To the Editor:
As my graduation looms gloriously on the horizon, two very infuriating problems at our revered institution have become egregious thorns in my side. I would like to tackle these problems separately.
Firstly, the elderly women who work at the cafe in the DCC have to be among the slowest I have ever met. I never understood how it takes someone 10 minutes per customer to hand over an empty cup and make change. I am not going to elaborate on this issue, as they have pleasant demeanors, and I would like to continue to drink coffee in the DCC. However, it’d be nice if I didn’t have to listen to a recap of their grandsons’ soccer games at 8:30 in the morning while wondering if I will receive my coffee before dinner. They bring a smile to my face every morning nonetheless, with their happy demeanor and colorful personalities. They obviously care a lot about the students and truly make a difference during a tough morning.
Secondly, as I sit here in the Union Pub writing this letter, I have come to realize something: not enough people drink beer at RPI. That is actually not what I wanted to say, but it fit, and I can find at least one cause to this terrible symptom: We no longer have the Poor Man’s Tour at the Clubhouse Pub in the Union. This revolutionary tour was the brainchild of last year’s staff, and was a spin-off of the Pub’s typical beer tour. Both tours offer ten different beers over the course of the semester for a discounted price, with the prize of a shirt at the semester’s end.
This tour was an undertaking that our alumni would be proud of. I miss the good old days of last semester, when I could walk into happy hour at our Institute’s stomping ground, throw down a five dollar bill and receive five cans of either Shlitz, PBR, or the glorious Milwaukee’s Best, and then proceed to gorge on free tacos and poppers. At the end of the semester, I was then awarded with a specially printed wife beater. The tour was not about inebriation, but about allowing Rensselaer students, monetarily persecuted by our degree-granting regime, a valuable outlet from the day-to-day toil and labor. In my final plea, please bring back the Poor Man’s Tour for my final semester.
John Levene
CIVL ’07
