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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a nonsectarian, coeducational private university in Troy, New York, near Albany, founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life." It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world. A forerunner in pedagogy, the Institute is also widely known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. Rensselaer's mission has slowly evolved over the years while retaining its focus on the scientific and technological roots upon which the school was founded. Adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1995, Rensselaer's current mission is to "educate the leaders of tomorrow for technologically based careers. We celebrate discovery, and the responsible application of technology, to create knowledge and global prosperity."
History Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School November 5, 1824 with a letter to Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which he asked him to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's first senior professor. He also appointed the first board of trustees. On December 29th of that year, the president and the board met and established the methods of instruction, which were rather different from methods employed at other colleges at the time. Students performed experiments and explained their rationale and gave their own lectures rather than listening to lectures and watching demonstrations. The school opened on Monday, January 3, 1825 at the Old Bank Place, a building at the north end of Troy. The opening was announced by a notice, signed by the president, and printed in the Troy Sentinel of December 28. The school attracted students from the State of New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The fact that the school attracted students from afar is attributed to the reputation of Eaton. Fourteen months of successful trial led to the incorporation of the school on March 21, 1826 by the State of New York. In its early years, the Rensselaer School had greater semblance of a graduate school than of a college. It drew graduates of older institutions such as Amherst, Bowdoin, Columbia, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Yale, Union, Wesleyan, and Williams. Indeed, there was a considerable stream from Yale, where there were several teachers interested in the sciences. Rensselaer enjoyed a period of academic and resource expansion under the leadership of President Palmer Ricketts. Born in 1856 in Elkton, Maryland Ricketts came to Rensselaer in 1871 as a student. Named President in 1901, Ricketts liberalized the curriculum by adding the Department of Arts, Science, and Business Administration and the Graduate School. He also expanded the university’s resources and developed Rensselaer into a true polytechnic institute by increasing the number of degrees offered from two to a dozen; these included electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. During Rickett's tenure, enrollment increased from approximately 200 in 1900 to a high of 1700 in 1930. Over its nearly two century history, Rensselaer has grown to be a premier institution of higher education in engineering and science. Rensselaer graduates developed or contributed to the development of such inventions as the cathode ray tube, the Ferris wheel, the first practical automatic fire sprinkler, the microprocessor, an ultraviolet absorber used in sunscreen cream, ductile iron, the first graphics processor for the PC, and network electronic mail (including the @ sign in e-mail). Academics Rensselaer has five schools: Architecture, Engineering, Humanities & Social Sciences, The Lally School of Management and Technology, and Science. The School of Engineering is by far the largest by enrollment, followed by the School of Science, the School of Management, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Architecture. There also exists an interdisciplinary program in Information Technology that began in the late 1990's. Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs are available for students desiring commissions as officers in the armed forces. Rensselaer offers programs in prehealth and prelaw, a program in Cooperative Education (Co-Op), as well as domestic and international exchange programs. The university offers more than 140 degree programs in nearly 60 fields that lead to bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. RPI is a technology-oriented university; all of the residence hall rooms have hard-wired high speed internet access, and all incoming freshman have been required to purchase a laptop computer since 1999. In 2004, The Princeton Review ranked RPI The current president of RPI is Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. Dr. Jackson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate degree from that institution. Her career prior to becoming Rensselaer’s president has encompassed senior positions in government, as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; in industry and research, as a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories; and in academe, as a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University. President Jackson is the 18th president of Rensselaer and the first African-American woman to lead a national research university. The Newsweek/Kaplan 2007 Educational College Guide proclaimed Rensselaer one of the 25 "New Ivies", an elite group of 25 schools that provide an education equal to the best of the Ivy League. * Faculty The number of faculty has been steadily growing since the implementation of the Rensselaer Plan in 1999. Among them are members of the National Academies, a Nobel laureate, as well as NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award winners. The Rensselaer Plan The university is in the midst of great change. As Dr. Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University would explain, "Change at Rensselaer in the last five years has occurred with a scope and swiftness that may be without precedent in the recent history of American higher education." With the coming of the current president came the "Rensselaer Plan". Its goal is to achieve greater prominence as a technological research university. A large part of this is strengthening its research portfolio. New research infrastructure such as the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies have been built to support new programs. Accordingly, there is the need for a larger graduate student population. The need to attract greater funds for research is also paramount with a goal of $100 million annually. As of 2006, research expenditures have reached approximately $90 million per annum. To enable the changes outlined in the Rensselaer Plan, the university has mounted a $1 billion capital campaign of which the public phase began in the fall of 2004 and is expected to finish by the end of 2008. As of September 2006, the $1 billion goal had been exceeded much in part to a contribution valued at $514 million by the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE). The board of trustees have announced a new goal of $1.4 billion by June 30, 2009. The university recognizes the relatively small size of its endowment compared to its competition, as well as its relatively strong dependence on funds from undergraduate tuition to support its operations. Another aspect of the plan is to enhance undergraduate education by significantly increasing participation in undergraduate research, international exchange programs, and "living and learning communities." Tuition for the 2006-2007 academic year for full-time undergraduate and graduate students is $32,600 (not including room, board, or other expenses).* Rankings Rensselaer ranks among the top 50 national universities in the United States according to US News & World Report. In 2005, the School of Engineering was ranked 18th in the nation for undergraduates. In 2004, the School of Engineering was ranked 33rd in the nation for graduate students. In 2003, the Lally School of Management & Technology undergraduate program was ranked 22nd. Its Entrepreneurship program was ranked in the top tier nationally in 2005. The Multimedia/Visual Communications graduate program has been ranked 8th in 2003 and 2004. The Applied Mathematics graduate program has been 21st in the nation in 2003 and 2004. Overall, the school was ranked in the top 10 by practicing engineers and 9th by corporate recruiters. Research and development Rensselaer has established five areas of research as institute priorities: biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology, microelectronics, and modeling and simulation. Advances in these fields have the potential to effect dramatic transformations in 21st century society. In addition, RPI is home to the United States' first on-campus high-tech business incubator. One of the largest companies to have originated in the incubator is MapInfo, a major publisher of mapping and geographic information systems software which is still headquartered in Troy, NY. Another incubator success is Vicarious Visions, a well known maker of video games. In May of 2006, Rensselaer announced a partnership with IBM and New York State to create the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, a supercomputing center to be used for nanotechnology research. This $100 million center will be the world’s most powerful university-based supercomputing center and one of the 10 largest supercomputing centers of any kind in the world. RPI is also the professional home of David Musser, one of the primary inventors of the C++ Standard Template Library. Well-known researchers at RPI include: Campus The 275-acre Rensselaer campus sits upon a hill overlooking historic Troy, New York and the Hudson River. RPI has a beautifully landscaped campus that features a series of Colonial Revival style structures built in the first three decades of the 20th century. The campus has enjoyed five periods of expansion: Originally, located in downtown Troy, Rensselaer gradually moved to the hilltop that overlooks the city. The severe conflagrations of August 1854 and that of May 1862, known as " the Great Fire," in the downtown region prompted movement to the present site, as well as the potential for expansion that today's site offered. President Palmer Ricketts supervised the construction of the school's "Green Rooftop" Colonial Revival buildings that constitute its distinct architectural style. Buildings constructed during this period include the Carnegie Building (1906), Pittsburgh Building (1912), Quadrangle Dormitories (1916–1927), Troy Building (1925), and Ricketts Building (1935). The campus underwent major expansion again after World War II at which time numerous dormitories were built and the Houston Field House (1949) reassembled after being moved from Rhode Island. West Hall, which was built originally as a hospital in 1869, was acquired by the Institute in 1953. The ornate building is an example of French Second Empire architecture. The modern campus features such structures as the Rensselaer Union (1967), Folsom Library (1976), Jonsson Engineering Center (1977), Darrin Communications Center (1973), and Center for Industrial Innovation (1987). More recently, the university built a world-class research center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. The university is currently building an expansive Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). The main e-mail servers are named after Pokemon such as Pidgeotto. Other Campuses RPI also runs campuses in Hartford, Connecticut and Groton, Connecticut. In Hartford, Connecticut, there are graduate studies offered in Business Administration, Management, Computer Science, Computer and Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Information Technology. Student body
Rensselaer tends to draw more students with greater financial need than those from its peer and aspirant universities with 72% of its students receiving financial aid and 20% receiving Pell Grants. This poses a challenge for enrollment management. Enrollment was small before the twentieth century and has grown steadily ever since then. Enrollment figures are as follows: 1825 10 students; 1850 53 students; 1900 225 students; 1910 650 students; 1925 1,240 students; 1945 1,604 students; 1950 3,987 students (Note the jump in just five years. In the 1950s, there was an explosion of dormitory construction, the so-called "freshmen dorms".) 1965 5,232 students |
"The Ratio"
Coeducational since 1942, the university continues to struggle to attract a gender-balanced applicant pool. According to an about.com survey, RPI has a male-to-female ratio of 3:1, which is among the highest among major American universities. This is an improvement though, as recently as the early 1990s this ratio was about 5:1 and 8:1 in the early 1980's. This ratio is often cited as one of the greatest problems on campus. One of the stated goals of the Rensselaer Plan is to "reflect the diversity of the global community" in the student body, which includes encouraging more women to enroll.
Athletics
The school features a competitive Division I ice hockey team, the Engineers, who won NCAA national titles in 1954 and 1985. The team plays a significant role in the campus' culture, drawing thousands of fans each week to the Houston Field House during the season. The team's popularity even sparked the tradition of the "hockey line", where students line up for season tickets months in advance of the on-sale date. The official nickname of some of the school's other Division III teams was changed in 1995 from the Engineers to the Red Hawks. (In addition to hockey, the football, cross-country, tennis, and track and field teams all chose to retain the Engineers name.) The "Red Hawks" name was, at the time, very unpopular among the student body; a "Red Hawk" mascot was frequently taunted with thrown concessions and chants of "kill the chicken!"
The Lacrosse team won the national championship in 1952. The Lacrosse team also represented the United States in the 1948 Olympics in London. Ned Harkness coached the lacrosse and ice hockey teams, winning national championships in both sports.
Plans are being made for the construction of a new East Campus Athletic Village that consists of an athletic support complex, a new artificial turf field and football stadium, a gymnasium and basketball arena, a natatorium, and a field house for indoor track and field, and other indoor sports. Construction is tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2007.
The oldest college football rivalry in the state is between Rensselaer and Union College. The teams play for the Dutchman's Shoes.
Notable Rensselaerians
See article: List of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute people
RPI songs
There are a number of songs commonly played and sung at various RPI events. Notable among them are:
Clubs and organizations
The students of RPI have created and participate in a variety of student-run clubs and organizations funded by the Student Union. The Union is unusual in that it is entirely student-run and its operations are paid for by activity fees. About 164 of these organizations are funded by the Student Union, while another thirty, which consist mostly of political and religious organizations, are self-supporting. It is a justifiable source of pride for the institute. See the official listing of clubs and organizations for a full and up to date list.
Greek organizations are popular with about 30 social fraternities and 5 sororities. There are two coed fraternities, one of which is a social fraternity, Psi Upsilon, while the other, Alpha Phi Omega, is a service fraternity. As such, about a third of men are in fraternities and about a fifth of women are in sororities.
Participation in intramural sports is also very high with twenty different sports, many are broken down into different divisions based on level of play. Many Greek organizations compete in them as well as independents. There are also many club sports. Given the university's close location to the Berkshires, Green Mountains, and Adirondacks, the ski club is one of the largest groups on campus with weekly trips to local ski areas during the winter months.
RPI has a very popular improvisational comedy group, Sheer Idiocy, which performs several shows a semester. There are also several music groups ranging from a cappella, such as the Rensselyrics, the Rusty Pipes and Partial Credit, to several instrumental groups such as the Orchestra, as well as a classical choral group, the Rensselaer Concert Choir.
One notable organization on campus is WRPI, the campus radio station. WRPI differs from most college radio in that it serves a 75-mile radius including the greater Albany area. With 10 kW of broadcasting power, WRPI maintains a stronger signal than nearly all college radio stations, and some commercial stations.
The RPI Players is an on-campus theater group which was formed in 1929. The Players resided in the Old Gym until 1965 when they moved to their present location at the 15th Street Lounge. This distinctive red shingled building had been a USO hall for the US Army before being purchased by Rensselaer. The Players have staged over 250 productions over its history.
Recent commencement speakers
Notable firsts
See Also
Greene Building
Folsom Library
Carnegie Building
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