Congratulations to the first Poly Person of the Year, Kevin Beattie. As you remember, Beattie is Rensselaer’s sports information director. He works with everyone involved in the athletics department from the administration, to the office manager, to the coaches, to the students.
Beattie’s future plans for the sports information office is to see it grow significantly while having it become much more efficient. More specifically, he would like to see all information filed and placed where it’s supposed to be. For example, he would like someone who was on the 1964 basketball team to be able to call up and ask for their statistics during a certain year and for a photo of himself, and have that information readily available for the person who wants it. Beattie wants anybody to be able to understand the system, so that if a new person came in tomorrow they would be able to understand everything that is going on and be able to do anything.
As mentioned in the previous write-up, Beattie believes that athletics is "vital to a college or university." He feels that it provides a sense of pride, not only for the athletes but for the whole college as well, and that it brings everyone together. He would definitely like to see athletics become an even larger part of Rensselaer than it is presently.
Beattie also said that the athletics department should be funded more. The money should go towards two main things—salaries and facilities, he said. He feels that the coaches and staff in the athletic department are often underpaid, and that they really deserve more. As far as facilities go, the two major points he mentioned are that the football field is in need of new bleachers and a pressbox and the Field House needs to be rebuilt or renovated. He feels that both are sort of outdated and they need to be kept up with the times.
About the possibility of the women’s hockey team becoming Division I, Beattie thinks that is a fantastic idea as long as they have the right staff and enough people. Most importantly, the Institute should make sure there is a good number of training and coaching staff available if this were to happen. He thinks that if they do this, it should be sooner rather than later and that it would work out very well.
Beattie wanted to express his appreciation for everyone who nominated him for this award. This award has real meaning to him and he says it feels really good to be appreciated and recognized for the work he does.
