As I sat down this week to write my article I began thinking about campus. What are the pressing issues effecting independent students at RPI? Are there issues within the independent community of which I am unaware? The answer is yes, of course. I could not begin to understand the vast number of thoughts, concerns, or fears of seventy percent of the student body. Their views, while sharing but one quality—the choice not to go greek—vary greatly. This reason is why we began our current input campaign. The Independent Council is working to accomplish what Senate candidates have been promising to do for years, put comment ‘boxes’ for campus concerns in the Union. On the Independent Council bulletin board, there is an envelope waiting to be filled with your concerns.
Last semester, a student approached the IC with an issue, the lack of printers in upperclassman dorms. RPI promises all students easy access to on-campus printing. All freshman residence halls are equipped with printers, certain residence halls with entire computer labs. By comparison, the upperclassman facilities are not as developed. For two years I lived in a RAHP apartment and for those two years, I was dependent upon the printer in the Union for all of my printing. As an active member of the Student Union and Student Government, I spend a great deal of time there, but the average student may not. There are common facilities for laundry in the RAHP, what would it cost the Institute to put a single printer into that building for all RAHP residents? Nothing, when you compare what it will provide for the students. I know independent students living in North Hall, whose printing access is limited to the VCC or the Union. The most wired campus in the nation with promises of simple, on-campus printer access to all students should have in building printers for all students.
This is but one of the many concerns of independent students on-campus; it is a concern of all on-campus students. Your student leaders in the Independent Council are here to help. If you have a concern about campus, it is most assuredly affecting other independent students. Send us an e-mail at ic@union.rpi.edu or drop a note into our envelope in the Student Union. The IC is working to get another concern envelope placed in the Commons. The IC is here to provide assistance to independent students and can only do so if we know your concerns.
