Extra-Ridiculous Activities

Why are we calling extra-curricular activities at RPI ridiculous? Because in general, they do nothing but hurt one’s academic standing! Their only purpose in life is to take the student’s mind off of the incredible work load he has, by giving him even more work in the form of a club! Only at Rensselaer!

Student Government

The Grand Marshal and Senate

In the past, there have been only three GM’s with peculiar initials in regard to the office at hand. In 1870, the first GM whose initials were GM was George C. MacGregor. The second and only other to date was Gordon Michaels, who was GM from 1975 to 1976. GM Mary Garrity (1983-1984) was the only GM ever to have it backwards, so to speak, as well as being the first woman GM.

The President of the Union and the Executive Board

In the past, there has been only one PU whose initials were PU. This illustrious character was Philip Ulrich who was PU in 1978. One student in the history of the offices of the GM and PU has held BOTH offices at sometime in his stay at RPI. This was Henry B. Voorhees, who held the post of GM in 1895-6, and the post of PU in 1894-5.

The Class Councils

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The IC and the IFC

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The J-Board

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The Rules and Elections Committee

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The Grand Marshal Week Committee

This group of undergraduate and graduate students, which is formed in the early part of every spring semester, organize the activities of Grand Marshal Week for that year. They are responsible for the structure, budgeting and even the atmosphere of GM Week. They are not, however, responsible to the student body in matters concerning the weather, which always seems to dictate snow or rain on day with outdoors events.

Publications

The Polytechnic

The Polytechnic is RPI’s campus newspaper, which is published weekly by the Polytechnic staff, a group of hard working students. The Poly details events of major interest on campus, recalls the latest sports facts, presents reviews of local entertainment, publishes classified and (usually very silly) unclassified ads, and has lots of filler. Well, nothing is perfect. The editorial point of view is usually centered around some major organization in the Union. One semester it will be the E-Board, another, the APO point of view. It fluctuates depending upon what club has the greatest membership in the Poly staff.

The Gorgon

The Gorgon is RPI’s one attempt at a literary publication. It is filled (not very heavily, mind you) with works of poetry, short stories, and sketches created by Rensselaer students. The input to the Gorgon is never too heavy, as the arts are a poorly favored subject with most students.

The Unicorn

In it’s heyday, the Unicorn was one of the funniest and most daring RPI publication to be funded by the Union. It is the great-grandson of The Pup, which was RPI’s first humor publication. The Unicorn’s biggest problem was that it couldn’t resist taking jabs at real live people in the Rensselaer community. It was finally disbanded in Spring 1983 after a J-Board case which concerned some offensive material printed in it.

The Polemic

The Pole is a non-Union funded publication that was started by several students living in the E-Dorms in the Fall of 1980. The originators, two 15-year-old freshmen, calling themselves the “Wiltsie Boatworks,” had just finished winning the Hudson River Celebration Boat Contest, and decided to start a lampoon of the Polytechnic. Using clippings of Poly stories, they reworded stories in humorous and (usually) non-scathing ways. The Pole has steadfastly resisted Union monies, noting that the editorial control the E-Board would have would destroy their humorous impact.

The freshmen both failed out after one semester.

The Engineer

The Engineer is RPI’s foremost publication on research and development at RPI. The articles within are usually of a fairly technical nature, and tend to display Rensselaer’s research work as the most important work done on the campus. The issues tend to center on a general theme, and present articles written by graduate students and faculty. Lots of expensive ads from major research contractors can be found as filler, too.

The Transit

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The Rensselaer Handbook

The Rensselaer Handbook is the Administration’s attempt to prepare incoming students for life at RPI. Primarily an administrative rule book, the student handbook does have some useful sections on adult life for the incoming freshmen-types. Unfortunately, the information about life external to RPI is very lacking, when not utterly inaccurate.

Not the Rensselaer Handbook

Not the Rensselaer Handbook, a student publication with uncertain staff and even more uncertain publishing goals, attempts to fill in the gaps that the administrative handbook cannot reach. It does this with no small measure of satire, not unlike the Pole.

The Performing Arts

The RPI Players

The Players are one of the oldest and largest student run clubs on campus. Their newly renovated 15th Street Playhouse is one of the landmarks of Rensselaer. The Players produce three shows in a typical scholastic year, two being large musicals, and one being a drama. Membership is open to all members of the Rensselaer Union, and the club is funded mostly through the Union, although a reasonable income is made by selling tickets to shows.

wE the Free Theatre

An offshoot of The RPI Players, wE the Free Theater works on plays that are of small casts and of bizarre topics. At this time, the actual existence of this organization is seriously tenuous.

Radio, Music, and Television

WRPI 91.5 FM Radio Rensselaer

Probably the most misunderstood club on campus, Radio Rensselaer is the student organization which is in charge of the radio station, WRPI. As part of it’s operating budget, WRPI receives Union funding, but most of the people who actually do radio are not students.

The reasons for this are simple. First, WRPI is a ten thousand watt FM radio station, which has a vested interest in serving the entire Albany, Troy, and Schenectady areas, and not just a college radio station. Thus, WRPI must stay on the air during times when students are not around. These times can be summarized as Vacation and Summer. It is during those times that the non-student members of the station are so critical. The second reason that non-students are critical to the operation of WRPI is that very, very few RPI students are willing to make the kind of time commitment that working at WRPI involves. In other words, they can’t get enough students to save their lives.

Another area of WRPI that is grossly misunderstood is its airsound. Students at RPI do not understand why “their” radio station doesn’t play the same Top 40 music that they are accustomed to hearing. The reason, again, is two fold. First, the local commercial stations already do this, and would quickly lose their business (advertising) if WRPI started tearing their audience away from them. Second, WRPI is pledged to be an “educational” station. The goal of WRPI’s airsound is simple: to play new and progressive music. This usually means music which is not commercially pushed as it is on other stations. The education comes in learning about music that one would normally never get to hear on commercial radio.

There are lots of things to do at WRPI besides doing a show. All of the electronic equipment in the studio and at the transmitter must be maintained by the members of WRPI. This is a great opportunity for aspiring EE’s to get some real experience. The News Department is always looking for people to help with news announcing, and to work on a campus news show. There are lots of administrative tasks which have to be done, from checking operations logs to sifting through Public Service Announcements for airplay. There is a production studio with multi-track recording capabilities being installed (again, by students) that will be used to record local bands. Remotes are a great way to go public and “spin tunes.” Serious Troy Music Hall fans can get involved with WRPI sponsored concert recordings, using state of the art digital equipment.

Athletics

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The Union Programs and Activities Committee

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Special Interest Clubs

The Science Fiction Club

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The Science Fiction Games Club

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The Model Railroad Club

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The Rensselaer Sports Car Association

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The Society for Creative Anachronism

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