L As a club that represents the Republican Party, we take to heart many of the party’s ideals, especially financial discipline. Although it makes me cringe to think of all the cases of financial mismanagement that our national government and my home state of New Jersey exhibit, nothing makes me cringe more than to see how our money is being handled at RPI. While our president’s compensation is exceptionally excessive for this current economic climate, there are many more cases of squandered cash.
A fine example is the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center’s landscaping. I’m sure most of you noticed that in preparation for its opening, the landscape around it and Jonsson-Rowland Science Center was redone. Although the landscape added a nice touch, it was all in vain. Somehow, the fact that construction crews will be occupying the area to do the J-ROWL expansion and renovation was forgotten when the landscape was done.
Then of course there’s the Clustered Learning Advocacy and Support for Students initiative, which will require sophomores to stay on-campus for housing. Students used to be able to save money by moving off-campus after their freshman year, but will instead have to endure another year of on-campus living. Of course, the icing on the cake was finding out that the necessary staff to handle the increase of those staying on campus will be reduced to save money. Now in order to compensate for the Institute’s lack of proper financial management skills, sophomores will be forced to foot the bill by paying hyperinflated room and board prices for the privilege of living in such luxurious accommodations as the near-decrepit North Hall.
Another issue that has been raised often is energy use. Many lights on campus are kept on when not needed. For example, Harkness Field and EMPAC are lit even when no one is using them.
While money is being wasted in the manners mentioned above, we the students have been suffering. Many dorms on campus don’t meet current building codes. We have to deal with classrooms such as Ricketts 203, with desks the size of a pocket calculator. The fountain on Freshman Hill has enjoyed a five-year cycle of repairs (maybe this year it’ll be fixed for good). Tuition constantly goes up.
Yet now, we’re to believe that every single option was looked over before people were laid off? I truly hope the administration doesn’t think we are that ignorant. It is also hard to believe that the school didn’t have a “rainy day fund” available to get through tough situations such as this.
In the end, the administrators have no one to blame but themselves. They cannot blame the recent downturn of the economy (or, as Vice President for Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles puts it, the collapse of the American Empire) for spending money in the name of the Institute’s aura, rather than the sake of its students. Hopefully from this, we the students can win and gain financial transparency at our school.
Editor’s Note: Columns granted to the College Republicans, College Libertarians, and Progressive Students alliance rotate weekly in The Polytechnic.
