No correlation here, folks.
Dr. Jackson is being named by sources as the reason a millionaire "friend of the Institute" has removed RPI, previously the primary beneficiary, from his will. More details as they become available.
Dr. Jackson's misguided plan to turn Proctor's into that hotel we so desperately needed has finally fallen to pieces. Literally.
Dr. Jackson lied about providing a substantial increase in financial aid for upperclassman. The upperclassman are the poor souls who have seen tuition increase close to 25% since they accepted admission, according to...everyone who's seen their financial aid package and the lack of a 7% increase in aid, though it had been previously anticipated.
On an entirely unrelated subject, there's an interesting legend set in the 1990s about the students of RPI banding together and playing an instrumental role in removing the president of the Institute. Given the readership's appreciation for tales with such happy endings, anyone with more knowledge of the account is asked to email tipbernstein@yahoo.com and share what they know...and if they're interested in making a 21st century revision.
Dr. Jackson's misguided plan to turn Proctor's into that hotel we so desperately needed has finally fallen to pieces. Literally.
Dr. Jackson lied about providing a substantial increase in financial aid for upperclassman. The upperclassman are the poor souls who have seen tuition increase close to 25% since they accepted admission, according to...everyone who's seen their financial aid package and the lack of a 7% increase in aid, though it had been previously anticipated.
On an entirely unrelated subject, there's an interesting legend set in the 1990s about the students of RPI banding together and playing an instrumental role in removing the president of the Institute. Given the readership's appreciation for tales with such happy endings, anyone with more knowledge of the account is asked to email tipbernstein@yahoo.com and share what they know...and if they're interested in making a 21st century revision.
posted by Bernstein at 5:08 PM
15 Comments:
"...banding together and playing an instrumental role..."
Does anyone else see the pun in this sentence fragment or is it just me?
Hehehe! Nice play on words, Bernstein. :)
"Students are transients who have no input" Dan Berg, RPI president 1985-1987
Whoa, Troy isn't THAT bad.
Why do you think she started this whole "Renaissance at Rensselaer" and "capital campaign" crap? She's promoting herself. She has no idea how to be a good president of a university. When asked if she would leave if given a position by Kerry (if he won presidency), she stumbled over her words and didn't know how to respond. Finally, she said, "I won't leave anything unfinished, if that's what you mean." Can you get any more vague?
I've talked to professors at RPI as well as a previous Faculty Senate Chair. One of them summed it up well: "She's the best example of self-promotion I've ever seen..."
Black, white, Hispanic, Latino...it doesn't matter what ethnicity she is. What matters is if she's really doing what's in the best interest for RPI or what's in the best interest for her. A lot of people feel it's the latter of the two.
Bottom Line: People at RPI, on the whole, do not approve of Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. Why? Any number of reasons. The fact that she self-promotes; the fact that she removes certain individuals from the decision making process; the fact that she's a heavy Democratic donor; the fact that she ignored student input when deciding upon the Commencement speaker; the fact that tuition has increased notably since she came into office; the Graduate tuition policy; etc.
She's a great speaker and has raised herself up in an amazing story of courage. That doesn't make her a good President of RPI, that makes her a determine individual.
Amen to that!
SAJ is actually hurting the Troy community, not helping it. She has refused to participate in efforts to more closely tie the community to the Institute, such as bussing systems downtown, integrated RPI ID purchasing systems in the City, etc. The Institute purchases buildings downtown but basically does nothing with them (such as Proctor's). Instead of renovating existing buildings to serve specific functions, she spends money from her capital campaign to create more reasons to not ever leave campus. Example: EMPAC is being created as a performance space, which will directly compete with the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Instead of putting a new or better performance space in downtown Troy that attracts a different type of crowd than the Savings Bank, she erects one up on the hill next to the other ivory towers and plans on inviting performers who might otherwise have gone downtown. Additionally, all of your arguments about her raising money from alumni are only applicable to her spending habits with respect to the school ... none of that money is being funneled back into Troy, just into basically worthless buildings like the biotech center and EMPAC (both of which are usable primarily by visiting faculty and researchers instead of RPI students, graduate students, and faculty). Some "great president" she is. I'd be interested to hear specific examples of how you think she has actually *helped* the RPI and Troy communities instead of hurting them.
so i have no specific opinion on shirley, but i don't understand this self-promotion thing. plus, even if she does do self-promotion, so what? i mean, what does that have to do with anything? isnt that part of her job? does she do self-promotion 24/7? no, does she do it too much? i dunno, what is too much, she works like 10 hours a day for rpi and uses time more effectively than any other manager i've ever seen, so... whats the problem with this?
ok, next, proctors. for rpi to advance to the next level, there needs to be a place to put visiting professors that doesnt double as a place for prositution and crack. the best western wasnt cutting this. luckily we now have franklin plaza, but still, not quite top rate. so what happens, they send visitors the desmond in albany. shirley knew this was required, as did all the faculty i've talked to that have people come and visit, as did many of the visitors. so she tried to take it in your own hands and make it work. they did a bunch of research on it and couldnt find a good way to make it work for the school and the city. buying a building like proctor's for $166,000 is not a bad risk to take knowing that it may not work out in the end. so, now there is a solution that gets them what they want. is that a failure? if city hall moves there and the current city hall is turned into a hotel/marina, isnt that an incredible success? maybe its not planned out, but they did retain control over the building long enough to make something work out in the end. the people they bought it from, if they knew about the money bruno wants to put into it, would NOT have sold for so little. probably most any developer that might have bought it would have sold the building for much more, screwing the city. as far as i know, rpi is simply going to sell it at cost, but i guess we should wait and see.
as for RAD money, i dont think its shirley who is stopping this. as far as i know, it is still in the works, but perhaps you could say they "refused" to implement the systems that were thought of until now. so, lets see if you can solve one of their problems: how do you prevent fraud? sure, there are answers to this, but they dont come easily. so either solve it, or sit back and wait until they do. this is a problem rpi is working on, and they have a direct need to solve it.
as for something like a shuttle downtown (there are bus lines), this is something they really need to do, but i'm betting they are just waiting for the area to develop more, and are doing things to help that development. troy is shitty, i watch crack deals and prostitutes from my window every day. there are nicer parts, but they arent tied together well, so you end up walking past drugs, hookers, or other types of crime. it sucks, but its getting better. i think having a shuttle would help that situation, but its a touchy subject when parents perceive a shuttle to downtown troy as a problem. sucks..
and back to empac and biotech. people, lets be clear, the choice was not: "build these buildings or do something for the students or lower tuition or whatever." the choice was, "here is some money, if you want it, you have to build these buildings with it. you want this $440 million??"
and last, there was a study, conducted at the request of shirley, to see rpi's contribution to the community. they estimated the 2001 economic impact to be $397 million. here is the quote:
In 2001, the Institute’s overall economic impact on the Capital Region totaled $397 million and more than 3,100 jobs. [ http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/sub/impact/ ]
so, lets pretend they exaggerated by some huge amount, lets say its 50%. thats a huge exaggeration, right? so then the non-exaggerated bit is $200million. whoah. no money is going back into the community. i mean, thats like nothing right? i mean, its only $200 million, that doesnt count. i mean, thats like 1.7 empacs, and we all know that empac didnt cost much at all.
and then there is the housing program where rpi gives buyers money just for buying and living in a house... does that not count either?
so thats my problem with many of the arguements above. and actually most of bernsteins, they are more sensationalist than drudge and totally mislead the reader from the reality of the situation.
to be clear, i have heard many bad things about shirley from faculty and it sounds like she can be doing many things better. for, as a graduate, i like what she is doing because it raises the status and perception of rpi in people's head when i want a job. as a troy resident, i'm finding the school is a great resource for things that i want to do, and shirley's communiversity concept is actually creating a good dialogue between rpi and the community. before you complain, ask, "what is the goal," and then tell me that these things dont contribute to the goal (although they may look dumb or misguided when you focus on them and dont look at the big picture).
well thats what i think anyway
oh right, and troy savings bank vs. empac. do you know what empac is? i mean, read the website: empac.rpi.edu, list to lazeta's comments on the jewelry box, and then tell me again that troy savings bank, which is owned by a bank, mind you, tell me how that place can serve the needs of empac, and how it would accomplish for the school what empac will. but its hard to see beyond obvious sometimes... perhaps look at cooperstown, ny. do you know what it is? the baseball hall of fame is there. do you know what else? nothing. do you know why people know cooperstown? becasue someone build a big building there and put it on the map.
and then i again refer you to the part about the choice with empac was not, build here or there, or build this or that, but do you want this money to build this specific building or not.
She should not be promoting herself at the expense of RPI and its students.
I think that's what people are trying to say.
And she is. Just look at the capital campaign.
show me the capital campaign. where do i find it? what is it?
http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=549&setappvar=page(1)
alright i totally dont get how you can say this is about her and not rpi. is it the part where they celebrate the achievements of rpi under her leadership? do you really think that that is more about her blowing her own horn than about the school? i mean, ok, if you want to think that, but i think you are pretty much searching for any little thing to say against her. and granted, i have no real opinion of her, but i cannot see how this amounts to her grandstanding or whatever you call it. She uses the word "our," she is talking about rpi, and just so you guys know, rpi has a president, and things happen while the president is in place. did clinton really help the economy? i dunno, but the general consensus has been that life was good under clinton. they were just in the right position when things happen, and either did things or refrained from doing things. thats about it. she did things that might have happened anyway, and she didnt do things that might have happened if she wasnt there. so f-ing what? how is talking about what happened while she was president grandstanding, especially when the OVERALL point is that she is trying to raise 1 BILLION DOLLARS for rpi. Thats a lot, right? sounds like a lot to me. sounds like it would do a lot for the school. so go, shirley, go.
EMPAC vs. Savings Bank:
EMPAC *should* be used as experimental media only. Savings Bank is only being used for symphonic concerts, etc (because it is one of the most acoustically perfect performance spaces in the world, which is why it is valuable, even if it is not 'modern' like EMPAC). However, if you listen to what Shirley has been saying about EMPAC, it will not just be used for experimental media and performances -- it will be used for headlining performances that might otherwise go to the Savings Bank so she can drag people in from out of town. Yeah, it'll probably increase the prestige of RPI or Troy or whatever, but that would be at the cost of eliminating the Savings Bank as a performance space. Troy is hurting enough already from overdevelopment on the hill and lack of concentration on the Troy community.
BUSES
Mass transportation is good for the environment and good for the community. Where would most cities be without mass transportation? How is it feasible to argue for people to all have cars? I agree with the bike thing, though -- Troy needs to be more bike-friendly. Lazeta clearly does not understand economics if he thinks that all of the low-income workers can go out and be independently wealthy.
BIOTECH
Let's get one thing crystal clear: the biotech center was not built for RPI students, grad students, or most professors. It was built to bring prestige to the school by bringing in tons of visiting professors / researchers / etc. Therefore, most of the building is off-limits to most students. And I'd love to know where you are getting this crap about "here is the money for this specific building" because last time I checked, the gargantuan anonymous gift given to RPI wasn't earmarked for EMPAC and Biotech. In fact, the 25% increase in tuition over the past four years has been largely attributed to the Institute's inability to pay for these buildings because of administrative screwups with the budgets they were given after getting the donations to complete the projects.
NEGATIVITY
SAJ is doing a great job of raising money for the school, and a decent job of making the school look good from an outsider's perspective. There has been an influx of jobs and money into the area as a direct result of RPI's actions. However, that does not mean that there is not room for improvement. The areas that need improving are: direct assistance and development in the city of Troy itself (which does not involve providing more and more reasons for students and faculty and visitors to stay on campus); Working *with* the faculty instead of threatening their jobs to make the education at the Institute better; and working *with* the students to make their experience at RPI better instead of writing them off and completely ignoring their voice. SAJ is very good at being externally focused -- which is why she is one of the best fundraisers this Institute has ever seen. However, she is awful at being internally focused, which is why the faculty and student body generally dislike her.
Also, if you're going to make arguments, don't rant on about jewelry boxes and Kerry and a whole bunch of other crap that doesn't make sense. Plus, it helps to have a few examples to back up what you're saying.
sorry, anonymous, you are correct. the final gift was unrestricted, while the original gift was for the two buildings. i might speculate that there were some politics in the background that kept the two buildings in the plan, but like you said, it does say unrestricted....
http://www.rpi.edu/web/Campus.News/mar01/mar_12/home.html#1
In an extraordinary demonstration of support, the anonymous donor who pledged $130 million to the Institute in December 2000 now has replaced the earlier gift with one almost triple in size, and given Rensselaer complete discretion in its use.
In making the new gift, the anonymous donor replaced the earlier commitment with a new, unrestricted pledge of $360 million. The earlier gift was directed toward the construction of two major facilities: The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center. The new gift is unrestricted.
----
in regards to the music hall, if you look at the performance schedule, i dont think there will be much overlap with empac. there are two reasons i say this.
1) the musicians who play the music hall WANT to play the music hall because of its reputation. although empac will have very very very innovative acoustics, its not quite the same thing, and is more geared for innovative artists rather than traditional artists. in addition, empac will be able to draw performances that would not play the music hall, or even things like presidential debates, which of course would not happen at the music hall.
2) from what i know of the director of empac, he is simply not interested in the type of performance series that happen at the music hall. there may be one or two instances of overlap, but johannes performance plan is geared more towards expanding boundaries rather than just traditional music performance, such as the jazz and gospel that seems to be the major theme this summer.
as for the jewelry box metaphor, i thought it made sense... although i didnt quite get all the kerry stuff, but then again, i dont care about it.. but the example lazeta gave was seeing ethyl there. ethyl, which is more... ummm.. "new," would have had a lot more options in a space like what empac is supposed to be. so the box didnt fit the jewel. but thats all minor.
thanks for getting me to doublecheck my facts there.
Post a Comment
<< Home