This touches on two recent things I've read. Having been here far too
long for my parents and their wallets' likings, I've seen a bit of both
these two issues.
 
RPI vs. Rensselaer
 
This one creeped up about two years ago, and had to deal with the school
becoming a more rounded place. The idea was that we should pitch the school
as not just a technical institute, which we are, but also as a place where
one can get a more rounded university type education. A few people told
me we were close to becoming "Rensselaer University", but fear of alienating
the alumni was the main reason against this. The fact is that the engineering
and science curricula here are tough, but the liberal arts is very soft.
This place is in no way a university and shouldn't be considered such.
A large part of the drive was for recruitment of new students. Since I've
been here, the school routinely has accepted more than 85% of those who
apply. However, the turnover of those who end up going here is low. The lack
of a good public name recognition for the school was considered a problem,
and thus we got the name change. I believe this has been reflected in a
change on the uniforms at least this season, and possibly last season as
well. People here RPI and ask about life in Rochester. This was not the
image that the administration wanted portrayed. The funny thing is, that those
in the know... the job recruiters, et. al. know very well what RPI is and
where it is located. While we may now be Rensselaer with a grey bar underneath,
this place will always be the RPI bullet to me.
 
RPI vs. ECAC
 
This was an interesting one, because as is typical of the administration here,
there was a brief public mention of the committee that was going to look at
making a move to Hockey East and then they did their 'deliberating'. I'm
hard pressed to find any mention of their on going discussion. Little news
was made public, so we just heard that a panel was going to review the switch
and then five months later, they said no we wouldn't. Being here this summer,
I heard about coach Powers going to Bowling Green. I was surprised but the
rationale given to me, of him getting his 'dream' job made sense. A lot of
people said that the decision to move was hinged on him remaining here at RPI.
I'm not so sure. Yes, we need more exposure, but the time for a switch isn't
right. The school seems determined on becoming Rensselaer. we're not in
a position where even the school as a whole believes we are Rensselaer. Telling
the world won't work until we believe it ourselves. The loss of some real
good rivalries would be a loss for us. More TV exposure will help in the
long run, but I think we're in too much of a transition right now for it to
be practical. I'm also inclined to believe that the ECAC cannot afford to lose
us. Not so much RPI, but if any school were to jump out of the ECAC, I think
others would follow. The result would significantly weaken the ECAC, something
which it cannot afford to do. At least this should put some end to the
rumors of a switch. For now.
 
Comments?
 
Nazman
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