News

Building access controlled

Senate approves new GM Week Handbook

Ed/Op

Staff Editorial
Card readers actualize necessary security fix

Editorial Notebook
Challenging the challenge

Editorial Notebook
Top, bottom of Approach contrast

Climate changes imminent

Derby
Sense of entitlement empowers unethical actions

Letter to the Editor
Cancellation ruins esteem

Letter to the Editor
Curves ahead

Letter to the Editor
Safety dubious

Letter to the Editor
Attacks untrue

Features

Beads, costumes, doubloons fill city streets

Dave Barry
New golfing technology found in the Ballistic Driver

Words to Eat By
Diners give Italian restaurant mixed reviews

FLUX serenades with unique compositions

Sports

RPI excited for premier playoff appearance

Frustrating weekend leaves Engineers disheartened

Poor shooting dampens Red Hawks’ weekend

RPI ends regular season on sour note

Rensselaer in Brief
Vista Upgrades coming
A little less than a month ago, Microsoft released the newest version of Windows—Vista—which comes in a variety of distributions ranging from Home Basic to Ultimate. Academic and Research Computing is currently working with Microsoft to determine the method and nature of the Vista upgrade for Mobile Computing Program participants, who under the campus license agreement, should be entitled to an upgrade.

During March, DotCIO will be offering Mobile Computing Program participants the chance to be involved in a pilot Vista upgrade. This pilot, coupled with DotCIO’s current testing, is intended to verify the Vista-readiness of existing laptops on campus.

For users not in the Mobile Computing Program as well as staff and faculty users, Microsoft is already offering Vista upgrades at a discounted academic rate for qualified users, though DotCIO is advising users to not install Vista this semester and await an upcoming announcement at the end of March.

Police officer on leave
A Schenectady police sergeant whose leadership of the vice squad has been under scrutiny has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to law enforcement sources. Sergeant Daniel Diamond had been under a close watch since it was discovered that seized crack cocaine evidence was missing from the unit, but charges haven’t been filed against him as of yet.

Multiple law enforcement sources say, however, that Diamond recently disclosed to Assistant Chief Michael Seber that Diamond had found small amounts of drug evidence he had inadvertently left in his personal car. Diamond declined to discuss the case.

A police department audit of drug evidence had exposed problems with sloppy evidence management, storage and record-keeping, according to law officials.

Schenectady police officials determined that crack cocaine had disappeared in at least three other drug cases, which forced them to ask the State Police to take over the investigation into the missing evidence.

The investigation was started following a case against a city man which was dropped because police couldn’t locate the crack cocaine for his trial.

The vice squad investigates between 700 and 800 drug cases annually, regularly compiling between 1,500 and 2,000 bags of drug evidence each year.