Archives

President of the Union Anissa Choiniere ’21 reviews some changes made to club purchasing and fund reallocation procedures. She also provides information about the annual financial workshops required for all funded clubs and organizations.

The Union Executive Board unanimously passed a motion on September 16 allowing clubs to decide if they will collect dues this fall. If a club does not collect fall dues, the motion prevents the club from asking the E-Board during the Spring semester for any additional funding on programs in the club’s initial budget.

The Executive Board has passed a blanket approval on a list of virtual activities for clubs this fall. Activities included under the blanket approval are virtual events, including trivia nights, escape rooms, lectures, training, cooking events, crafting, and movie nights.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s COVID-19 testing dashboard has been recently updated to reflect a new positive test. This has been confirmed by a Rensselaer County Facebook post.

Editor in Chief John Stotz ’22 discusses the issues with the nonstop summer Arch semester and proposes a solution to provide students with periodic opportunities for recovery.

NSBE and SHPE will be hosting its first virtual career fair on September 25 and 26 from 11 am to 5 pm on the platform Brazen. According to the fair's co-director Galiea Overa, Brazen was chosen as it has extensive resources available to recruiters and students and its overall user experience.

Grand Marshal Advaith Narayan ’21 introduces first-years to local Troy restaurants, encouraging the newest members of the Rensselaer community to go out and explore the city. In his experience, exploration is the best way to find the best places to eat.

In the current, remote reality, are students receiving the same benefits of the activity fee? According to President of the Union Anissa Choiniere, the answer is no.

Grand Marshal Advaith Narayan ’21 discusses the importance of shared governance, a philosophy where various groups of people broadly communicate and all share in the decision-making process. He explains how Rensselaer administrators have failed to implement it at the institutional level and his full intention to uphold the practice through his role in student government.

President of the Union Anissa Choiniere ’21 encourages students to stay involved with the clubs and organizations of the Rensselaer Union. She also explains how you can find clubs to join or start one of your own.

This year, the changes made to Rensselaer’s Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities reflect challenges and conversations raised by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and RPI's Title IX policies were changed to follow federal guidelines set by United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

Over 4,200 members of the Rensselaer community were tested for COVID-19 prior to the return to campus this fall in an impressive feat of organization. While the process has gone remarkably smoothly, we hope that improvement in communication can make it even better.

Assistant Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Travis Apgar welcomes students back to campus and urges them to follow Rensselaer’s safety protocols, as non-compliant behavior will be addressed swiftly. He emphasizes that all members of the community must demonstrate responsibility and take the lives of others seriously.

Students everywhere endure the mediocrity of dining hall food, but Rensselaer’s choiceless quarantine meals are a whole new take on this quintessential college experience. There was no way to prepare first-year students for the abysmal food that was soon to arrive on their dorm-steps: soggy croutons, cold sauceless noodles, and more. First-year writer Avery Clark reviews Rensselaer’s quarantine food delivery service.

Grand Marshal Advaith Narayan discusses student government's new priorities and his commitment to addressing concerns about the Institute's pandemic response as well as recent diversity and inclusion efforts.

Cooking life hack channels with their slick editing and deceptive recipes have been profiting by misleading their audiences in a similar fashion as fake news organizations. From microwave caramel to political scandals, these forms of media are poisoning the well of information we base our opinions on.

Rensselaer is on the 2020 Pi Theta Kappa honor roll for transfer friendly colleges, but their communication with transfer students falls short. RPI must do more to live up to its honor roll status by treating transfer students with equal regard as the rest of the student body, even with the extenuating circumstances caused by COVID-19.

President of the Union Anissa Choiniere welcomes students back to Rensselaer. She provides updates on Union operations and the upcoming Activities Fair, which will be operating virtually this weekend.