RPInsider

There is a press release for tonight’s event available here: http://documents.studentsenate.rpi.edu/documents/current/56 . UPDATE: LINK FIXED.

The text is below!

Uprise at Five demonstration to protest lack of transparency

On Thursday, February 26, 2009, the students of Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute will hold a rally in protest of the manner in which recent
administrative actions and policy decisions have been executed. The
rally—dubbed “Uprise at Five,” and to which the entire student body has
been invited—will be held at 5 pm in front of the Russell Sage Dining
Hall, where the Institute Board of Trustees will be holding a dinner.
The rally was scheduled after a closed meeting on February 25 between the
administrators of Rensselaer’s Office of Residence Life and current
student staff members revealed the Institute administration’s decision to
limit the students hired to fill Resident Assistant (RA) positions during
the 2009–10 academic year to upperclassmen, thereby excluding all current
freshman applicants. Student leaders—including members of the current
student staff and other student organizations—met later that night and
expressed a common outrage at this action, but felt that it is only the
most recent offense in a string of poorly implemented and poorly
communicated policy actions that have had an adverse effect on student
life at RPI. Having exhausted conventional avenues to address the issue,
the student leaders involved have decided to hold a massive student rally
in protest of the recent actions and raise awareness of the Institute’s
actions both on campus and in the greater Troy community.
At RPI, RAs are responsible for building a sense of community within
their halls, enforcing health and safety regulations, and numerous other
commitments. Current Resident Assistants emphasize that first-year
students are very dependent on RAs, who introduce them to the college
experience.
The decision to exclude rising sophomores came on the heels of another
controversial decision. As reported in the Wednesday edition of the
student newspaper, The Rensselaer Polytechnic, there has been much
controversy surrounding the recent revelation that—beginning in the Fall
2009 semester—the normally-provided room and board for Resident
Assistants will be removed and replaced by a $5,000 stipend, which is
less than half the value of their current compensation. While costs of
room and board exceed this stipend, Institute officials cited a desire to
avoid overcompensation of the students and longer-term plans to reduce
the responsibilities of student Resident Assistants.
Students have drawn parallels between this incident and other recent
events on campus. Members of the Greek community noted that a similar
lack of effective communication pervaded recent changes to Institute
Greek Life policies. Senior students also drew comparisons to past
actions, such as the Greek Initiatives of April 2006, when many students
and alumni felt that decisions were made without the input or prior
knowledge of the student body.
This issue also calls to mind the recent removal of student
representation on the Institute Committee on Finance, which has until now
served as the principal contact point and means of feedback between the
student body and the Board of Trustees.
Other related situations in recent history include the unveiling of the
Clustered Learning Advocacy and Support for Students (CLASS) initiative
over the past year by the Rensselaer administration. The CLASS
initiative, a broad restructuring of the Office of Residence Life, has
been criticized by many students as having lacked significant student
input in its development, despite its substantial impact on student life.
The Resident Assistants and other student leaders who met informally
Wednesday to discuss the current situation felt strongly that actions
must be taken in the short term to ensure that the vacant RA positions
are filled with the most qualified candidates, and that dedicated
students are not forced to make a decision between what is fiscally
prudent and the service they wish to provide to their community.
Furthermore, in light of the recent severely flawed implementations by
the RPI Administration, there is a strong feeling that the
decision-making processes that ultimately affect student life must
incorporate the viewpoints and input of students.
Uprise at Five will be a peaceful student demonstration to raise
awareness of the issues regarding transparency and student involvement in
policy making at the Institute. It will take place at 5 pm in front of
the Russell Sage Dining Hall on the Rensselaer campus.

About Grand Marshal Kara Chesal ’09
Kara Chesal is the 142nd Grand Marshal (GM) of Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute. The GM serves as the student body president, chair of the
Student Senate, and representative of the student body to the Institute
administration and the external world. Chesal is a dual Science and
Technology Studies and Economics major expecting to graduate in May 2009.

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation’s oldest
technological university. The university offers bachelor’s, master’s, and
doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology,
architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences.
Institute programs serve undergraduates, graduate students, and working
professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty are known for
pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of fields, with
particular emphasis in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information
technology, and the media arts and technology. The Institute is well
known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory
to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human
life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.

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