TeamRPI will return to ECAC tournament

As of September 26, TeamRPI eSports is now a Union funded club and will attend this year's Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament. The RPI Pep Band will also—for the first time in years—attend an away men’s football game rather than an away men’s hockey game. Finally, a Pedi-Mate was purchased for RPI Ambulance to facilitate safer transport of pediatric patients. Each of these expenditures was approved by the Executive Board with no votes against.

TeamRPI was recognized by the Executive Board last year, though they have been a group since 2016. Members came in front of the Board to ask for a starter budget of $1,727 to come from the club contingencies fund. The club was able to boast an undefeated Overwatch tournament win, 148 members registered in the Club Management System, and 11 competitive teams to justify such an unusually large starter budget.

They also explained that $1,300 of the budget would go directly to the league fee of the same event they competed in—and won—last year. The remaining $400 would be put towards jerseys for their team, the reception fund, and other competition fees. Multiple Board members voiced support for the club, such as Vish Gopalakrishnan ’20, who said “eSports is growing in the world … I think that making this investment is awesome.” The motion to approve their budget passed unanimously.

Rensselaer’s Pep Band requested a reallocation of multiple lines in their budget to be able to attend an away men’s football game rather than an away men’s hockey game. To do this, the club and Executive Board needed to reallocate their previously approved funding to its new purpose. This was done by using the total of $4,050 budgeted for the hockey trip, along with $700 budgeted to the playoff tournament. The new expenses were slightly higher due to the forced late scheduling of the trip, and the money used to fill the difference was pulled from the playoffs budget due to the fact that this part of the budget has not been used since 2011. But, after the motion was read, Martha McElligott, business administrator for the Union, pointed out that the money budgeted for the playoffs is not actually given to the club until the hockey team qualifies for the tournament. To correct this, these reallocations were struck from the motion and a new motion was written. This motion allocated $700 to the pep band’s trip from club contingencies, so they could still fund to club’s trip. The pep band will now play at Hobart and William Smith college, and their trip will take place from October 11-12.

RPI Ambulance received $480 to buy a pediatric restraint system called the Pedi-Mate. Business Operations Committee Vice Chair Yaseen Mahmoud ’22 presented the plan to the E-Board, and the funding was approved unanimously. Though pediatric support is not provided often by RPI Ambulance, the Board decided that ensuring safety was important enough to fund, and the motion was approved unanimously.

The Rensselaer Union Executive Board holds open meetings every Thursday at 7 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.