News

Accepted students visit RPI

Changes rejected in faculty voting

RPI hosts integrity forum

Ultimate frisbee club hucked deep and finished strong

Ed/Op

Staff Editorial
Housing selection process needs improvement

Editorial Notebook
Find balance in academics

Editorial Notebook
Protect your personal information

Derby
Panic concert offers fun

Top Hat
Senate addresses campus security

Freedom of speech imperative

My View
Trayless Tuesday has merits

Letter to the Editor
Why I relay

Features

Actors show their wits in film Smart People

Smallbanac gives entertaining guide of Capital District

Sports

Saints break men’s 14-game streak

Softball begins league play with sweep of St. Lawrence

Seniors aspire to professional career

Rensselaer in Brief
Cary Hall underwater
This past week, Cary Hall on Freshman Hill suffered flooding, caused by a burst pipe in a second floor men’s bathroom. The flooding, according to Director of Environmental and Site Services Jerry Faiola, “caused a tremendous amount of water damage estimated between $20,000 and $40,000.”

The flooding initiated at a second floor men’s bathroom urinal due to a broken three-quarter-inch copper water line. The water was rapidly discharged at an estimated pressure of 80 psi. Video footage of the burst pipe can be found on YouTube by searching “RPI–Cary Hall Flood.” The water ran for about 30 minutes until it was shut off by Environmental and Site Services.

“There was a substantial volume of water in the hallways on the first and second floors and in many student rooms,” recounted Faiola. Students were quick to stop the water from entering their rooms by using everything from towels to sweatshirts. “A lot of the water made its way down the hallway and down the stairs into the mechanical room where [there are] floor drains,” described Faiola.

The building itself did not sustain any structural damage or system damage other than to the fire alarm system, which was repaired immediately after the water was controlled. Public Safety was called to maintain building security and keep a fire watch until the alarm system was repaired around 10 pm.

The staff of Environmental and Site Services was responsible for the initial cleanup process. However, too many areas were affected for this staff to manage. For this reason, Quick Response, an outside contractor responsible for flood repair, was called in.

Those students affected by the flooding were given the option to sleep in Franklin Hotel and Suites, located in downtown Troy, or were permitted to bunk with a friend in another residence hall. Only six students chose to stay at the Franklin and were shuttled to and from the hotel. “All students were asked to stay out of their rooms until the rooms were significantly dried out,” explained Faiola. “There were two days when I couldn’t stay in my room … I could go in and out to get stuff though,” said Bill Carter ’11. Students were permitted to enter the building to retrieve their belongings and valuables throughout the cleaning process.

The cleanup process required the use of an upwards of 120 pieces of equipment including floor fans, dehumidifiers, and extractors. In addition, all of the carpets were treated with an anti-mold and mildew agent. By April 11, about 95 percent of students were back in their rooms.

All of the departments involved followed procedure excellently and showed great leadership, noted Faiola. Carter reinforced this, saying, “Once (the Residence Life staff) found out about the flood they started getting everyone organized.”

Hazing forum held
On April 11, the Rensselaer Redhawk Rugby Club held a seminar on hazing awareness and the consequences of hazing from the perspective of Lucas Sienk, a Rochester Institute of Technology rugby player who is currently facing court charges for his actions involving “Rookie Week” drinking which led to the hospitalization of six students. The seminar was open to all students and worked to show students what can happen when initiation is taken too far.

Sienk began by explaining his role on the RIT rugby team, describing how the team went from being mediocre to winning tournaments. Everything was going well; it was Sienk’s fourth year of five at the school until the Annual Rookie Day came around.

The team “still had overzealous guys on [it]—shoving drinks down the rookies,” said Sienk, “I don’t even want to begin to start telling you how much alcohol these kids drank.” The rookie day took a turn for the worse when one rookie turned blue and began breathing very shallowly, described Sienk.

Police and ambulances arrived to take the student to the hospital, while other rookies went in another room. In the end six team members were taken to the hospital and treated. Two of these six hold the records for highest blood alcohol levels in the state of New York, 0.597 and 0.484.

Sienk concluded by saying his point was that “people aren’t dumb … it’s human nature—it’s an initiation, but sometimes it goes too far.” He encouraged students to stop the hazing before it gets to the point that it did with him.

Sienk recounted the sequence of events specifying that if help had not been called when it was, if they had waited five more minutes, the story may have ended with a death. “Don’t be dumb like I was,” said Sienk. “It’s going to be a lot more explaining [in the future] than I want to do.”

Alunnus passes away
Former RPI student Dennis Karamboulis ’07 passed away on April 8 after a battle with cancer.

Karamboulis was the Class of 2007 vice president, the class ring chair, and the Senior Week chair. After graduating from RPI with a degree in nuclear engineering he worked as a nuclear engineer for Entergy Nuclear Northeast in White Plains.

His funeral was held last Saturday in New Jersey. The mass at the Chapel and Cultural Center tomorrow at 12:10 pm will be said in his memory. It is open for all those who wish to attend.

HSBC to replace cards
HSBC recently announced that the bank will be replacing some customers’ Debit MasterCards in the upcoming month. Current debit cards will be disabled May 20, and replacement cards will be issued with a new account number.

This move is in response to an ongoing investigation involving the theft of card payment data. HSBC is replacing all debit cards included in the security notice from MasterCard as a precautionary measure.

HSBC has told its customers that the bank will continue to monitor accounts for fraudulent activity, and recommends customers review monthly checking account statements until the new cards are issued.

Short causes explosion
A shorted-out underground wire led to an explosion on River Street early Sunday that blew manhole covers almost 20 feet in the air and broke about 30 upper-floor windows.

The explosion occurred at about 4 am, when the streets were vacant. Fire officials said someone saw smoke rising up from the surface and phoned 911.

The fire appears to have been caused by a 4,160-volt wire that shorted out in two places, one on River Street near Fulton Street and another on River between Second and Third streets.

When the wiring’s vinyl casing burned a combustible gas was created underground; the fire ignited the gas, causing the explosion.

Troy firefighters got the first call about smoke coming from manholes on River Street around 3:45 am. Shortly afterward, the explosion occurred. At least two manhole covers were blown into the air, a 20-foot plume of fire shot from the street and the blast shattered upper-floor windows, according to Troy Fire Chief Tom Garrett.

Because electrical fires cannot be extinguished with water, firefighters could only wait until the fire burned itself out. They also checked buildings to make sure the fire didn’t spread through the electrical wiring. A small gas leak was found after the explosion on River Street, but it’s unknown whether that leak contributed to the blast.

City and National Grid officials will study the condition of the city’s aging underground utilities following a series of gas leaks, fires, and explosions.

Power was restored to River Street by the end of Monday. Meanwhile, several downtown streets in the vicinity of where the blasts occurred were reopened to traffic shortly before Monday evening.

Graduate ranks rise
RPI’s graduate programs in engineering and the fine arts rank among the best in the nation, according to the 2009 U.S. News & World Report guide to “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” which was released on April 1.

The Graduate School of Engineering is ranked 32nd in the nation, up from 36th the previous year. Three engineering programs are ranked among the top 20, and nine of Rensselaer’s 11 engineering programs are ranked among the top 30 in the country. Two programs saw their rankings improve from the previous year.

Rensselaer’s Master of Fine Arts in multimedia/visual communications program was ranked sixth in the nation, up from eighth, where it has stood for the past several years.

These new programs will receive support from new facilities particularly as construction on the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center nears completion.