At its meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Student Senate entertained a presentation from President Shirley Ann Jackson regarding recent happenings at the Institute. She brought with her a selection of members from her cabinet to help answer questions, including Vice President and Chief Information Officer John Kolb ’79, Secretary of the Institute and General Counsel Charles Carletta, Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations William Walker, Vice President for Enrollment Jim Nondorf, Vice President for Student Life Eddie Knowles, and Vice President for Administration Claude Rounds.
Jackson opened the meeting by expressing her continued interest in improving student life at RPI. She cited some of the great strides that RPI has made in student life, such as being named one of the “New Ivies” by Kaplan, being named 42nd among top national universities in U.S. News and World Report, and the Excellence Gold Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administration, awarded to the FYE programs.
According to Jackson, applications coming into RPI from high school students have increased to over 10,000, a jump of about 50 percent since last year and 81 percent in the past two years.
Jackson also talked about the undergraduate plan expanding academic initiatives at RPI, such as the study abroad program. The program has a wide variety of possibilities including co-ops, internships, research, and summer semesters abroad. Jackson discussed some of the new majors and graduate programs that have developed over the past years such as the bachelor’s degree in Design Innovation and Society, and the new Ph.D. in Electronic Arts which has just been granted approval from New York State. The Institute is also benefiting from the historic PACE gift announced last September, which is “providing us with the latest computer-assisted design and prototyping software used in industry and leading centers for research and development like NASA,” according to Jackson.
The physical transformation of campus was also discussed during Jackson’s presentation. The design phase for the East Campus Athletic Village is expected to be completed in April, and the ground breaking is planned for this summer. The East Campus Athletic Village will include a football stadium, basketball court, natatorium, and a field house for indoor track and field or other field sports. The Houston Field House will also be expanded to include more offices. Additionally, there will be an upgrade and expansion to the Russell Sage Dining Hall so that it will increase occupancy from 130 to 260; it is expected to be completed in roughly two years’ time. A renovation of about half of the engineering and science labs on campus is also planned for this summer, as well as a renovation of Father’s.
EMPAC is expected to be completed in May 2008, with a celebration for students sometime in the following September. The Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations is also intended to be operational toward the end of next month at a facility in the Rensselaer Technology Park. It is a one hundred million dollar partnership among IBM, RPI and New York State, which, according to Jackson, “is creating one of the world’s most powerful university-based supercomputing centers.”
Jackson also mentioned that the Board of Trustees had approved the 2007-2008 undergraduate and graduate tuition costs. The new tuition cost will be $34,900 at a 7.1 percent increase from last year, room and board came in at a roughly 5 percent raise, and the overall rise in cost of attendance will be about 6.5 percent. “In the end, our goal is to provide a world- class education,” said Jackson during the meeting, “as a leading technological research university, with an even broader range of programs and enhanced facilities, while remaining accessible and affordable for our students.”
After President Jackson’s presentation, senators were able to ask a variety of questions that ranged from tuition to the international experience. There was also a discussion regarding the restrictions put on greek life last year, and how the greek system has transformed over the past year. “The ideal thing would be for the initiation of ideas to come from the students themselves,” Jackson said at the meeting. “A number of houses for reasons that I have never completely understood have gotten themselves in trouble, but the question is what is the meaning of greek life in universities? What are the important core values that can and should permeate the whole system?”
The meeting concluded with Jackson urging the Senate to continue starting various initiatives within the student body. “The reason I am here is because I care about the students. I want to support you, and this is where I want to be,” said Jackson.
