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94 Comments
- fuzzyjedi, on 10/10/2007, -1/+28The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.
- swrostmore, on 10/10/2007, -3/+21What's this? One of most boring and expensive schools on the east coast is having "unrest?" Oh wait, it has nothing to do with the undergrads, that's a huge surprise. I'm pretty sure the faculty had a no-confidence vote in Shirley Anne while I was there (class of 2006) that failed by 1 vote. All Shirley cares about is driving around in her escalade with pimped-out RPI crest rims.
- wezman2, on 10/10/2007, -2/+15RPI is an engineering and technology college in Troy, NY. It's probably better than the school you went to.
- mikldt, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9What's going on here should be important to everyone. I hope I can give those who don't know the school a little background.
RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or, if you ask Dr. Jackson, just 'Rensselaer') is among the top schools for engineering in the US (also, "the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world"). RPI has made countless contributions, through its actions and its graduates, to the engineering and scientific communities. Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, came to RPI with the intent of fighting America's "quiet crisis" - that the country's students are not entering vital scientific and engineering fields, "causing a shortfall in our national scientific and technical capabilities." (from RPI website). In many regards, she has done great things for RPI and the engineering field - with outreach programs to secondary education and general improvements at RPI. The current administrations has also been able to generate lots of important funds for the school. Lately, however, many within RPI (this is my observation, so I won't cite it) are growing concerned that the school's core, science and engineering, are being pushed aside in favor of efforts to promote the school - a new, incredibly expensive arts center, as well as a new "athletic village" - which will duplicate many of RPI's existing athletic facilities, and add a new football stadium for our Division 3 Football team, which is currently unable to fill its modest bleachers.
The real issue, though, is what RPI's administration is willing to do to achieve its vision in the way it sees necessary. Certainly, this is outside the above issues with the administration, but equally disturbing. Reading the article should give you a sense of what's going on. Here is an administration that's willing to push aside the views of its own faculty to meet its ends as it sees fit.
Other than that, feel free to pass off RPI as unimportant because you don't like its name. But if you care at all about higher education, the future of this country, or where our society's values in general are headed, I can't see why you would.
I'd like to plug RPI as a great school - I'm a student and I love it here. I think this issue is really important, but I'm not too concerned that it will have a large impact on the quality of education over the next few years. - MannyHills, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8She no longer has the escalade, she is now on her SECOND Audi A8L
- izzybr, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9Dugg. From what I've seen most tenured faculty are too busy are either too busy writing grants for research, dealing with grads/undergrads, or don't give a damn about the politics of the university. Taking away voting power from clinical faculty would be a huge loss.
- daybreaker, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6As a grad student from 03-05, all I heard about while working with professors was how crappy the administration treats them. Shirley would rather drive around in her Escalade, and bring in money for new "cool-sounding" programs like the EMPAC, instead of focusing on bringing in better professors for the hi-tech fields. Heck, I was in Rhetoric & Communication, and I felt like the engineering programs and professors were getting shafted in favor of more liberal arts programs. Stick to what makes the school good Shirley! Yes, expansion is fine, but you need to stay true to the school's roots at the same time. So while the EMPAC is cool, building it at the expense of Biomed or something is ridiculous.
- jsully, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8***** RPI,
yours,
Class of 2005. - krispykremlin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Only other companies that have faculties... like colleges...
- jager719, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6one minute left....and clarkson still sux!!
- Wraithius, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Actually, statistically speaking there's a good chance that he's right. RPI's a pretty good school, especially for engineering and biotech. Certainly it's a better school than the average American student goes to. Considering just the subset of Digg, who knows? In your particular case, since you don't appear to have mastered the intricacies of the reply feature, I'll assume he's correct.
And it's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, since apparently typing "RPI" into Google is a bit of a stretch for a number of posters here as well. - DefaultGen, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Class of '11... and i'm just as surprised.
- spootmonkey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5That;s why you need to read the Poly.
- rpi22, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Alright! Times Union!
- daybreaker, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6I guess you shouldnt. But you still decided to waste your time and ours with a pointless comment. Thanks,
- treehugger87, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Hah! Yeah, I know how they've banbed together. They've all LEFT! In the past 4 years the vast majority of the Dean's have left. Professors offered the position of Dean leave rather than taking the position. Dr. Jackson is a dear, sweet woman in person but a bully and taskmaster to work for.
- thebankshow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Or call it "The 'Tute" for short.
*The following link has nothing to do with the article, but is really funny (more so for alumni like myself) and with all these negative comments I think it'll lighten the mood a little.....
http://endofthetute.com/ - Droth, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I'm at RPI now, all that I'm really concerned about is whether or not this will impact the education. So far I haven't noticed anything though
BTW, to swrostmore, Shirley traded her escalade in for an Audi - Mythras, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Why, Shirley Ann!? Why?
- Metman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Your internet penis thwarts us all...
- Adahn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Tute screwed!
RPI on digg...what is this world coming to?
class of '90 - VAPerson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4RPI's engineering program is in the top 20 in the US. There is no way it would be in the top 20 overall since it is mostly a technical school.
See: www.eng.rpi.edu/soe/profile_stats_ug_rankings.cfm - timothybroder, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Graduate of '06 this has been brewing
- SearchX, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Why don't they go into detail about what the administration is doing that is so demeaning and disrespectful? I wouldn't doubt it, but I'd like to know what it getting the faculty so riled up.
- Scigrex14, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Wow I go to RPI and had no idea that something like this was happening. I knew there were some rumblings against Dr. Jackson, but I did not know it was this severe. I will definitely watch this story as in unfolds.
- Metman, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - one of the better engineering/technology schools on the East Coast.
- rpi22, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4No, the faculty elected a representative that the president didn't like, so the president's administration failed to recognize the vote and then disbanded the entire senate. Now that's dumb!
- rpi22, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5I forgot to mention Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the search engines.
- strictlybogart, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3or don't give a damn about grads/undergrads in the classes they're required to teach. did you even go to school there?
- Metman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Why because some asshat like you got suckered into reading it?
- Metman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Failed to recognize it because the voting policy had changed and they went ahead using it to elect the representative? That is how I read it. I do not have an opinion either way, but that is what I got from it. Of course, I am wrong 99.99% of the time so...
- dregan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Class of '01 and same here.
- docneuman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3BRAVO! well put sir.
- weizilla, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3actually, they're all too busy playing WoW and Halo 3.
- spykemail, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3As a recent graduate I'm appalled but not surprised. I won't pretend that President Jackson, the Administration, or the Board of Trustees are evil, I'm sure some if not most of their intentions are good, but the leadership is falling apart. I just spent 5 years at RPI (lol), and during that time I saw poor decision piled upon poor decision.
Why in Stephen Van Rensselaer's name would you try to blackmail the Greek community at the oldest technological school in the country into going dry? To add a line in a marketing booklet? To lower some statistic by 5%? Are these things worth restricting the freedom of your students so severely? Sadly, the freedom of students is of relatively little concern to *some* of these men and women. But even they should be able to see the negative consequences for the school's image. By fostering the already extremely negative and sarcastic attitude that many students (and faculty) have about their school they're insuring that what good times they have will be associated with their friends, their fraternity or sorority, their club, their team, the faculty, their Department - anyone or anything besides the school as a whole. When they fill out surveys, answer questions, or grow old and rich it will be those friends and organizations who they remember fondly - not RPI, because, as a good friend of mine once said, "RPI sucks." You have but two groups to thank for that - and they're the RPI administration and the Board of Trustees.
During a time of supposed prosperity for the school why the hell would you dissolve the Faculty Senate? If the faculty's votes are any indication they're not very happy with the administration, so how exactly is dissolving their representative body going to improve relations? Hmm? It's not like they're going to grab torches and pitchforks and start burning stuff down. I honestly cannot think of a worse way to deal with poor relations - I can only guess that the administration thinks they can somehow keep the faculty quiet now but that notion is nothing if not laughable. The only way to shut them up is to wait for all of the smart ones to retire - yeah, good luck with that.
I will always be proud of my school, but not its current leadership. I remember RPI, not Rensselaer, and all the amazing people I met there. I remember it for the brilliant men and women who still teach and work there, not the expensive new buildings or cutting edge research. I remember people like Bill Puka who teach students not what they need to know to get some meaningless piece of paper, but something they can actually use for the rest of their lives. I remember students like the current Grand Marshal, Julia Leusner, who are actually willing to listen to reason instead of simply waiting for their turn to talk. I remember Arthur Galpin, the inflatable whale who gets more votes for Grand Marshal each year than President Jackson would if she were a student. I even remember Alby the Albino squirrel, whose death saddened me more than being academically dismissed for a semester.
I just got my first real job and I have a lot of loans to pay off, but I've already made plans for the future. I'm going to retire old and rich, and when I do you can bet the EMPAC building RPI will not be in my will unless its leaders begin to live up to the amazing people who teach and study there. - Oakie1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4*****, and i was thinking about applying to RPI.
- whatwhat08, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2http://poly.rpi.edu/article_view.php3?view=5601&pa ...
Sounds kinda like whats been going on at Dartmouth the past couple years, the board is trying to control elections and kinda getting away with it. - Metman, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3sketchy? your being awfully nice. Around here it is known as Troy-let...
- bamnet, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2see: http://www.rpitv.org/productions/2007/09/18/Studen ... for the Provost's comments to the Student Senate [he starts ~ 44 mins into the meeting]
- RationalAntaxia, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Let's see if the Times Union can stand up to the Digg effect! haha Hooray for Upstate NY!!
- spootmonkey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Yeah RPI...weird to see it on digg. I read about this in the poly this last weeks but i didn't think of it as such a big deal. None of the students here care.
- zeroreality, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5yes
- mictlanian, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2'07, ditto
- ABadInAlbany, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Does that woman give you the impression she's anything but cold, empty and mean inside?
- RPIfireman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2You bet. It's the reward for being Meanest Man on Campus (sponsored by APO).
- RPIfireman, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3No reason not to apply. This will all be settled over once you arrive. I love it here. And if you want a good education, whether the faculty are revolting or not, you'll find it here.
- xxpor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2ya its just in the middle of nowhere. at least albany is a city.
- rpi22, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2I agree, i like RPI. There are some things that i would like to change, and that's what im trying to do.
- rpi22, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1LOL!!!
- rpi22, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The faculty elected their representatives. The Administration didn't like their choices so they threw the election out. This is the ($500) textbook definition of authoritarian dictatorship. How would you like if your vote was thrown out in the 2000 election? Oh, wait...
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