Tom Apple, former chairman of the Department of Chemistry, was selected as our new dean of graduate education. He sat in on our Graduate Council meeting this past Sunday, and he was very helpful in outlining some of his plans for graduate programs and students. I look forward to working with him in the near future on these proposals.

In my position as Graduate Council president, I have the honor of serving on a few committees around campus. This past weekend I attended the RPI Board of Trustees Academic Affairs committee meeting and spoke of the Graduate Council’s plans to help students this year.

The first major concern we wish to address is the state of housing on and around campus. While there is some inexpensive housing in the area, very often we have found the apartments to be run down or extremely small, squeezing too many students into too few spaces and the combined rent of one floor of a multiple bedroom apartment could more than pay for a mortgage on a house in this area. On-campus housing for graduate students, particularly those with families, is also inadequate to meet demand.

The second concern that was brought to the attention of the Academic Affairs Committee, and which affects graduate students, is that of teaching assistants who have difficulty with spoken English. During the orientation for graduate TAs, foreign TAs arrive early and are tested on spoken English. If they can not pass the spoken exam, they are required to give a five to 10 minute presentation, and based on their performance with that, they can be assigned to various duties based on their facility with English, from a full TA to a grader. At this time they can also begin instruction in spoken English, but this two-week period before classes start is usually not enough time to be fluent for their first semester.

There are programs on campus currently in place for teaching spoken English, but at this time there is only one person on staff available to teach and enrollment is limited. These are non-credit English as a Second Language classes offered by the Advising and Learning Assistance Center, taught by the ESL coordinator Jeannie Steigler. There is also a four-credit expository writing course offered by the Department of Language, Literature, & Communication. In general, we on the council feel that more resources need to be devoted to this while there is sufficient demand for it. We wish to make sure that those students that need language instruction can get it.

Since the recent events in New York City and Washington, D.C., we’ve been hearing a few reports from students who have had people shout at them at local businesses. Far fewer reports have been received about any such activity on campus, but if you have been harrassed or threatened, please call the Dean of Students Office at 276-6266 and let them know.