Frustrated with always having to scrounge up cash for that weekend beer run? Tired of all of your money going to tuition payments? Well, even though Max Yates (my predecessor as GM) didn’t drink much, and he didn’t pay much tuition because of ROTC, he had a vision for the students of RPI to pay less to come here. It seems to me that the boneheads down in Washington and over in Albany just don’t understand what it costs to go to school anymore. This is just one among many issues that I don’t feel anything is being done about. But during Max’s tenure, there was a group founded called the Student Advocacy Corps to address these issues.
The Student Advocacy Corps is a student-led organization charged with representing RPI students to government at all levels. One of the primary jobs of SAC is to lobby on behalf of students to achieve ends that are beneficial to the student body, namely an increase in financial aid funding. SAC provides RPI students with the opportunity to interact with legislators to increase tuition assistance such as Pell Grants and Stafford Loans. Students involved in the organization have the opportunity to travel to the New York Capitol in nearby Albany, and even potentially to the U.S. Capitol to get our message out to make school more affordable.
Over my term, however, the SAC has become much less active. To remedy this, I’ve looked to Dan Horvath ’08 to begin a search committee for the group. The obvious objective of this committee is to find a core set of members to become involved in the council. If you are interested in becoming a member of the council, please contact myself (gm@rpi.edu) or Dan Horvath (horvad@rpi.edu).
On a side note, I’d like to welcome you all back to Troy for another exciting semester. Have a great semester!
Editor’s Note: Dan Horvath contributed to this Top Hat.
