Final Room Selection Process Announced!
Here's the skinny...
The email below was just sent from Dr. Eddie Ade Knowles, VP for Student Life, and Mr. Claude Rounds, Vice President for Administration, to Rensselaer students. This is a long-awaited email that outlines the housing selection process for the 2010-2011 year.
Here’s the skinny (in a format much easier to read than the long email…):
- New, flexible meal plans from Sodexo. The plan is located here. (Pricing details to come.)
- Sophomores can move into Greek houses that have signed the Greek Life Commons Agreement. They will have no meal plan obligation.
- SOPHOMORE HOUSING: Quad, Warren, Davison, Nugent, Sharp, the Bray, Cary, and Crockett Apartments, RAHP, and Stackwyck.
- Sophomore lottery: February 1 – February 8
- Blitman and Polytech are a “Special Commons” requiring a special application.
- UPPERCLASS HOUSING: Blitman, Polytech, Colonie, North, E-Complex. No meal plan required (except Blitman).
- Upperclass lottery: February 10 – February 24 Room selection: February 28.
- Housing Grant information to follow in Mid-January.
Those are the facts.
Our opinion: A Friday afternoon email after most students have left campus is exactly what we expected from this administration. This is the same time of year that the layoffs were announced, prompting us to start this very blog. This plan isn’t the worst — what can you really expect when you require sophomores to live on campus? RAHPs will have sophomores, which will mean a huge range of problems: furniture, meal plans, trying to build a community in the least community-oriented residence hall. The ROTC students who have scholarships toward their housing are going to be forced out of Stacwyck and will quickly fill Colonie and/or Polytech.
We don’t see the logic in making Blitman a junior/senior residence hall. It is perfectly designed for building a sophomore community. Freeing up Blitman (~294 beds) would mean that all of Stackwyck (~200 beds plus Alpha Phi) and almost half of RAHP (~190 beds plus FIJI and Delta Phi). This would make 294 happy students. There has been no clear explanation about why this is not being proposed.
That said, we’re at least glad it will all be over by February 28. That leaves a little time to get an apartment when you decide you don’t want to live in North Hall.
Full email text below:
To: Rensselaer Students
From: Eddie Ade Knowles, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Life
Claude D. Rounds, Vice President for Administration
Date: December 18, 2009
Re: CLASS Residential Life Commons, 2010-11, Room Selection Process
and Meal Plan OptionsWith the fall semester coming to a close, we hope your classes and final exams have gone well, and we wish you well as you start the winter break.
By now you are probably aware that with the arrival of the Class of 2013, we launched the CLASS Initiative – the new vision for student life based on the concept of Clustered Learning, Advocacy, and Support for Students. Through launching the CLASS Initiative, we will enhance the quality of support for all of our students throughout the undergraduate years.
Building on the success of Rensselaer’s award-winning First-Year Experience program, the CLASS Initiative paves the way for the Institute to further improve the overall student life experience. Each class will be supported by a team of Residence Life cluster deans, upperclass and graduate student staff, faculty residential commons deans, and a class dean. This will ensure that every student knows where to turn for help at all times, and receives the best individual counseling, mentoring, and personal attention that Rensselaer has to offer.
The room selection process for the 2010-11 academic year will begin immediately and continue through March 1. It is linked to the CLASS Initiative and the creation of clusters of residence halls, or “Commons”, supported by our team of faculty, student life professionals, and upperclass, and graduate students, all living near or in the Commons. This new room selection process is a major change from the process of prior years.
In addition to the room selection process, students will have the opportunity to take advantage of new flexible meal plan options offered by Sodexo. Meal plan options and associated policies are outlined in greater detail at http://rpihospitalityservices.com/documents/Meal_plan_sheet.pdf.
The provisions of the process are as follows:
1) With the launch of the Sophomore – Year Experience in the fall of 2010, all second-year undergraduate students will live on campus and participate in a meal plan. The only exceptions are those second-year undergraduate students who have been accepted as new members of a fraternity or sorority that has signed the Greek Life Commons Agreement before February 1, 2010. Students in this category will have the opportunity to move into the fraternity or sorority with no obligation to participate in a campus meal plan.
The following areas have been designated as sophomore housing: Burdett Avenue Residence Hall (BARH); the Quadrangle; Warren Hall; Davison Hall; Nugent Hall; Sharp Hall; the apartments in Bray, Cary, and Crockett Halls; the Rensselaer Apartment Housing Project (RAHP); and Stacwyck Apartments. The lottery for sophomore housing will begin February 1 and conclude February 8. Further details and policies can be found online at http://reslife.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=514.
2) Blitman Commons and the Polytechnic Commons are designated as Special Commons for juniors and seniors only and applications are invited. Applications are available immediately and will be due to the Residence Life Office no later than January 28. “Open Houses” in these Residential Commons will occur the first week of classes, showcasing their amenities and offerings. With a dining facility in Blitman Commons, residents will participate in a meal plan. Juniors and seniors are encouraged to give serious consideration to the opportunity to live at Blitman or Polytechnic Commons. Details regarding the process can be found online at http://reslife.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=515. The application for Blitman and Polytechnic is available at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/cct/apps/reslife/images/Special%20Commons%20Application%202010-2011.pdf.
3) The remaining residential spaces, including any spaces that may not be filled by the application process for Blitman and Polytechnic, will be available for upperclass students (third-year and beyond; and graduate students). These include Colonie Apartments, North Hall, and the E-Complex. Lottery sign-up will be held February 10 through 24, and room selection will take place February 28. Upper class students, with the exception of those students living in Blitman Commons, will not be required to participate in a meal plan, but may be interested in some of the new flexible meal plan options. Details are available online at http://reslife.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=516.
Information on room and meal plan rates, as well as financial aid and housing grants, will be available by mid-January. Students will not be expected to sign contracts before pricing information is made available.
While we know this new process is a significant change from past years, we believe that the CLASS Initiative will transform your lives here at Rensselaer. We look forward to experiencing, with you, everything CLASS has to offer.
For more information, please see the Residence Life Web site at http://reslife.rpi.edu, or contact the staff at (518) 276-6284 or res_life@rpi.edu. Enjoy your winter break and the holiday season!
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Alpha Phi, FIJI and Delta Phi are getting evicted from Stacwyck and RAHPs? Really? I hope that’s not right.
We believe there are exceptions for those Greek houses.
Maybe I’m biased because I’m a freshman, but this seems to be a really well thought out plan on the part of the administration. The new meal plan options are really nice (we get more for our money) and while the room selection will be less diverse for upperclassmen, most of you I hear chatting over at the DCC seem to want to be off campus anyway.
I feel like having every sophomore on campus will actually be a great addition to campus life. For example, one of the chief reasons why the University of Notre Dame has so much school spirit is that most if not all undergrads live on campus. People are actually AROUND during the weekends. It’s so frustrating to see campus so dead and empty as soon as Saturday rolls around. The school has been expanding and improving residence life steadily over the years and I’m sure this is just going to become the norm after a while. While it’s not perfect and while I do have my issues with the administration, I find that the student body fighting the administration on every little thing is counterproductive and weakens school spirit. Give it a chance! It’s Christmastime, after all.
I urge everyone to join the facebook group: Students Against RPI Housing Reform
We need to stand up for ourselves! I know it may be too late, but let’s at least voice our discontent.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=211004969795
Aidan,
Being a freshman you were made aware that you’d be living on campus your sophomore year. You came to this school knowing that. The current upper class-man were not aware of this during their college search.Would i personally have changed my college decisions based solely on this housing, probably not. When it’s added to the other decisions this administration has made, there’s a good chance i’d be somewhere else right now.
Theme housing has been destroyed, too. Don’t forget that.
Something’s wrong when a college is kicking upper classmen out of their apartments and then concurrently building a new house for the highest paid college president in the United States.
RPI housing and meal plans are severely overpriced, and finding a good apartment in Troy can be difficult.
Between this and various other “we’ll build it but you can’t touch it” projects at RPI, they can say goodbye to any of my money they try to get from alumni. I’d have to respectfully disagree with the current direction this school is heading.
@Aidan
What you don’t understand is that some housing especially in RHAPS have been passed down for years and sometimes decades between friends and organizations. Besides Alpha Phi, and FIJI being ousted, Sigma Delta, AOE and LUL also have houses in the RHAPS. I think that class is great but it makes much more sense to have sophomores living in blittman and the dorms behind commons (Warren, etc.. ) It makes no sense to have sophmores living in RHAPS or Stacywyck which are some of the farthest dorms actually on campus. Also the only greek houses which have exceptions are those who sign a contract with RPI thereby giving up rights to their own houses furthermore ,currently the contract is blank and greeks are being asked to sign it meaning that they can put whatever stipulation they want on greek life. The point isn’t that room selection is less diverse for upperclassmen but that as upperclassmen we should be getting the first pick as in other schools not the last pick. The point was that you earned the right to pick where you got to live. Please examine from all sides, I am not attacking the plan simply the way it is being executed, without careful consideration of all factors involved.
@homeless
I personally WOULD have changed my college decision if I knew I was going to get screwed in my senior year
@Aidan
They haven’t released the prices of these new meal plans yet, what if they are more expensive? Then we’re not getting more for our money, we’re getting more for more money, so I’m going to withhold my yay or nay on the meal plans until the prices come out
@homeless
Nope, I’m a freshman and didn’t know until I got here. Seriously, though, this plan is seriously lacking inasmuch as it doesn’t take into account the needs of individual students. As an Architecture student, if I get stuck in Stacwyck (which sounds likely given this new plan), I’ll put up a hammock in the Greene Building. And I don’t care about school spirit or whatever else; to be honest, I came for the Architecture program. So all of those new deans and things will just have to put up with my “if you want to help me, then stay the h*ll out of my way!”
We fight the administration because the student body is not consulted. This must change in order to prevent anything from getting out of hand. (And that won’t happen because RPI is systematically expelling the artsy people from its ranks, remember foreign languages and creative writing? I bet graphic design, music, and maybe even Architecture would be the next logical things for Shirley to can. And everyone else will be too busy playing World of Warcraft to take notice.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.†–CS Lewis
to Aidan,
This also won’t do anything to improve school spirit. Campus housing is full now and you don’t see people on weekends, why would a younger population make that any different? Right now this is just one more thing to complain about, as well as a way to separate students by class year, which will make the student body even less unified than it is now. Also the meal plans don’t give you more, which is the point. They are limiting the amount of swipes you get, which, in theory, should lower the price.
I’ll be living off campus next semester because it’s cheaper and more convenient than living in the upper class dorms. Also, anyone who loses in the lotto will have a tough time finding an apartment, since they’re mostly gone already. I would love to see how the administration would react if they can’t fill most of the upper class rooms, but there’s probably still too many people who want to stay on campus because of things like housing scholarships, which are rapidly becoming more hindrance than help.
this is the transformational phase, you just happen to be here at the moment when they are making this shift. so instead of having everyone complain it is better to work with the administration rather than fight against it, all the time ! Seems like upperclassmen are against change and need something to object against.btw, i am a junior !
Regarding the status of Blitman: The requirement that Blitman, North, and E Complex be upperclass-only housing comes straight from Shirley Ann Jackson. The arguments against it have been presented to her multiple times, but she doesn’t seem to care at all.
The meal plan improvements are completely independent of the CLASS initiative and all things related to it, so don’t lump them together. We can have the one without the other.
limited upperclass housing is extremely common outside our little RPI. A lot of schools require seniors to live off campus, and almost do the same for juniors. I don’t think fighting the plan is right. It’s just stupid. What we should be fighting is how the administration has approached it. It’s ridiculous that they haven’t told anyone their plans until now, since it greatly limits displaced people’s opportunities for different housing. That way we could have given them more input on their selections of housing. Approaching this situation the way most of you are will not make this any better, as the administration has no chance of listening to it. The ClASH initiative is happening whether or not you like it, so try giving constructive feedback that has a chance, however slight, of making a difference, instead of just complaining.
@Aidan
But this is in no way a little thing… This is a big thing that forces not only a lot of upperclassmen into something they do not want, but also forces all the sophomores who would like to live off campus to live on campus…
I don’t see this as building a community rather than dispersing what we already have… Having Senior/Junior/Sophomore halls is fine, it gives everyone a chance to know each other and help each other, There is no real reason for only sophomore dorms, at that point they already have had a year to get to know people and don’t need this “cluster” or “community” that this initiative will create…
Let the communities be created by friends and groups of people choosing to all live where they want in the same area, not by forcing same year students together…
@no one
Yes, limited upperclass housing is common outside of RPI. But with limited housing, it makes no sense to require sophomores to live on campus. It reduces the number of rooms available to upperclassman who want to live on campus, only to put sophomores who don’t want to be there in them.
As far as “constructive criticism”, congratulations – you, and people with your attitude, are the reason the administration feels they can make these decisions without consulting students, and without expecting consequence. Because people like you will shrug, say it’s “happening whether or not you like it”, and just bend over and take it.
Grow a pair, and make your opinion known. Make the administration see the dissatisfaction and upset their decision has caused, at the very least to prevent further reform that goes against what students want.
Don’t forget, the money for administrators’ paychecks comes from students. Current students’ tuition, and past students’ donations. This is our school.
- Legacy, Alumni & Current Student
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” – Winston Churchill
I like the meal plan overhaul, but that’s about the only positive thing to come out of CLASS!
We need a new VP of Student Life. Seriously, enough is enough. Year after year, there is a new issue on campus and the students don’t have any say!
@S.D.
I understand that this is a transformational phase, but there are much better ways to handle transformational phases. Notably, would it be that hard for them to plan this a little bit further ahead? I feel like there would be considerably less opposition if the administration was finalizing details with a 1 year lead time rather than a couple week lead time. It would give everybody impacted by these decisions enough time to plan ahead without negatively impacting the initiatives in question at all, short of having to wait a little bit longer to see results.
@Lawrence
Step ahead of you, dude. Write to the Times Union, it’s what I did and they published it.
Write as many letters as you can to as many people as possible.
One of the objectives of this entire ResLife restructuring is to build student affinity by constructing student groups and placing them in specific residence halls, almost in the model of the Greek system. The really depressing part of this whole mess is all of the established on-campus communities that are going to be destroyed in order to build the administration’s version of student communities. I suppose they have no idea what living in a “dorm” like the RAHPs is like; these places may not be gigantic theme houses but they are clusters of smaller groups with similar interests that formed naturally. Squatting created opportunities for students to gather with friends and still live in a diverse setting, amidst other classes and other groups. Isn’t what we had more ideal?
I’m going to miss the well worn dirt paths between apartments in the RAHPs.
@Ryan
As someone posted earlier the new meal plans mean little until prices are released. The lack of prices is kind of shady.
@Grad Student
If you want to accomplish anything with this or any administration, you have to act like a mature adult, and not whine. The only way you have any chance of them listening to you is if you take a step back and try to see the issue from both sides, and come up with viable suggestions for compromise. The administration wants to generate a new sense of community for the school as a whole, which they feel is lost after freshman year, due to people moving off campus and solitary upperclass housing. I think a greater sense of community among students would greatly benefit the school as a whole. That being said, they way they’ve set it up, and the way they’ve reported it to us has been terrible. The fact that they haven’t been able to put any of this “on paper” until now is absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately the administration has it in their head that they’re infinitely smarter than us and know better than us. They’re already set on the CLASS initiative. You really cannot change that. As much as you bitch and moan about it, no matter how many good point you make about it, you cannot change that. What you have a chance at is giving your input on how it proceeds. Maybe give that a try.
Good luck with your approach though. It seems to be working well so far.
Kicking me out of my Stackwyck Apartment just shows how much CLASS this administration really has…
If I recall correctly, last time we tried to act like adults and deal with the administration’s asinine ideas (Uprise @ 5), we were told we didn’t care enough because we hadn’t taken over Academy hall yet — and the Languages department is still buried today!
I’m not recommending that as a course of action, because frankly I doubt I would participate, but at the same time according to certain trustees, it’s the only way they’ll listen to us. It may be wise to comply and as a student body *become* a force to be reckoned with. Does anyone recall if the takeovers at NYU last year were successful? I know there were some takeovers at UC campuses last month over tuition hikes, but I don’t believe those went anywhere.
@JBonymo
The NYU takeovers were broken up by the police and ended in something like 20 arrests. Some things worth noting about that one, though, is that the people taking over NYU had very fractured demands ranging from student priority for reserving rooms to sending money to Gaza. In the course of the takeover they destroyed property including breaking open the door to a balcony so they had a place to smoke. Basically, they did everything wrong.
The first New School takeover ended in a treaty signed between the administration and the students that included many of the demands of the students, including amnesty for the occupiers. The students later (several months later) got frustrated with many of the demands not actually being implemented and occupied a building again, which was broken up by the police after 5 hours.
Occupations send a big message but they’re extremely dangerous for all involved. You’d really need to see a lot more activity in the real world (outside of the internet) on the part of RPI students before it could even be considered. There’s also a question of scale – such an extreme action should only be taken in response to the most egregious violations of trust and I can’t say that this is even the most egregious violation of trust on the part of the administration in the past 12 months.
I’m not sure an occupation would work here at RPI, especially with the current administration. They’d probably call some SWAT team in to carry us out in cuffs, and then cite some form we signed when we entered this school that allows them to do that.
I think the letter to the Times Union was effective, I’ve heard quite a bit about it. There’s some tension between the Times Union and RPI – the Times Union likes to post articles putting RPI and Shirley Ann Jackson in a bad light, and RPI likes to refuse admittance to their journalists. I’d consider writing one, but after seeing what the administration has been up to, they’d probably refuse me a diploma (or Shirley would stick one of her lawyers on me).
I’m not sure how effective last year’s protest was either. She acknowledged it during the town meeting, but the piss-poor RA compensation is unchanged. The only plan of action that would have any effect would be to make decisions that the administration can’t block, and that hit them where it hurts: their pockets. The Board of Trustees sucks up to Shirley, so you’re not going to convince them that her groupies are doing a bad job. The first thing the upperclassmen could do is to move offcampus. I’ve lived offcampus starting Sophomore year, and I’ve probably saved close to $15,000 in rent and food by doing so over the last three years, and that’t not counting the fact that I had a place available to me through vacations and the summer. Sure, there are some bad landlords (stay away from Campus Habitat/Troy Student Housing/RPI Rentals/Horizon Terrace or whatever they call themselves these days), but I’ve had relatively positive experiences for the most part, and it’s not like the quality of the housing could be much worse than North or E.
If you (Freshmen/Sophomores) have an equivalent school in mind, consider transferring there. If I knew what my Junior and Senior years had to offer (or take away), I would have never even applied here. I plan on attending grad school, but I didn’t even bother applying here. RPI likes to brag about its retention rate… you can have an effect on the statistics, and take your credits to somewhere where you’re appreciated and treated like a valued customer. And last, but not least, RPI can forget getting a single penny from me after I graduate. Instead, I think I’ll write a yearly letter telling them why I’m not sending any money.
Has anyone heard for sure what will happen to the theme housing in Nugent and Warren? (Ground Zero?).
The Rensselaer Plan has been putting the horse before the carriage for a decade. Yes, the Institute is growing rapidly, but our endowment is a fraction of what it needs to be to support this kind of construction, research, etc. The Biotech building is empty, EMPAC sits without a major event for months at a time, and the administration continues to funnel funding into projects that improve the schools appearance, while ignoring the student body’s needs (New house for President Jackson, lay-offs, multi-million dollar sports facility (which, as an athlete, I love, but still, this does nothing for 80% of the undergrads here), renovated walkways etc.). Decisions must be made, a new house for the president might look a lot better than renovation of the DCC, but RPI might be hamstringing its chance at future endowments. The Administration is creating a student body that resents the administration, and therefore, the institution. I will probably still donate regularly upon my graduation, but I know a lot of people won’t because these four years have left them feeling like the administration doesn’t care, which will in turn cause future undergraduates to shoulder more cost, and continue to cut the future endowment.
Hind sight is 20/20, but RPI should have gone about this Rensselaer Plan much more conservatively. The student body here has no support for the sports teams, no school pride, and no love for the administration, and the administration continues to put them out.
Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but the Administration constantly seems to be doing shady things, forcing the upperclassmen off campus, sending out vital information at the end of finals week etc. I get the strong sense that the undergraduates here are nothing but wallets to them.