Waiting for a real “Transformation”

To the Office of Annual Giving,

Thank you for your letter asking for a donation. I find it ironic and darkly humorous that, in light of recent events on campus, the Institute would send me a letter in an envelope marked “Transformative.” Indeed, the transformation of RPI in recent years has been notable:

• Transformation from one of the only universities in the United State with a fully student-run union into “just another school,”
• Transformation from a school with a rich culture around student elections to a school where the administration tries to tamper with, cast doubt upon, or otherwise invalidate a student-run tradition,
• Transformation from a school with a history of public assembly to discuss important political, social, or campus-wide issues into one where students have to “apply to protest,” and where fences are erected to keep students from assembling on their own campus when the President needs to look good,
• Transformation from a financially viable Institute into one with a serious cash-flow problem.

For these reasons, I will stop contributing to RPI, and please expect the same from  thousands of my fellow alumni until Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson and her administration have left campus for good.

At that time I will be happy to donate to the transformation of RPI: from a once-great school rotting from within—as it was when I attended with broken desks in classrooms and disgruntled professors—into a world-class institution that works hard to retain the talent it cultivates.

Until then,

Nicholas Boni
B.S. Physics ‘16