RPInsider

We wanted to catch up a little on what the housing lottery situation looks like, so we asked just a few questions of Residence Life.  Tom Tarantelli responded, and the full text is below.

RPInsider: We were curious about whether Blitman Commons filled after the last lottery.  Since there was so much talk about students not wanting to live there and it was important to the amount of upper class students who might have been pushed off campus, we were hoping to find out if the building filled up.  It looked like there were some pretty high lottery numbers.  Can you tell us anything?

Tom Tarantelli: There are some rooms available that will be added to the upper class room assignment process.  In order to participate in the lottery for Blitman, students completed an application that asked them to outline their programming interests.  Overwhelmingly those students were excited about the opportunity to live in Blitman and to participate in CLASS programming.

Also, how do you think the process as a whole is going so far?

We all think the process is going well.  We realize that some students did not get the rooms they wanted because of high lottery numbers.  That has always been the case and we want students to understand that we will do what we can to accommodate them.  We still have the upper class lottery and room assignment to complete.  That will be completed on February 28^th.

Do you expect the remaining upper class halls to fill?

We do.  Because this has been a change we have tried to communicate each step as clearly as possible and in ways that students and parents had access to the information needed to participate in the various housing lotteries.  We anticipate that students who wants to live on campus will be accommodated.

Is there anything else you’d like the students to know?

Just that there are a lot of details involved in ramping up the lotteries and the room selection process.  We are working on those details and appreciate the many questions we are getting.  An upper class room selection information session is being held at 8 pm, Wednesday (tomorrow) in RU 3606.  Since the process is “compressed” into a tight time frame we appreciate any effort to help students get the information needed so that they can participate.

Photo credit

Share Uncategorized blitman, housing, residence life, tom tarantelli

An email was leaked to us which outlines details about today’s student who was diagnosed with Swine Flu.  The student has now been moved to Blitman Commons.

Please take all necessary precautions.  You can find more information about how to keep yourself safe at http://www.rpi.edu/about/flu/

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Do you visit at any of these places?

• Bacchus Wood Fire
• Big Apple Pizza
• Flavour Café
• Holmes and Watson
• Illium Café
• Manory’s Restaurant
• Minissale’s Café
• Notty Pine Tavern
• Tosca

Well, according to RPI’s website, you can now use RAD (Rensselaer Advantage Dollars) to make purchases at those locations.  This has been a push of the Student Senate for several years, and we here at RPInsider are glad to see that it has finally been implemented.  For those of you living in the new Blitman Commons downtown, you can now have your parents pay for all kinds of stuff that are only blocks away!  Tosca is expensive — go there and see if your parents notice.  Just tell them you spent it on laundry… they probably haven’t heard that it’s free yet.
I especially like the fact that the Press Release fails to mention that this idea was conceived by students and that students have been working to implement it for years.  They make it seem like Dr. Jackson’s idea, which isn’t wholly true.

But hey, as long as it happened, we’re happy.

Share Uncategorized blitman, community, Dr. Jackson, RAD, Troy