I’ve been a staff member of The Polytechnic since I came to RPI my freshman year. I’m finally a senior, and after all this time it’s inevitable that people know me as a member of The Poly staff.
As such, while hanging out, at a party, or walking around campus, people feel like they can come up to me and complain about articles written in The Poly. The piece in question usually doesn’t present the complainer’s group or cause in a favorable light.
Faced with this situation, I must be honest; at that point in time, I don’t care about what they’re saying. There are always good and bad ways to deal with problems; coming up to me, or any other editor, to gripe during the precious time that we aren’t working on something related to The Poly is irritating.
What’s an appropriate way to complain about things written in The Poly, you ask? My response to complainers is always the same: Write a letter to the editor. If a person is going to take up my personal time with their complaints about something I spend the majority of my Monday and Tuesday nights working on, I’d expect that they feel strongly on the issue. Still, in my past three years of providing this suggestion, not a single person has taken me up on the offer and submitted a letter.
All members of the RPI community are invited to be a part of The Poly. Obviously not everyone has the time or desire to contribute as a staff member. However, The Poly’s editorial pages serve as a forum of public opinion. If you don’t like something we write, or you have something to say about what’s happening on campus, in the community, or in the world, these pages are your place to voice those views.
Over the past couple of years, the number of letters The Poly receives has decreased. That’s unfortunate because more and more people on this campus are complaining that no one is listening. The decision-makers of the Institute may not be forming focus groups to gauge student opinion, but they are reading The Poly.
As I mentioned before, there are good and bad ways to deal with problems. If you’ve got a complaint, telling all your friends about it won’t do any good. Talking to a professor or administrator might. The same thing goes for The Poly. If I’m having fun, don’t talk to me about The Poly—write a letter instead.
