Transcript: Mark Hampton Interview

The following is a transcript of our interview with CAO Mark Hampton. The transcript has been edited for clarity.

The Poly: As a position, a CAO is maybe unknown to a lot of people. Would you mind, in your own words, as the person in that position, describing what you do here at RPI, and what your specific position entails?

Hampton: Okay. All right. Well, first, I just want to thank you for your interest in talking to me and for the opportunity to get to know you better and through you for students to get to know me and my particular role better. I am the Chief Administrative Officer. I'll hit my six-month anniversary next week, so I'm sort of still figuring things out, but really loving being part of the RPI community. The Chief Administrative Officer is a new role that President Schmidt created to combine a lot of different portfolios that support teaching and learning on campus. There had been over time a sort of siloed approach to the work that different departments did. So these departments include DotCIO, so all of the IT organization, human resources, auxiliary services, so parking, dining, and transportation, and then all of the things related to our physical plant, including the campus planning and design, environmental and site services, as well as our environmental health and safety. These were all little silos that were all kind of operating and they have a very common theme to their work. It's really there to enable teaching and research to make sure that students and faculty have the best possible experience here on campus and because of that siloization that wasn't often happening. I think there's lots of examples of the right hand not knowing what the left hand's doing. And so my job really is to try to bring all of those functions together so that they're working together and actually coordinating efforts. You think about it, IT people are having to go into residence halls and office buildings. So are our environmental and site services people. So are our environmental health and safety people. So are our physical plant people. I mean, they're all doing the same sort of work. And so the more that we can sort of combine approaches leverage each other's perspectives and really sort of become a closer team. That's really what I'm seeking in my role.

So you're really just like working together with a lot of these distributed smaller groups that benefit from communication, but maybe in the past haven't had that connection?

That's correct.

Okay, then all in the end for the faculty and the students benefit.

Would you like to give a little bit of information on your background?. Where you've worked?

RPI is my seventh institution. I started out at the University of Utah where I got my PhD, but was also an administrator and a faculty member. Spent some time at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia, Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, New York Institute of Technology downstate, and Brooklyn Law School. And then interestingly enough, I took three and a half years off of higher education and went to Amazon Web Services, where I was essentially a, I don't want to say a consultant, but I was a bridge between technology and higher education and sort of communicating on both sides, you know, to the AWS folks how higher ed works and thinks and how they change and so on and so forth. And then to the higher ed folks how AWS technologies could help them modernize, use data better, reduce the reliance on on-premises systems, and be more resilient. That kind of thing. So it was a really fascinating three and a half years, I probably interfaced with 150 institutions in some way or another, several dozen of those very extensively. I really got a cross-section of American higher education.

In your near six-month tenure, is there anything tangible that you could point to that the student body would be able to say, “oh, that was his work?”

Well, this was teed up for me. I'd love to have been responsible for it, but it was something that really attracted me when I was considering this role, and that is the campus master planning process that we're doing. This is really a once-in-two-decades kind of opportunity, both for RPI and for the people at RPI, to shape the future of the campus. It's a huge effort that's involved hundreds and hundreds of people, literally over a thousand students in, envisioning what RPI can be over the next 20 years. And I think it has the potential of being the most transformative work that my team will do, you know, not only this year, but really for the coming years. It's really important because it doesn't just look at, you know, a residence hall or the Rensselaer Union or a particular classroom building. It's looking at the totality of that and really looking at not only how we can make it the best that it can be, but how we can make it the best that it can be for the future. And there's been a lot of work on this and I'm really excited.

Of course, you have that Campus Master Plan and President Schmidt's RPI Forward Plan. I think a lot of the current post-bicentennial culture around the RPI administration is that looking forward. And so that's something you're going to be involved with. In terms of actual plans for current buildings, kind of to zero in on the more physical side of what you do, can you tell us anything about any current plans? I know when we spoke previously, you mentioned that sometimes it's a very lengthened process and it's something that if you say something too early and it changes, that can lead to disappointment. I think we saw a lot of that with the Ricketts building, how there was information going around that stated that it would be transformed into a computer science center. And in the months/years that have not happened, that has led to a little frustration. I understand that that's a natural part of the job. And so, you know, what do those next steps look like in terms of the physical campus?

Well, I think, and this is where master planning is different from regular building-by-building planning. It's really taking a more holistic view. So it's less about what disciplines go where and more about what kind of activities happen in what buildings and what kind of activities are encouraged by the design of our overall campus and then the design within buildings as we choose to renovate them or have the opportunity to renovate them. So whether Ricketts is a computer science building or something else, is not the focus of the Campus Master Plan. Now that's not to say that that doesn't become a decision at some point, but those decisions are made in the context of an overall Campus Master Plan. But what it does entail is what does Ricketts look like inside? Do you have spaces where you can study? Do you have spaces where you can meet with a group of students? How far do you have to walk to get food? How far do you have to walk to find a place to unwind? And those are the kinds of things that we really focus on. Not to say again that the disciplines, the specific research that's going on, the students, you know, the majors that they're taking, so on and so forth, don't figure into it, but you answer some of those basic questions. And then you start to say, okay, now with this sort of bigger vision and bigger philosophy and this sort of framework in mind, how do we then tackle the challenges of campus? Because for Ricketts or any other building to be enjoyable to study in or to serve food or eat food in or to have classes in. It's got to have really good heat and electricity and those kinds of things. And so then you kind of back up and how do we deal with the infrastructure to support that? And then how do we take space that we're not using well now and really redeploy it to its best and highest uses? So you probably know there are a number of buildings where there's really not much going on inside of them. There are a lot of spaces within buildings that are very busy where there's not a lot of going on. You know, we're going to take a deep look in the master planning process at that and say, what are the opportunities we're missing here? And how do we create those opportunities? Because we've heard over and over from students that we don't have enough space to study. We don't have enough space to meet for student clubs. We don't have enough space for performing. We don't have enough space to just have fun and unwind and kind of de-stress after a hard day. So that's really what the Campus Master Plan is looking at. And core to all that too is what's going on inside of labs and classrooms. We, like most universities and colleges, have a very traditional campus. More and more we're seeing learning happening in ways that it didn't 10, 15, 20 years ago. So why would we restore these buildings to a state that is in the past and not really what's in the future? So having deep discussions about those kinds of things, recognizing that we're all abuzz with generative AI and the fact that you can have individualized learning and all sorts of crazy things. But the reality is those technologies are going to evolve over time. Those technologies are going to evolve over time and the teaching and learning 10 years from now may look very different because there may be even cooler technologies that are allowing us to do things. So designing with flexibility in mind.

Right. I think one really great thing that you brought up that you yourself said, was the idea of that student voice. It's easy for certain voices to not be heard. I think college, it's very important for the students, the nearly 7-8,000 undergrads and graduates we have is important. I'm aware of a survey that was sent out to students recently.

Yeah, we have a consultant, Perkins and Will. They're basically architectural and planning services for higher education. In fact, the person who's leading it is actually an RPI alum who's leading our effort. We put the survey together with them. They actually were the ones who administered it. But yes, it went out to faculty, staff, and students, and we got just a tremendous response for our surveys. Getting a response, you know, around 20% is really cool. So I think we were edging close to that.

I think the core content of that survey really revolved around the kind of where people spend time. And I know in our previous conversations, and what you just stated now is about club space, study space. How do you see RPI's campus transforming in the future to accommodate for those kinds of things? Because we saw it just this summer, we had the first floor of the Union here renovated where we got a small theater, gaming section, and billiards room. So how do you see the future, in those holistic study spaces becoming more open club spaces, becoming more available? What kind of decisions do you see being made there?

I think again we've got a lot of extra space that we're not using really well. I think the work that Perkins and Will did indicated that we're probably using five out of every six square feet of space at this point, which means there's a pretty significant surplus around 16 to 17%. At the very least, we need to look at reuse of that space, because if we've got shortages in an area that directly impacts the student experience, I think we have an obligation to find a way to use this excess resource to meet that need. So I think what we're going to see more of is more flexible use of space. You named some really great improvements to the Rensselaer Union, which I was really delighted about. It was like my first week and I got to see them finish it up. And it's the kind of thing that you see a little makes a huge difference. But I will be honest, you know, it's a pretty flexible space. I mean, yes, you have billiards and you have a gaming space and all that. But over time, if the needs change or student interests change, that space can be used very flexibly. The performance space, for example, can be used for student clubs and other things. Whether or not it is, I'm not commenting. But in the future, it really does allow for different uses, even if they're just one-time uses. I love that and I want to see more of that because I am just so struck by how innovative and dynamic RPI students are. And it's great to think you have a great idea for a club or for an activity, whatever that is, to be able to have space where you can quickly mobilize and deploy. Maybe six months later, you're doing something different with that space, but you've been able to do that as opposed to having to empty it out or pull things off the wall or add things to the wall. This is kind of the sort of RPI culture that gives you a nice white box and a set of Legos and you'll build really cool things. And that's kind of the metaphor that I want to see with space. And the second thing that I think comes through resoundingly from students, from faculty, staff, certainly my experience, is we need to have a campus that is much more amenable to just gathering and running into people. This is my seventh institution of higher education. There's a lot of activity between classes, but a lot of the time there's '86 Field or up here by the Rensselaer Union. There just aren't a lot of people outside. And it's not because it's not nice weather. It's because there aren't any places to gather. And so to create those natural gathering spaces, to create a sense of flow through the entire campus so it doesn't feel as janky as it does now, where you're kind of different up here by the Union and then you've got the raised walkway and bridge, and then you've got the lower part of '86 Field. Where everything, to really create more of a flow, and in that flow to create spaces that allow you to kind of gather. If you've ever been to the High Line in Manhattan, you have a real sense of how possible that is. That it's not only can get you through places, but the journey itself is an experience. And we need more of that here because it's in those, you know, chance meetings that a student club gets formed or an idea for a startup gets talked about. And we want to create more opportunities for those kinds of chance interactions to happen. And then to be followed by just a really nice place to sit and continue the discussion without having to go downtown to a coffee shop or something like that. That's what great institutions, universities and institutes do is they allow for that kind of interaction. And we really need to design that very intentionally into our campus.

That sounds great. In terms of that development of places of interaction, or maybe even what some may call a third space…

That's the term that we use, yes.

In our previous conversations, you've spoken about the RPI Tech Park, which I think is something that not a lot of people are aware of. And so could you speak a little bit on its current implementation and some of the ideas you've had for how to integrate it further into the daily or weekly RPI student life?

Yes. So I want to start just by sort of talking about the founding principles of the Tech Park because these came from President George Lowe and I think kind of frame the opportunity there. He really saw that as a source of revenue for RPI, and I'm here to tell you we can use all the revenue that we can get because that allows us to do a lot of these things that we're talking about. But I think more importantly than that, he saw it as a place where RPI innovation can drive regional economic growth, where we can take the ideas that are occurring in the classroom and in the lab and actually apply them in a way that has an impact, that creates jobs, that creates new technology, that improves life. And then finally, he wanted it to be a place where RPI students and faculty could interface with industry, where there was a real exchange, not just of, you know, you're going to license my technology and you're going to commercialize this, or I'm going to do research for you and then file my report, but real, true interaction. So things like internships and opportunities to share best practices. And, the Tech Park has over time done those things, but at the moment, and largely as a result of the pandemic, we really are where it's kind of a glorified office park. So, you know, our vision, and I say ours, I think it comes from President Schmidt really, is to just revitalize that original vision. And create real reasons for students to go to the Technology Park because it's a lovely space and we intend for there to be a lot of really cool things going on there. So I've been working with a lot of economic development leaders from the state and region, to talk about how we can do that, how we can get investments to build out the infrastructure, looking at different potential tenants that can go in there that fit that profile of somebody who's really going to help drive economic development, really leveraging three core strengths and not to be exclusive, but focus is good: We're very good in biotechnology, we're very good in semiconductor R&D and fabrication, and we're very good in advanced computing, including quantum computing. Having those sort of our three tent posts that attract industry, that create that value proposition that if you come here, you not only have access to some really beautiful and well-situated land, you also have access to incredible expertise and an even more incredible pipeline of student talent that can come and actually build out whatever it is that you're doing. So that's really the vision there. And I think it's a kind of thing that can take all sorts of different turns and twists depending on which tenants we ultimately get. But I think at some point it is a place that students want to go. And maybe we have a compelling reason to have regular shuttle service there, because on Friday afternoons, we have leaders of industry and leaders among the faculty. I'm speculating here, but just to create that kind of information sharing environment where it's not just a place to go clock your internship hours. It's really a destination to go and learn and be enriched.

Right. Definitely. I think one kind of idea you were striking at there that I want to speak on is this idea of visibility. So, of course, the Tech Park has, since COVID with a lot of those more distributed things, communication, visibility, and total engagement kind of decreased. What sort of plans and ideas would you have for the future of RPI to increase visibility of these spaces? I think the shuttle service, as you mentioned, would be a great idea, but in terms of the Tech Park, if you're familiar with the Mercer Lab in JEC, with our clean room in Low, and many of the distributed labs across campus, that if you don't know which staircase to take or which elevator to go on, you may not know they exist. Any idea that you know these resources and these physical spaces exist but maybe if you don't go looking for it you may not find it.

It's a huge problem and this is one of the themes especially from the student voices in the master planning process. I think there was a quote from a student that said “you know marketing materials say you are welcome here but the campus says you're not.” I'm paraphrasing but the point is very much consistent with what I just said, that we've done a really bad job of making spaces inviting. And you'll see cool things going on and not realize, wow, I can actually go in there. I can find out how to get involved. Some of that is just purely mechanical. I mean, we just have to have better way-finding. Some of that is, I think, building a culture that communicates that openness to participate. And I think, for example, Mercer XLabs has been very good at doing that because it's a place where people who are attracted to that are welcome and immediately have an opportunity to get involved. We need to find a tactical way-finding solution that dovetails with a cultural welcoming solution. And that's just going to take some time. But I will say, I think this is a situation where the space has sort of driven behavior because we have such closed off spaces because we have such poor signage and poor storytelling in our buildings. It makes it hard for people to know what's going on because we have so many labs that are behind closed doors and no one knows what's going on. We're not encouraged to ask questions and therefore we're not encouraged to tell on the other side of the transaction. We're not encouraged to tell our stories. And I think we need to make a conscious effort to fix that. Some of that's through design and some of that's just through more openness and better communications internally. And externally, there's no reason that story should be limited to the RPI community.

To maybe switch gears a little bit, one story that we at the Poly have been following for a while and that maybe you could provide insight on is the RPI Playhouse. For a short brief, about three years ago, the building flooded. And since then, the RPI Players have been forced to use theaters in town. Luckily they have the space just opening up in the Union though that is comparably small compared to what the Playhouse was and as time goes on it seems like this becomes more and more of a renovation that will never happen . I believe we just hit the three-year anniversary, which means the clock is ticking. We're less than a year away from all members of the undergraduate Players having never set foot in the Playhouse. And as a club that is very vital to the RPI experience and the RPI culture, even showing up in many Union logos and Union advertising materials, what sort of conversations have been had at the administrative level in terms of the use of that space, whether that becomes a renovation, a teardown, a reallocation to another building or purpose?

Yeah, again, part of the master planning process. There's been no decisions. There's been lots of things discussed. And I will say that we have heard loud and clear that that space somewhere on campus is needed. And the same goes for the orchestra. We need dedicated space for those kinds of activities. Part of the master planning process is to find spaces for that. They haven't been identified and, again, there hasn't been a specific decision made about the Playhouse. My understanding is the cost of renovation is prohibitively high and therefore that's why it hasn't been done. And as a building like that gets older and older you know in a basically disuse. It just becomes even harder. So let's just say the problem isn't getting smaller. I will say, and this is just purely speculative, but just to give you a sense, it also is part of the problem with the campus flow because it's sort of sticking out when you come over the bridge. It creates, basically challenges, bottlenecks for congregating outside of Sage. And not to say that it isn't a fine building and all, but there are certainly reasons to think about how the campus would feel if it weren't there and those activities were somewhere else. And the question is, where is that somewhere else and how do we set that up? And as I've said, we have a lot of opportunities because we have a lot of unused spaces. This is where we really want to hear from students, you know, what does that space need to look like? How can it be, I mean, that was a playhouse, so it was, you know, It was basically built for the activity that was in it. We don't obviously have something like that. So what could we convert that would meet those same needs? Does it have to have a stage? Does it have to have a proscenium? Does it have to have an audience or house, those kinds of things. Because obviously the more specific we get, the more it's locked into performances of plays and rehearsing for plays. But this is where we need the student voice. And this is why we've so actively engaged student voices. But I would say of the five key findings of the student voice in the campus master planning process, the need for performance spaces, particularly around the orchestra and around The Players, has been one of the easily top five findings. And I also think, just that there be more informal practice and you know just having pianos more you know I know there are some around on campus but having more of those because that really is something that RPI students love and we want to support.

I do know that the few pianos I believe one in the Union and one in Barton Hall can get their uses, and seeing that more definitely could bring benefit. In terms of unused spaces, I think one frustration coming from people in the sphere of The Players and of the orchestra has to do with EMPAC. Of course, the exact ownership and booking of EMPAC is a more complicated process than other places on campus, but considering we have an extremely large performing arts center and we currently have a club struggling to get a venue for their performing arts, I see a lot of frustration and friction coming from that end on why those two problems can't be solved at once. Where do you see EMPAC as a core part of the campus in the future, whereas many have seen it maybe off to the side?

Yeah. It's a challenging question. I mean, we have new leadership at EMPAC, and she's very much trying to answer that question. I think she realizes not only the frustration, but also just the missed opportunity and engaging students on that. I think we need to make sure that we find space that is dedicated space for students. And part of the challenge with that is it wasn't designed to be that kind of space. I mean, you have a very, very large, very gorgeous performance space that is way more than our orchestra or The Players need. Then to add on to that, that has regular programming that would displace students. And I think that's part of the challenge. But I do think that there are opportunities there for students to be more built into that regular programming. And I think Dina [Beard], the executive director of EMPAC, is very much open to working with students to make that possible. But my goal is for there to be a dedicated space that students basically have control over so that they can engage in those activities without having to worry about external schedules. But no, I know that I oversee dining services. I know one thing that we're pushing very, very hard is to get the cafe that's in EMPAC up and running again because that part of campus is kind of a food desert. And if you think about all of the people studying in the library as well as the foot traffic to the VCC for IT support, it would be very nice to have the ability to have a meal down there. And so that's one area where I think we can definitely make some improvements on helping sort of address food and informal study space needs.

It's very interesting that you mentioned dining. That's also another thing, people have very strong opinions about some of the dining services provided here, whether it be through a dining hall or through an establishment in the Union or one of those distributed services. What sort of plans for the future are there in terms of maybe changing the dining up, whether that be offering new locations, different hours, some more of those like satellite places, maybe changing up dining halls, anything like that currently in the works?

Well, I will say outside of the master planning process, just the day-to-day, He's been here now over a year, but we have new leadership in dining services. The director of auxiliaries joined us in November of 2024. And he has a lot of really good ideas for how to improve dining services. So we are working with Sodexo, our dining services provider, to find those improvements, both in terms of locations and in terms of who is actually operating in those retail locations like here in the Rensselaer Union and at Evelyn's to make sure that we have just a better overall product. It's an area that I care very deeply about because I will tell you that master plans take 20 years. Building a new residence hall takes three to five years. Fixing dining can be done in six months. We're not going to fix it in six months, but I think we're going to push to have a significantly better dining experience, soon because it's not only possible, it's necessary. So, I won't over promise on that, but it's an area, a real area of focus on my part because I know that it is something that students have, I mean, let's just put it this way. It was my second week, Hamburger Wednesday happened when they canceled Hamburger Wednesday. And I realized how important not only dining generally, but these kinds of special events are to students, and I get it, and it's something we can do something about, and Mohamed and I are committed to doing something about it.

I think one thing students have appreciated is those kinds of programs, whether it be the burgers on Wednesdays or a lot of the Commons programs they put on, it definitely improves the user experience. One space that has gone unused in the dining area is one of the vendor locations on the bottom floor near Rathskeller where several years ago there was Ben and Jerry's. It has since fallen to be empty and part of the problem with that is when it was originally made for Ben and Jerry's as an ice cream parlor, they did not have the connections for exhaust and for gas power and whatnot. And now it has kind of fallen into only a very specific niche of vendors that are able to be there. So since that niche has not been filled, it's gone unused. Are there any current plans to either look for one or renovate the space in any way such that it can fit somebody else to offer more options to those in the Union?

The direct answer is none that I'm aware of. The less direct answer is I know that Mohamed is reviewing all of our retail operations, and I wouldn't be surprised, but I can't commit to there being something going on there. The challenges that you mentioned in space are unfortunately challenges that we would have to fund, and this is a tough thing when we have to ask if this is the highest priority. But I will take your question to Mohamed because, you know, and I can probably follow up with you to see if he has any specific plans. I haven't heard any. I just know overall that he's looking at retail in the Rensselaer Union sort of comprehensively.

And maybe speaking more, whether in the Union or across campus, of some of those more auxiliary services that don't really fall under dining or education. We have a bank and the campus store. Part of President Schmidt's plans through emails, he has mentioned talks of a childcare center for faculty and general use. Is there any updates on those? Because I believe certain deadlines were for late December of 2025. And since then, I don't believe we've had an update.

I can give you an update. So in the decision-making, there's “do we want to build this ourselves and run it?”, “do we want to build it ourselves and have somebody else run it?”, or “do we want to have somebody else build it and run it?”. And quite honestly, given all of the other things that we need to be thinking about on campus. The latter seems to be the one that serves us best. And so we have agreed to work with Bright Horizons to explore the possibility of a daycare center on campus. We would build it, but they would actually design it and sort of manage the construction because the daycares are notoriously difficult to get licensed because of all the state requirements. It's just better to have somebody who understands it really kind of have the design and make sure that things are built to spec. Bright Horizons would then run the facility for us and we're actually going to be touring campus, I think, next week to start scouting out locations to see what might be possible. So we are moving forward. I think probably more progress in the last three or four months than probably in the last three or four years. So I'm really excited about that.

Back towards, you mentioned dormitories. We've seen a kind of a negative trend towards the availability of dormitories. We had Colonie close several years ago. Just this last fall, Bryckwyck was no longer offered as an option. And then we've been informed, I believe one or two weeks ago, that our contract with City Station West will not be continued. With this, it can seem that the availability of housing through on-campus resources seems to be shrinking. What kind of approach are you guys taking to ensure that the people who want housing get it, whether that be through increasing the space already available, building new dorms, or increasing resources for off-campus housing?

Okay, so there are two distinct approaches that we're taking there. One, obviously the Campus Master Plan is looking at housing. Not surprisingly something that students feel very strongly about. And interestingly enough I think students are pretty generous in terms of understanding that older buildings are tough to manage, but just the spaces aren't terribly conducive to group work, informal meetings, unwinding, those kinds of things. And quite honestly, they're also, once you get off Freshman Hill, they're very far away, except for the ones on Sage Avenue. And so one of the things that the campus master planning process is looking at is could we bring some of those dorms, not physically the buildings, but actually the space that they now provide closer into campus and create more of a community feeling here. And I think there's a lot of possibility around that. Now, the question is how we would do that. Nowadays, most universities engage outside providers of housing to build and maintain student housing. And then the institute would still continue to provide the RA and LA support and make sure that the security and everything is integrated. So that's common and something that we'll explore. So that's number one, it's just sort of replacing over time housing and trying to make it more central so that we create more of a community here in the core campus. The second thing and something that I'm really excited about is, RPI actually owns a fair number of buildings off campus. And one thing that we've done is we've executed a ground lease with an organization called Foundation Assets. That's going to take a number of the buildings that RPI owns in the People's and 8th Street, People's Avenue corridor. So just above the Rensselaer sign on People's. A lot of the houses on that next corner are RPI-owned, some of which are actually unoccupied. And basically, Foundation Assets is going to renovate those and make them available for off-campus student housing, which, I mean, I'm in the service building, so I'm downhill, but other than the fact that they're downhill, they're actually pretty proximate. The walk to West Hall, for example, is less than a quarter of a mile and pretty much a straight shot across. And we're working with a number of other providers to see how we can get off-campus housing. Because a lot of students want off-campus housing. A lot of our off-campus housing is closer than our on-campus housing. While being off-campus, we can still make the sense of community in the area very strong. Certainly, the Student [Living] and Learning folks are very plugged in and can sort of make sure that students have amenities, support, so on and so forth. Foundation Access actually coordinates very strongly with our SLL folks so and they have programmed activities. They're really nice spaces. And so that's really how we're trying to address that. and see if there are ways that we can, I think some of the residence halls that you mentioned might be at the point where it'd be easier to tear them down and rebuild. But if we did that, the question is would we really rebuild up on the hill or could we rebuild them closer to campus? Obviously a much more new and modern and student friendly kind of format.

One important note with housing and I guess campus life as a whole has to do with the summer semester. Of course, as was announced earlier this year, starting with class of 2028 and onwards, the Arch summer semester is no longer required. And while still an option for students, sophomores and freshmen, it seems more and more every day like people are less and less likely to want to sign up for it. And we may very well be approaching a future where there is no summer semester or an extremely limited, whether it be online or otherwise, summer semester such that campus is not in full operation for those four to five months. How does your office plan on accounting for this loss of use? Because if we keep talking about unused spaces, if spaces are used to a decent capacity for two thirds of the year, but then unused, what does that say about our efficiency? So what kind of plans, whether it be for dormitories, for actual academic buildings. How do you plan on moving forward with these changes to the Arch?

Well, I can't speak to the academic side. You'd have to talk to the provost about that. I think, you know, my experience is that you don't need to have an Arch to have a robust summer program. I've worked at universities where students will come and take organic chemistry at an institution for the summer and transfer the credits back to their home institution. And I think we have a lot of opportunities to do those kinds of things. And again, I'll leave it to the provost as to whether those are going to go forward. But one thing that is very common is the summer conferences. It's a great way to get younger potential RPI students on campus and get to experience. It's great outreach for K-12. It can actually generate revenue, and it does create a reason to keep buildings in use throughout the year. So that's something that we'll probably explore once we see what the actual demand for summer courses is in the post-required Arch summer world. We're not in a post-Arch world, just the post-required Arch summer. And then another thing that I will say is this gives us a really good opportunity to do some of the maintenance and deep cleaning that these buildings need. I think it's a challenge when you don't have some downtime, and our Arch has sort of thwarted that. And so I personally see it as a positive, certainly in the short term, as we explore long-term options.

One sort of more recent issue that has come up with many people has to do with the cold. Of course, we had some rather cold weekends and we saw a lot of issues with buildings and heat regulation. And of course, being such an old campus, our systems can only catch up so much. Are there any current plans or future plans for any renovations to HVAC or other heating elements to withstand some of these colder temperatures and as well as these temperature swings, so some of these more sedentary systems may not be able to handle that compared to a more dynamic system. So are there any current plans to maybe amend some of these things.

Yeah, it's a great question. Obviously, it's a central question to the Campus Master Plan. Those sedentary systems, as you describe, are also incredibly wasteful because if people are having to open windows to keep buildings cool during warmer times, And they leave those windows on when it gets really cold and pipes break. I mean, this just isn't a good system. So they will be looked at. I will say, you know, it's a lot of work to update that because it's part of a larger campus heating, which typically involves steam. While I am a big fan of steam in terms of how amazing it is, how easily distributed it is, it's not terribly smart and it's really hard to design systems that use it smart without complete building overhaul. Yes, we constantly, you know, HVAC, in terms of our capital projects, typically pick off the worst and let's update. So there will be some short-term plans, but I think this is where we're sort of thinking of the big picture, long-term. Would it be easier to just not have those systems at all, design things that are much more sustainably oriented? That use heat pumps instead of steam heat and cooling, that sort of thing. That's, I think, where we're really focusing, the big picture. But yes, we will always continue to maintain as best we can this aging heating system that we have.

One campus maintenance/campus renovation project that I think many people have been impacted by is the JEC Bridge.

Everybody has been impacted by that.

Of course. And it's very curious because renovations began in the middle of the Arch semester and there are many current Class of 2029 freshmen who have yet to realize that you can walk from JEC to Folsom. Do you have any updates on that project because the current perspective that has been brought by administration is it'll happen next week and then next week comes and it keeps getting delayed.

Well, just a sort of explanation of how we got where we are. This is a classic case of a problem being noticed. And the initial assessment is that it's a pretty modest fix. Concrete had been chipping off and falling. I think everybody was aware of that. And quite honestly, the initial assessment was that it was a superficial problem. And as they went away to chip away the concrete that had basically started to fail, they realized that it went deeper and deeper and deeper until what probably should have been done is just to cut the walkway and replace it entirely. We didn't end up having to do that, but it probably would have been cheaper and certainly a lot faster. The intent was to have the walkway completed by the end of the winter break so that students would come back. But that is exactly when the cold weather came in. And so we've been thwarted by weather delays. You simply can't do that kind of concrete work in this weather. And so we're going to have to wait until things warm up and dry out a little bit, and then it'll be completed. Smart students and others will note that there is a twin of that on the other side. And in some ways, that one is going to be much harder. And so the team in campus planning and facilities design and physical plan are taking a much more aggressive approach, assuming the worst as opposed to that it's just a superficial problem, and try to get that one replaced during the summer break. In fact, starting the design work on it well in advance so that as soon as graduation is over, they can close that and get started on it. But the goal is to have that back up. I think the current JEC walkway closure, we should expect to see that sometime in the spring once things start to warm up and dry out a bit.

So you're saying the side of JEC that is, or can you repeat that, sorry?

Well, the walkway that goes to the DCC, that one is also going to have to be replaced.

That will be very controversial.

Yeah. Well, and that's why we're trying to get that done while students are away during the summer. Yeah, I think in some ways that one will be more impactful than the other.

Although we have since had the path to the Green building open up, which I think for traffic towards Sage Labs, which may be a larger proportion than towards Folsom and VCC, that is definitely helpful. Moving around campus, one important element being on, we keep talking about the hill, EMPAC Hill, Freshman Hill, is staircases. Last year we saw the staircases towards Freshman Hill built. Living in a more snowy climate, we see snow buildup, we see staircases closed. If we look towards the stairs that broach towards Pittsburgh and West, we see maybe some older, more dilapidated staircases. I guess in terms of those that I've mentioned, stairs in general as well as walkways, what kind of improvement plans do you see, whether implemented right now or in the near future?

Well, certainly that is another core element of the Campus Master Plan. One of the goals of the Campus Master Plan is to create something that as much as possible goes from ECAV all the way through campus, all the way downtown, including the Approach. And that it is accessible, that it is pleasant, that it doesn't cause you to sweat excessively during the summer, that there's shade, that there's seating. And so I think a big focus of it is that last bit before you get to the Approach. So basically once you've left '8[6] Field and start taking those stairs, they're gonna have to be replaced, redesigned for a number of reasons. So I think that's something that we're probably going to have to hold off on until the Campus Master Plan is done and we can figure out where in the priority that sits. But it is definitely, from a design perspective, a very high priority because it's seen as something, one of the factors that leads to a perception that the RPI campus is not terribly friendly. I mean, I'm a marathon runner and I hate those stairs.

RPI definitely presents itself, and a majority of us are very academic-faced people, but we, of course, have a major athletic program, we have a Division I hockey team as well as many great Division III teams. What parts of the RPI Forward and Campus Master Plan kind of pertain to those athletes, whether it be new facilities, increased transportation, and other sort of services that help out that unique kind of student?

Well, I think you're right. They're a core part of the RPI student experience. And obviously, the student experience and student outcomes generally are very central to RPI Forward. I think from the campus master planning perspective, which I can speak more directly to, it really is integrating that experience a little bit. I mean, unfortunately, we've got the geography issue that it's up on a hill and it's quite a ways away. But I think creating easier ways to get there that don't involve crossing. I mean, we're going to always have to cross a busy road. But how can we change the sort of pathway to get there so that it's easier for students to come and go to ECAV? There is a project that will be starting next month at the Houston Fieldhouse to redo the hockey arena. And I think that's going to be a significant upgrade. Obviously, it's our Division I sport, so I'm very excited about that. I'd say beyond that, I think it's just a sort of general, you know, how do we provide services to support all students, including student athletes? And then with respect to the Campus Master Plan, how do we design spaces that provide that level of support? So hearing their voices, what are their health and wellness needs? How are they able to access services to support student success? Do we need more of those up at ECAV where a lot of athletes are, more in the Mueller Center? One thing that's come out of the Campus Master Plan is kind of a design concept that I'm pretty excited by because I think it just makes sense. We're sort of sitting in the, if not the heart of campus, at least a very important center of campus with the Mueller Center next door and here with the Student Union and Freshman Hill is here. If we kind of thought of this as the wellness center, because you've obviously got physical fitness and is there a way of building a kind of place here that's actually a little bit closer and a place that people come to all the time. So really thinking about wellness in a conscious way when designing the overall plan for the campus. So that's just an example of a kind of concept that I think affects all students. But I think recognizing that student athletes are obviously a key subgroup of students, definitely making sure that they're well supported in that.

And to kind of finish off talking about these specific dorms and dining and athletics, is there any other category that you oversee that you believe deserves attention that you would want to talk about? You mentioned being in charge of some IT services, that of course is important. Anything of that category that you think?

Well, yes, I'm extremely excited to say that we've got a new chief information officer, CIO. She started last week. She comes to us from Oregon State University, and she's a real change agent, real modernizer, but a real team builder. And I'm just really excited for her to be here because she's our first new CIO in a very, very long time. She brings a really, really rich set of perspectives on how to address some of the technical debt challenges that we have, how to be more student focused and student serving, strong ideas around how to use AI and generative AI in particular to help us modernize systems. We're in the process of developing a student advising platform that has agentic AI capabilities to make it so that students don't have to repeat their story every time they go from one office to another. There's actually a central location repository for that and that the agentic AI takes a lot of the busy work out of just managing the student experience, setting up appointments, scheduling reminders, those kinds of things. So there's a lot going on in IT. I'd say, let's just say in about five and a half months, I think you should have our new CIO sit in this chair and do the same thing with her.

Definitely. I think we love hosting interviews. Obviously, the Poly, this is the first time we've interviewed you and we would definitely look forward to maybe next February interviewing you again and looking at how some of the things you talked about coming to fruition. I guess in a future where we do interview again, what can we look out for in the next year and what should we be seeing on campus that is from you from your office and that our readers can know is part of the bettering of this campus that you've brought forward?

So I'll put some, this will be fun because I'll make some challenges for myself. A year from now, I want our on-campus dining experience to be something that faculty and staff are excited about and use. I would like there to be at least, if not done at least in the works, plans for four or five spaces for students that are not currently available that are maybe not yet programmed out but that we're going to be really sort of sandboxing to figure out what their best uses are. I would like to see IT very much modernized and a lot of the student experience just interfacing with your academic records, setting up meetings and things like that to be much more seamless and really leverage new technologies. I'd actually like students or at least those that really care to dive deep to have a sense of what RPI could be in 20 years to really kind of feel how it's going to change and really be part of that change part of that's just holding us accountable to that plan that we develop because that plan is going to come out in October, the Campus Master Plan. And that's day one of a 20-year process. And I want by then we'll be four months in, which is in some ways just a tick of time, it's the first second of 60 seconds, if you will. And if we're not already moving there and at least communicating that vision out, I think we will have gotten a slow start and I don't want to see that. So I'll put those out as challenges and you can document them and a year from now you can see if I was able to deliver.

Thank you so much, we’re looking forward to seeing what you work on and speaking with you in the future. It was great talking to you.

You as well, thank you.