Rensselaer’s administration plans to transfer the Dean of Students Office and the Office of the First-Year Experience from the Troy Building to Academy Hall. The Office of Institute Advancement, currently located in Academy Hall, will occupy their space on the Troy Building’s fourth floor.
The reason for the move is that the administration desires to have the Office of Institute Advancement near the Office of the President during the current capital campaign to pay for the construction of the Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Facility and the Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center
"In the long term, it’s an advantage for the Office of Institute Advancement to be located there," said Mark Smith, dean of students.
For the office moves to be completed, renovations would first have to be made to Academy Hall. Primarily, the building must be made compliant with city codes and accessible to the disabled.
After the proposed changes have been implemented, the RPI region near 15th Street will become a "student corridor," with the Gallager Health Center, Visitor’s Information Center, Mueller Center, and Rensselaer Union, already situated there.
Eddie Knowles, vice president for student life, noted that RPI’s administration is "beginning to rethink how we view the whole campus in terms of corridors." Knowles, who recently took a tour of Academy Hall as part of the current analysis to decide how to renovate the building, believes the move of the Dean of Students Office will only be temporary.
