At the last Student Senate meeting held on Monday, even as the current Senate was getting ready for the transition that is going to take place with GM week elections, a lot was discussed. When Ruckus came to RPI, it offered students the ability to download an unlimited amount of songs for free and the only cost incurred was for the server, which this year was paid for by a grant, costing nothing to Rensselaer. It attracted the original limit of 3,000 students to sign up almost immediately, and Ruckus has maintained its membership on campus with 3,200 users currently signed up.
Ruckus, an alternative to illegally downloading music, has been exploding based on tests performed here and other schools have been looking at RPI’s reaction to the service for their campuses. The University of Delaware signed up a week ago and decided to follow the model of allowing a limited number of students to register with unlimited downloading. The University of Minnesota allowed 9,000 to sign up and the Unitervsity Deleware offered the service to 3,000 students. In addition to that, NYU students are currently lobbying their administration get Ruckus for their campus.
Ruckus is gaining popularity and making a lot of money with advertisement revenues without charging students. Since the advertisements have generated significant revenue, Ruckus will be offering its services for free to RPI, providing that 3,000 students are subscribed in the fall. Since the $10,000 originally allocated for the server and to support an RPI student intern is now being covered by Ruckus, the money can be put towards other union and club initatives. That decision, however, will be left up to the next student government once 3,000 users are subscribed in the fall.
Currently, 3,200 students are signed up as users at RPI. The service will continue over the summer, allowing students to download music from off-campus locations. In addition to that, current users will not need to sign up again in fall and Ruckus may be put on freshman laptops this fall. Grand Marshal Max Yates said that the Senate was going to try and get this policy as a part of the contract in years to come.
The only new users signing up in the fall will be the new freshmen. The Student Senate also discussed how to handle the situation if less than 3,000 users sign up and how to set up a contingency plan.
The Student Advocacy Corps traveled to Albany on March 22 and 23 as well, according to Senator Tim Sprock ’09. SAC met with six legislators while in Albany and was warmly received by them. The legislators were impressed by the council. He went so far as to say that he wanted to work with media and even have a press conference at RPI to publicize and discuss the issue of tuition and funding for technical institutions.
SAC members also met with the RPI Office of Government and Community Relations and discussed how to branch out advocacy efforts to the federal level next year. The effort was an overall success, and SAC built strong relationships from this trip. In addition to building those relationships, RPI has partnered with Union College in efforts to increase intercampus relations.
Under academic affairs, Graduate Senator Wally Morris presented and discussed the working text survey that will be handed out to get qualitative feedback from students’ classes in the fall. The point of the survey is to see how grades are being given in classes, to rate the quality of feedback, and to see what type of feedback is given. In addition to those, there are also questions on who did the grading and who students feel should be responsible for grading.
Additionally, progress has been made on the shuttle tracking system; Mapinfo software is most likely going to be used, as decided in the world communications meeting.
In addition to that, the footbridge is going to be torn down and redone in a few months. Student input is being sought for design ideas for the new bridge. Also being looked into is free or reduced parking for the week of finals.
Currently, the Relay for Life has raised over $50,000 and is heading toward its new goal of $90,000. RPI is the only school in the country to reach its goal five weeks ahead of time, and there will be representatives from the American Cancer Society visiting the campus to thank its greeks for all their donations. There will be a greek weekend, April 28, and also an Earth Day celebration in Prospect Park sponsored by the IFC and National Panhellenic Council.
Finally the Student Senate ended its meeting by reviewing the changes to the bylaws done by the Rules and Elections Committee. It was mostly a constitutionality review, according to Senator Daniel Horvath ’08, a member of RNE. Some changes implemented were the requirement of vice chairs for all committees, a steering committee, and the reimplementation of the liaison system. The addition of agencies was also a notable change. An agency is an organization that has a broader reach than the Student Senate committees and works on long-term initiatives and has the position for longer than a year. The director would be appointed by the Senate and re-approved each semester.
