Note: This article was originally published as the Top Hat in The Rensselaer Polytechnic under the title Grand Marshal shares first week experience on May 2nd, 2012.

Week one is completed! After a long week of getting acquainted and situated with everything here, I feel that there have been a lot of things that have been accomplished. Every day has been full of surprises, with small things here and there that I have picked up on. For the most part, these are all issues that are necessary, but not as apparent to students. Unfortunately, in these last two weeks of school, it is quite impossible to start everything up without losing momentum into the next year.

With that being said, we are setting up to get big things done! Our first meeting was not too long ago, and it went extremely well. We defined the goals of the Student Senate, appointed positions, and went over some summer, pre-semester, and current, prevalent topics of interest. Of the items on the agenda, the biggest was the off-campus jurisdiction revisions to the Student Handbook. I am encouraging all students to voice their opinion on this issue … however, it is very easy to enter the whole debate with a bias. What I have encouraged all senators to do is to be objective about the issue, and try and consider all aspects of the argument; that is how we need to make decisions, with proper information and deliberateness. I invite all students to an open forum discussion with Dean of Students Mark Smith this Thursday at 6 pm in the Phalanx Room of the Rensselaer Union. We will be discussing anything related to the new revisions.

Besides this, we also appointed all of the officer positions which are: Vice Chair Chuck Carletta ’14, Secretary Stef FeKula ’14, Treasurer Greg Niguidula ’15, Parliamentarian Paul O’Neil ’14, and Chief Information Officer Kenley Cheung ’13. Two other significant appointments were also made, with the Finance, Facilities and Administration Committee being chaired by Russell Brown ’14, and the Communications Committee being headed by Tina Gilliland ’15.

I know that we have a strong group of leaders in the Senate, and everyone is committed and motivated to do great work. There is a mix of experienced and new faces, which is also great. I’ve been able to talk with both one-on-one, and it’s very reassuring to get the wisdom of all of the veterans, but equally great to hear the ideas and perspectives of new senators.

My main goal for the end of the semester is to pave the way for everything so that we can start strong next year. There are a lot of opportunities for everyone to get involved as well. Although we will not be having any committee meetings until next year, it doesn’t mean that you can’t start brainstorming with us! There have already been a few people who have started coming up with solutions to problems that committees can start to implement, which is great.

Overall, my first week as Grand Marshal was absolutely amazing. It reminds me of how great our school is, and with just a bit of collaboration and creativity, how much better it can be.

Feel free to e-mail me

Note: This article was originally published as the Top Hat in The Rensselaer Polytechnic under the title New GM prepares for coming semester on April 25th, 2012.

Hello, RPI. I am writing today as the 147th Grand Marshal. I am excited to start this next term off and am hoping to get started as soon as possible.

First off, about myself. I am a sophomore chemical engineering student. I was actually born in Troy and grew up in Niskayuna—not too far from here. I was previously the Class of 2014 president, and I intend to stay involved with my great class council. The reason why I have worked so hard to become the next Grand Marshal is because RPI truly has great potential to be one of the best schools out there. Student government is the best way to improve our student experience, and I hope that with my leadership and goals, the Student Senate will be able to accomplish many things this upcoming year.

As for my goals overall and what I plan to see from the Senate going onwards, I want to make it very clear to students that student government is open to everyone. This means that the recently elected senators will be open to everyone and proactively reaching out, engaging students, and inquiring about their opinions about RPI. Senate committees (the most important part of the Senate) are also open and available to any student. I hope that we can open up more pathways for communication, which will encourage students to get involved. By doing this, the Senate will have a voice. We will know what students are thinking, thereby being able to bring agendas to the administration.

Overall, I have my work cut out for me. I’ve already reached out to past senators, chairs, and faculty that work closely with the Grand Marshal. It is important to know where the past Senate left off, and even learn a few things about what to do and what not to do. There is a lot that will need to be done during these final weeks of school (mostly internal framework and appointments). We need to take care of this before we begin to tackle student issues and projects. Everyone has been so nice to me so far in offering me help, ensuring that we have a smooth transition between the terms.

Most importantly, I am extremely excited to begin working with the 43rd Student Senate! We have a great bunch of students, and a few new faces to Senate (including mine, of course). I consider myself very lucky to be able to work with them in the upcoming year, many of whom I’ve had previous experiences with. There is a lot to do these last few weeks, and I am fully confident that we will all work well together so that we can get everything done.

Those that are reading this article and feel like making a difference, let me know! My e-mail is GM at RPI. If you are driven to make a change here at RPI, then I encourage you to get involved. We need people that are dedicated to making a positive change based on the needs of the student body; that’s what Senate is all about.

My office will always be open to students, I will try to keep the door open whenever I am in. If you want to stop by and let me know what’s on your mind, raise questions, comments, and concerns, I will be available. Once I am more settled, I can say when exactly I’ll be in.

For now, I look forward to meeting everyone, and I am very excited to be your new GM.

Note: This article was originally published as the Top Hat in The Rensselaer Polytechnic under the title Web Tech Group digitally helps RPI campus on February 29th, 2012.

Hello RPI! Last week, the Student Senate approved the Union Annual Report. This report, compiled by the Union Annual Report Committee (a joint Senate/Executive Board Committee) details the Rensselaer Union finances and the activity fees for 2012–2013. I cannot encourage everyone enough to read this report as it details how every dollar is spent in the Union. Our Union is a great source of pride for our school, so please take this opportunity to read more about it. I would like to thank everyone involved in the creation of this report, especially the Union Annual Report Committee and its chair Jon Stack ’12.

This week I am pleased to present a Top Hat from Chief Information Officer Kenley Cheung ’13 regarding the Web Technologies Group and their projects. I hope that you find it informative and consider getting involved with this Senate group. As always, you may e-mail me anytime at gm@rpi.edu. I would love to hear from you!

My name is Kenley Cheung and I am the CIO of the RPI Student Senate. As the CIO, I chair the Web Technologies Group. The group supports the information technology infrastructure of the Senate, and more importantly, seeks to deliver solutions to student problems using web technologies. By utilizing the power of collaboration and open source, the group has delivered solutions that students use everyday.

The group’s most successful projects are Concerto Digital Signage and Shuttle Tracking. Concerto was launched in Spring 2008 to address the clutter associated with traditional paper signage. From its humble roots as a simple idea, Concerto has grown to a system of over 20 screens on-campus with the support of numerous departments at Rensselaer as well as an open-source project with a user base at CERN and several Fortune 500 companies. The entire history of Concerto can be found at http://concerto-signage.org/why-concerto/.

Shuttle Tracking at RPI is a smaller success story signifying the importance of collaboration here at Rensselaer. With the assistance of Jason Jones from Parking and Transportation Services and the support from Professor Mukkai Krishnamoorthy and fellow students from the Rensselaer Center for Open Source Software, Shuttle Tracking has become an easily accessible and innovative tool that many students use today.

Great problem solvers never stop innovating, and neither does this group. We are working on several upcoming projects. Inspired by the importance of communication on campus, a simple tool to route feedback to the appropriate administrators has been in the works for several months. This tool is set to launch along with the new Senate website in the near future. Also, the group’s deputy CIO, Jonathan Goldszmidt ’13, has been leading the development efforts behind an improved printer tracking application originally developed at the Voorhees Computing Center Help Desk. In addition to developing solutions, WTG is teaching new members web development skills by involving them in the development of new applications.

- Russell Brown, Grand Marshal & Kenley Cheung, Chief Information Officer

Note: This article was originally published as the Top Hat in The Rensselaer Polytechnic under the title Senate communications looks to improve on February 22nd, 2012.

Hello RPI! I hope everyone’s semester is going well. The Senate Cabinet has been hard at work on a Spring Senate Survey. The information collected will assist us in planning projects that will have the greatest impact on students. We are aiming to get this survey out to students in the next two weeks.

You’ll notice that this week’s Top Hat is written by Tina Gilliland ’15, the Senate director of public relations. As mentioned below, this is part of an initiative to increase awareness of the projects of Senate committees. I hope that you will find these articles interesting, as they will offer you some more detailed information about what projects the Senate is working on.

My name is Christina Gilliland. I serve as a Class of 2015 senator on the Student Senate and chair the Senate Communications Group as director of public relations for the Student Senate. I am writing part of today’s Top Hat as part of a new Senate initiative. This new project will feature updates from the different Senate committee chairs in the weekly Top Hat. The idea is to provide the opportunity for the leaders of the Senate to more effectively and directly convey their active committee projects to the RPI student body. This idea has been proposed as one of many ways to increase the lines of communication between the RPI student body and the Senate.

Communication has become a top priority for the Student Senate this semester. The diversity of voices in the weekly Top Hat will not be the only project facilitating the exchange of information. This past Friday in the DCC Great Hall, the Student Senate held the first of several “Meet Your Senator” events. Throughout the day, students had the opportunity to express complaints and suggest ideas for the continued improvement of RPI. The ideas from Friday’s event will be researched by the relevant committees to determine the best plan for moving forward. Additional events will be held throughout the semester to provide more opportunities to interact face to face with your student senators. Next week, the Senate will be hosting the semesterly “State of the Union” on Wednesday, February 29, from 7– 8:30 pm in the Rensselaer Union McNeil room. The event will feature a brief presentation by the newly appointed Grand Marshal Russell Brown ’14, and the introduction of the committee chairs of the Senate. The event is intended to be an avenue for the Student Senate to answer student questions as well as gain feedback. The Student Senate will also be hosting Pizza with the Cabinet on Thursday, March 29. Pizza with the Cabinet is a unique event which will feature an open forum in which students have the opportunity to converse with various members of the Rensselaer Presidential Cabinet and the academic deans.

These events are all part of the Senate’s initiative to drastically increase student involvement. The Senate is a representative body and depends on the input of its constituents. Communication is a combination of both the Senate informing students and the Senate receiving and fostering the concerns of students. Help us to help you, and let your voice be heard by the Senate. Consider joining one of the several Senate or Institute committees open to the entire student body, attending a Senate event, or simply sending an e-mail to the Senate at JustAsk@rpi.edu with any questions, concerns, or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Note: This article was originally published as the Top Hat in The Rensselaer Polytechnic under the title New Grand Marshal defines Senate goals on February 15th, 2012.

Hello RPI! I hope everyone’s semester is going well as we head into the first round of tests.

This past week, I have been meeting extensively with the leadership group of the Student Senate (the Senate Cabinet) and James Reed and Linda McClosky of the Archer Center for Student Leadership. These meetings have been extremely productive and have yielded a greater understanding of the Senate’s goals and plans. I would like to share some of the results of these meetings with you.

First off, we have defined clearer goals for the Senate Cabinet itself. According to Senate bylaws: “A Cabinet shall be led by the Grand Marshal and populated by the all Senate committee chairs and officers of the Senate. Its primary functions are to maintain working relationships and allow for healthy communication between chairs and officers regarding organization-wide business.” Despite this description, the cabinet had grown to include Senate representatives from different constituents, subcommittee chairs, and others. We have decided to return the formal cabinet to the vision set forth in the bylaws; reducing the membership to the GM, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Chief Information Officer, and committee chairs. This was done to make the cabinet more agile and efficient. While its formal size has been reduced, the cabinet will still meet with the other leaders of the Senate when appropriate. The main goals of the cabinet will be to facilitate inter-committee communication and to set a vision and plan for the Senate.

We have also discussed the goals and aims of the Senate itself, from basic objectives, such as to improve the experience of Rensselaer students, to defined committee specific objectives, such as the Academic Affairs Committee’s goal to improve the academic experiences and opportunities of Rensselaer students. In the coming weeks, we have set our sights on improving communication through a revamp of the Senate website, sending out a Senate Survey, holding Meet Your Senator, and other events, as well as increasing the productivity of our committees.

Every undergraduate senator is required to actively serve on two committees or chair one. The committee chairs and I have decided to renew efforts to make sure every senator is actively contributing to projects on his or her committees. In order to improve committee effectiveness and retention, we have also decided to explore ways to empower our members. Possible ideas include “live agendas” (committee members add to an online agenda before the meeting), team building and social events, work parties, and more personal attention from Senate leadership.

We in the Senate are also looking to improve the effectiveness of general body Senate meetings. This process is starting with incremental improvements such as publishing agendas and motions the day before meetings and posting minutes on flagship sooner.

As always, I would love to hear your feedback! Our plans for the semester are always evolving, so please do not hesitate to e-mail the Senate at JustAsk@rpi.edu or me at gm@rpi.edu. Have a great week!