News

The Union Executive Board confirmed Oleksiy Golub ’23 as the new Vice President for Club Relations. The position was previously held by Joe Mampillil ’22.

Classes will return in-person this Monday. There have been 96 cases of COVID-19 in the RPI community as of Friday, according to RPI’s testing dashboard, surpassing the initial Trigger Level 1 Spring 2022 requirement of more than 70 cases among those with campus access. Since then, RPI has increased the threshold to reach Trigger Level 1 to 250 cases.

Rensselaer’s Multi-Factor Authentication has recently expanded to require students to use the service to log into LMS and SIS. Additionally, The Polytechnic provides a how-to guide to use the DUO MFA tool.

“I know…parents are supporting a significant investment, but some parents have the ability to give more. And so we’re asking them, can you give a little bit more?” Vice President for Student Life Peter Konwerski said during his presentation on the Student Life Performance plan to the Student Senate in a November meeting. The presentation also included other Student Life plans for the upcoming year.

In their first meeting of 2022, the Union Executive Board unanimously approved a stopgap budget for RPI Men’s and Women’s Ultimate Frisbee, totaling $2,503. The club recently returned from a two-year suspension due to violating Rensselaer’s alcohol policy.

After pushing back campus move-in by a week, most residential students began moving in today. Here’s what you should expect.

On December 23, an email from President Shirley Ann Jackson detailed policy changes for the upcoming Spring semester. The Spring semester will begin online with in-person instruction starting January 24. All eligible students must receive a booster of the COVID-19 vaccine by January 7. All residential students must have a COVID test 48 hours before arriving on January 17 and heading into a residential hall quarantine.

A recent surge in COVID-19 cases following mandatory testing after Thanksgiving Break raised concern within the RPI community. The University Pandemic Protocols state that the Trigger Level 1 protocol should be initiated when more than 30 COVID-19 cases among faculty, staff, or students, within a rolling two-week period, are confirmed among those with campus access.

The Compost Committee gave a presentation that included a goal to install a new compost machine on campus.

The Rensselaer Union Executive Board requested additional subsidies to upgrade their Slack platform, but the motion was postponed indefinitely. The Undergraduate Council proposed a bylaw amendment to their budget policy, which failed 2-15-0.

Martin A. Schmidt ’81 has been named the 19th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Schmidt will assume his position as president from July 1, 2022, succeeding President Shirley Ann Jackson after her 23-year tenure at RPI. Schmidt currently serves as the provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Union Executive Board revoked the Union membership of a student for violating the Rensselaer Union’s COVID-19 policies. The student, who is currently on their away semester, had been attending various in-person student government meetings and events in violation of the Union’s policy restricting entrance to Union facilities to Rensselaer Community members with campus access.

The Student Senate held a presentation to improve late-night dining. A motion was passed to make immediate changes, including collecting student feedback, creating a list of meals for dining staff to make, and investigating changes into U-Cook and Father's Marketplace.

On Thursday, the Union Executive Board approved the Positive Psychology Club as a Union-recognized club, effective immediately. The Caribbean Student Association will become Union-recognized upon approval of a starter constitution by the Club Operations Committee.

The Union Executive Board unanimously approved RPI Chess Club as a Union-funded club. The approval happened over a year after the group initially gained Union recognition.

Riaz Rao was appointed to serve as Union Annual Report chairperson and Executive Board liaison, adding on to his current role as Senate parliamentarian.

This week, the Executive Board approved a reallocation of funds for the Rensselaer Music Association to purchase new instrument covers, approved Club Volleyball’s outdoor games, and elected Faizah Rabbye ’23 secretary of the Board for the Fall semester.

Appointments for the Hospitality and Services Committee, member-at-large, and representative positions were approved within the Student Senate and Executive Board on Tuesday.

The Union Executive Board unanimously approved the appointment of Minh Nguyen ’22 as Marketing and Strategy Committee Chair. The position focuses on branding, marketing, and promoting events for the Rensselaer Union.

New multi-factor authentication rules are set to go into effect for all Rensselaer employees beginning November 1. Anyone who has payroll and W2 information in the Self-Service Information System will be counted as an employee. This includes students employed by the Institute. The new protocols will apply to all Institute websites that use the Rensselaer Self Service login.

The Student Senate approved new Judicial Board appointments on October 19. The J-Board oversees “a huge variety” of cases, ranging from reckless driving to suspending fraternities. The members appointed at this meeting will eventually make the decisions for future cases.

On Thursday, the Union Executive Board passed RPI Red Army’s proposal for a new podcast, but motioned to postpone a budget reallocation that would cover the cost of a new microphone for the program.

RPI TV's proposal suggesting that certain RPI TV members be paid $15 an hour to cover home hockey games during the 2022-23 season was unanimously denied.