Following a closed meeting between student Residence Life staff, members of the professional Residence Life staff, and Vice President for Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles, a group of students met in the Rensselaer Union. Upon collaboration with members of the Senate’s Finance, Facilities, and Advancement Committee, the students present decided the best way to address the administration’s decision not to hire freshman RAs, according to Grand Marshal Kara Chesal ’09.

Chesal said the idea for the demonstration came out of this discussion. Throughout the night, approximately 60 people joined in the effort of planning the “Uprise at Five,” ranging from students affiliated with the Student Senate, Residence Life, and the greek community, to members of the Students Against Financial Mismanagement at RPI Facebook group.

Students went through proper channels to notify Public Safety and the Dean of Students Office of their plans prior to the demonstration. Knowles commented that “our students handled it well,” and he was “generally pleased to see students actively involved in making their voices heard.”

Chesal said that the ultimate goal of the demonstration was “to have students organize, to show our solidarity, and to show how much students care about the decisions being made at RPI.” She said that the overarching complaint of students was a lack of transparency. Through a press release given to various media organizations, the group of students cited several examples where it felt the administration hadn’t communicated well with them, such as the reduction in resident assistant compensation, the removal of student representation on the finance committee of the Board of Trustees, the layoffs, and the Greek Initiatives from three years ago. Chesal remarked, “Beyond this, we wanted to do this in front of the Board of Trustees to get them to see how many students are concerned. We want students, faculty, and staff to be involved in the decision-making process when they are the constituents directly affected by the decisions.”

During the protest, students drew parallels to the Requisites for a Technological Institute, a document that was drafted in 1970 by students and given to President Richard G. Folsom requesting more communication between the administration and the student body in making policy decisions that affect student life.

Prior to the arrival of the Board of Trustees, several of those who organized the meeting gave brief speeches about why they were there. Despite people complaining about RPI’s students being among the most apathetic in the college community, Chesal said, “Obviously, we’re not. We’re here to hear your voice.”

Senator Andrew Neidhardt ’11 remarked about how the demonstration “transcends the other labels” that brought students there—whether they are student government leaders, RAs, or just the average student. President of the Interfraternity Council Jesse Barr ’10 said, “You come here asking us to change the world—so let us.”

Once the handful of speeches concluded, students swayed to the alma mater and chanted “Save Our School” and “RPI” upon the arrival of the trustees.

Chesal stated that since the protest, she had heard back from a few administrators, with meetings also planned with Knowles, Jackson, and Chief of Staff and Vice President for Policy and Planning Laban Coblentz.

The immediate catalyst for the event was the announcement that no rising sophomores were to be hired as RAs for next year. According to Chesal, students have complained that they weren’t given notice of the decision and wasted their time with the application process.

Knowles stated, however, that the decision was made public knowledge through the release of the Student Life Performance Plan in November. Under Goal 8—to develop the Clustered Learning, Advocacy, and Support for Students initiative and the International Experience—Strategy 4 states that the Division of Student Life’s plans were to “design an RA recruitment, selection, and training program that is targeted at juniors, seniors, and graduate students.”

Chesal felt, however, that the document didn’t specifically state that Residence Life was not hiring freshman—only that it was targeted at boosting the percentage of upperclassmen.

Knowles reiterated with regard to the Sophomore-Year Experience and CLASS initiative, “Good things are embedded in what we’re trying and we don’t want it to get lost.”

Although he apologized to freshmen who went through the intensive recruiting process, Knowles stated that the decision was disseminated to members of the professional Residence Life staff. He wasn’t certain where the miscommunication occurred, noting he wasn’t aware freshmen had been interviewed until the meeting on Wednesday. He said it was not an attempt on anyone’s part to mislead students, though he admitted that “the situation should not have happened, but it did.”

Knowles also noted that Vice President for Enrollment James Nondorf is willing to meet with students, and said that students with need will be evaluated by the Financial Aid Office for further assistance.

In regard to the decision of reducing the compensation of Resident Assistants, Nondorf said that he originally made the general recommendation that a better use of the funds given to RAs would be to go towards those students who demonstrated need. He also repeated that any RAs who have demonstrated need could still benefit from the reallocation of funds. Nondorf noted that he had spoken to the Director of Financial Aid before the decision was made for an analysis of how many RAs received more in total aid than the cost of attendance, once the compensation for serving as an RA was factored in. He felt that reducing the amount that they receive in compensation was the best move to make, noting that work-study students typically make about $2,500–3,000 per academic year.