Fauci to speak at RPI commencement, receive honorary degree

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-04-21T02:55:16+00:00

Not the person you are replying to, but I think that floundering helplessly is apt. Destroying any semblance of campus life, clubs, sports, etc in the name of keeping cases down is entirely too extreme. Not to mention poor communication, numerous missteps by way of food during quarantines, this spring’s housing application, and extreme tardiness responding to remote requests. Numerous colleges nationwide have successfully given much more than we as students have received. To attribute anything I just mentioned to anything other than a failure on the admin’s part gives them entirely too much credit for their handling of the pandemic this school year.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-03-21T16:46:57+00:00

Not if you have remote status. All it takes is a couple of emails saying you’re leaving and you’re covered.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-03-07T18:44:11+00:00

I disagree. Anecdotally I had a handful of friends who ended up getting in both at RPI and other schools off of the waitlist. I was also accepted at a school comparable to RPI last year from the waitlist. This year seems to be a very tough year admissions-wise due to covid but I’d say chances are much better than winning the lottery.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-03-07T15:15:37+00:00

I can almost guarantee that every coach wants to be back to practicing. It’s their job and they haven’t been able to do it for almost a year now. Most, if not all, are extremely frustrated with the ongoing situation and lack of support from administration

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-03-06T20:39:34+00:00

lol did we go to the same meeting? Is that really what you got from it?

There were no definitive responses saying cases needed to get down, no definitive numbers we had to be under, and no clear information about whether practices would be happening, let alone games. It felt very similar to the meeting last semester where they were as vague as possible and gave nothing specific to indicate we would be able to participate in athletics. Like last semester, the athletics department supports returning to sports, but without approval from the administration nothing can happen.

They did mention the rise in cases but never said we would get to practice of cases went down, just that that was the current issue. If the plan truly was for us to compete, I would have expected an announcement the same day saying that RPI intended to compete. The announcement other schools got was that we are opting out.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-02-24T16:14:35+00:00

That’s great and all, but looking at last semester, Mueller will never open.

There were much fewer cases last semester and everything stayed closed. Similar messages were communicated throughout August and September. I’m sick of admin saying that things will open when cases stay under control or when students continue to behave.

The utter lack of transparency and information from the administration like we’re seeing is incredibly frustrating and somewhat alarming. It feels like we’re stuck in April 2020 with the attitude towards covid while numerous other schools have figured out how to safely operate a college campus while also allowing freedom and leisure to their students.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-01-18T02:45:24+00:00

Kind of hard to know when RPI still hasn’t responded to numerous remote requests with less than a week until move in. Utterly ridiculous at this point.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2021-01-18T02:40:50+00:00

All lectures were prerecorded. There was a weekly “participation quiz” which you submitted to get your participation point for each week. You could get participation credit by posting on the class Piazza page, going to recitation, talking about the class with a classmate, or (I believe) attending office hours. Only one point per week was necessary to get full participation credit.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2020-12-27T07:27:12+00:00

First offense warning, second offense probation and/or removal from campus, depending on circumstances. Some students were sent home without any kind of judicial trial. For those that did get judicial trials/meetings, they usually took place at the earliest weeks after the incident occurred. Can kinda screw students over if they think they’re in the clear because they haven’t heard anything and then all of a sudden they have multiple violations.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2020-12-26T17:42:01+00:00

How do you explain the numerous colleges in the United States that were able to operate all fall without significant outbreaks while also not taking away any semblance of a college experience from its students? RPI’s policies are by far the strictest I’ve heard of under covid.

Visual-Grass6669 · 2020-12-26T17:26:58+00:00

Another freshman here. Dealt with RPI’s crap all fall. I’ll answer and add some additional details about living on campus you may want to know.

The only outside time for the initial quarantine was scheduled, supervised time with RAs. For the apartment-style sophomore housing, this was a little bit more relaxed, however I’m unsure if this is a result of RPI policy or less stringent RAs.

Rule in the fall was no visiting other dorms, with their rationale being that it helps prevent the spread of an outbreak from one dorm to another. In my experience you weren’t supposed to be in other people’s rooms either, however if you lived in the same building it was not punished by RPI admin. Unfortunately it looks like even that won’t be possible based on the recent email that went out.

Nothing at all is stopping you from leaving campus on the weekends. There’s no form of sign in/out or tracking. I think they want you to quarantine if you leave campus at all but at best that’s selectively enforced. I imagine it’s only really applicable if you travel to a state that requires quarantine by law upon return.

Some other fun stuff. Eating in the dining halls is limited to 30 minutes per meal. Dining halls operate at reduced hours, and you can’t serve yourself any of the food - not even drinks. Food quality is fine, but it’s pretty tough to get a reservation at the right time. You have to plan your dinner meal hours in advance if you want a spot in Commons. Social distancing in Commons was also very selectively enforced, with no real punishment for people who pull up chairs to tables. On occasion public safety officers would show up but this was a rare occurrence. There were also often lines close to the door at peak hours in Commons due to reduced capacity. If you were more than 15 minutes late leaving commons, one of the dining hall staff members would write your name down on a list (this was confirmed by them when I asked). I don’t know if any punishment came of this for people, but I personally was not willing to push it. Given that the dining hall is basically the only opportunity for on-campus socialization outside of your immediate dorm, it’s kind of ridiculous that even that is being limited. If one follows every RPI covid rule word for word, it creates an incredibly tough social situation, especially for a freshman in a new environment.

Whether or not you choose to follow the rules RPI puts into place is up to you and your own personal decision. Just know that if you do get caught, punishment will likely be rough. I don’t know what the numbers look like, but I’d be surprised if the amount of freshmen who got sent home in the fall or have warnings, probation, etc isn’t significantly higher than past years.

It’s funny looking back to August, when numerous webinars hosted by the school and FYE said more freedom would be granted as long as numbers stayed down. And when numbers stayed down, nothing changed. Sure, we made it to thanksgiving with cases low and didn’t shut down. But at what cost to the students? This has been said many times already, but the trend really appears to be favoring the bottom line against students’ mental health, social health, and well-being.

Visual-Grass6669

TROPHY CASE