Over the past few weeks, newspapers, blogs, and Facebook groups have littered the internet with information about the recent layoffs and administrative decisions at RPI. One missing piece was a message to the students and the RPI community from the administration. After meeting with President Shirley Ann Jackson and Vice President for Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles last week, a message was sent out that same afternoon detailing both the speech she delivered to the faculty and the Q-and-A page from the Human Resource website.
While this may seem like no big feat, it is one step towards transparency and flow of information between the administration and the rest of the RPI community. In the past, it was thought that putting things on the internet was enough to placate those highly interested. However, as we spoke last week, we turned a corner and will be seeking new means of communicating information to the RPI community. Admittedly, there was insufficient information sent out by the administration during the layoffs, and we will work to improve this in the future.
This Wednesday at 7 pm in the McNeil room, Knowles will also host an open forum for the RPI community to answer any questions surrounding the financial and administrative decisions. For those who have further questions or are interested in discussing these topics with other members of the RPI community, I encourage you to attend this event.
The Student Senate has been actively seeking answers and information over the past week to aid in disseminating of information to the student body. We have also been searching for new means of sharing this information. At our Monday night meeting, we discussed placing white boards throughout the Rensselaer Union, so that students could share opinions and information in a highly visible and public forum outside of the internet. More information about the content of these boards and uses is forthcoming. We hope to have these boards up in the next two weeks so that students will have a new means of expression and source of information.
As we begin to move forward, I ask you all to seek out information from reputable sources. It is easy to speculate, but finding the truth is more difficult, and spreading disinformation or misinformation only moves us backwards. The Student Senate will do our best to keep you informed of what we know, and we will be improving our external relations. We have not done our part in keeping you properly informed, and you should expect drastic improvements in the coming weeks.
I thank you for your patience and concern. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at gm@rpi.edu or stop by Senate meetings on Mondays from 4–6 pm in Union Room 3202.
