, “If you strip away the ‘Polytechnic Institute’ and leave only ‘Rensselaer,’ I feel that you lose a part of what makes RPI special, a part of what makes the Institute appealing to me.”
While the group shows a large number of disgruntled students, the website population is still a minority compared to the number of RPI students using Facebook.
