Today at 1 PM in EMPAC, Dr. Jackson will be hosting RPI’s annual fall Town Hall Meeting. Dr. Jackson will present about the current state of the school, and typically takes questions from those present in the audience. Nothing too new is expected as far as we know, but there is a group of students (well, a Facebook group at least…) that is planning to ask politely about foreign languages and to stand up to show their support. Politeness gets you a long way at RPI, so kudos to these students for realizing that and using it to take action on a tangible campus issue.
We have left the original post intact, and added clarification at the bottom of the article. Please read both parts.
We couldn't resist...
$1,598,247
(approximately)
Or, the full tuition of 41.94874 students.
That’s how much Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, our beloved President, received in compensation for the fiscal year running 2007-2008. That’s the highest in the nation among university presidents. This made a big news splash today because of a report published by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The story was picked up by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the Huffington Post, All Over Albany, and many more media outlets, because it far exceeds the median average salary of college presidents, which is currently $358,746.
The Chairman of the RPI (well, technically Rensselaer) Board of Trustees also released a statement today on behalf of the board, defending their decision to set her salary at such a high rate, claiming that “Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson’s leadership embodies prescient vision, meticulous strategic planning, and persistent implementation.” We’re not sure about that, but we do know one thing: Sam Heffner has a thesaurus with some pretty good adjectives.
We have received a forward of an exciting email from a club president. Aretha Franklin, “The Queen of Soul” will be performing on campus on December 4th as a part of “Celebration Weekend,” a “Tribute to the Transformation of Rensselaer.” The weekend also celebrates a the 10th anniversary of Dr. Jackson’s tenure at RPI. In 2008, Franklin was ranked #1 on Rolling Stone’s list of The Greatest Singers of All Time.
You could say Franklin’s paying her R-E-S-P-E-C-Ts to our fine school.
This is really exciting, more details sure to follow!
We’re going on week 5 of the semester (6 for you freshmen), and as I was going through my email archives, found a “Welcome back to campus” email from Dr. Jackson sent at the beginning of last fall. For those freshmen who weren’t privy to this email last year, I have included it below, with a few updates.
TO: The Rensselaer Community
FROM: Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.
President and Professor of Physics
DATE: September 2, 2008September 28, 2008
SUBJECT: Welcome
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.
This past Sunday, Professor E. Bruce Nauman passed away at the age of 71. He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. Known on campus for his criticism of the current administration (and especially Dr. Jackson), he was well known in the chemical engineering field too, having authored five books and over 150 research papers. In addition, Nauman was the owner of six patents.
Before the Faculty Senate was dissolved in 2007 by the administration, Nauman had spearheaded the body’s “no confidence” vote of Dr. Jackson in 2006 which narrowly failed.
His passion and dedication to the ‘Tute will surely be missed. Our deepest sympathies and thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.
There will be a memorial service tomorrow, Friday May 29th, at 11 AM at the Chapel and Cultural Center (C + CC).
The Times Union has more, and Dr. Jackson’s email to the community is after the jump. Read more…
This just in — the new Vice President for Enrollment has been announced: Dr. Paul Marthers. Hailing from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, he received his Ed.D from UPenn. As Dean of Admission at Reed, he reached record numbers of applicants, and Dr. Jackon’s email (full text below) expresses similar high hopes for RPI.
Also of interest is that Dr. Jackson’s title on the text now includes Professor of Engineering Sciences. We think that due to the reduction in force she had to pick up a little slack and teach an extra class… or not. Read more…
Watch out, because here comes Dr. Jackson! Check out this quote from the Times Union.
President Barack Obama announced this morning that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president Shirley Ann Jackson will serve on his Council of Advisors in Science and Technology.
Obama made the announcement this morning as he addressed the National Academies of Science in Washington.
This next installment of our series “Admin Adventures” focuses on Dr. Jackson and gives us insight into her past. Though not filled with crazy parties, Dr. Jackson’s own history does contain boys and smashing hot rods. If you’re curious to find out more, you won’t find this page on RPI’s site. (Be sure to check out Lia’s Scientist Buzz, it’s a personal favorite.)
First of all, thank you to everyone who submitted songs for the contest! After much deliberation (between the hundreds of entries), we have settled on:
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