It's the 25th anniversary of the 1985 NCAA hockey championship, and there is a big celebration this weekend to commemorate the event.  I selected some archival photos of the big win to share with you.  Enjoy!  

It's that time of the semester when students focus on intense study and face their final examinations.  Professors (and/or TAs) will then spend hours grading the exams and recording final grades.  In the early years of the Institute, final examinations were not evaluated by professors, but by a board of examiners.  The Board of Examiners was composed of several "literary, scientific and practical men" not associated with the Institute.  The examiners were appointed by Stephen Van Rensselaer himself for several years and then by the Board of Trustees.  A public exami

This weekend the Rensselaer community will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson's tenure as president as well as commemorate the first decade of the Rensselaer Plan and completion of the Renaissance at Rensselaer capital campaign.  Dr.

The area referred to lately as "Science Quad North" (the location of the three tiered platform sometimes referred to as the "wedding cake," walkways to the library, VCC, Amos Eaton, etc.) is currently being re-landscaped.  If you haven't been on campus lately, the "wedding cake" is gone. I thought it would be interesting to show the evolution of this area of campus through a quick photomontage.  I'll let the pictures do the talking!

It is not surprising to find that flu pandemics have impacted the RPI community in the past.  In 1918, the Spanish flu hit campus at a most inopportune time.  It was October and 650 students conscripted into the Student Army Training Corp were about to move into temporary barracks on campus.  The flu ripped through the SATC and by the end of October, six men had died of pneumonia.  Nearly 200,000 people in the U.S.

It's busy here on campus with Reunion & Homecoming in full swing. Here are a few old reunion photographs to mark the occasion. Enjoy!

Reunion & Homecoming weekend is coming up, and sports will be a hot topic with all the excitement surrounding the dedication of the new East Campus Athletic Village.  With this in mind, I've prepared a little trivia quiz to engage you in some sports history.  I'll post the answers on Thursday, October 1st [check the comments]. Feel free to post your answers in a comment -- I'll give you a virtual award if they are all correct.  Have fun!  :)

The Hockey Line is a long-standing (no pun intended) tradition at RPI.  When and why did it start?  Before 1972, student tickets rotated through sections on the North and West sides during the season so that everyone had a chance to sit in the best seats on the North side.  Brace poles, in place until 1983, obstructed the view from some sections.  In 1972, about 900 seats in sections H and K were sold on a first come, first served basis.  The remaining sections continued to rotate.  Students lined up in the Rathskellar about 12 hours in advance to purchase thes

Getting students to college usually involves parents with cars packed to capacity.  The cars line up in front of residence halls and multiple trips are made to haul in the accoutrements that make a dorm room comfy.  The admissions process and student orientation sessions are in the past; room assignments, mea

The cane, a fashion accessory popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was also a college status symbol.  Canes or walking sticks were once commonly "worn" by men during this time period.  At many colleges, freshmen had to earn the right to carry a cane on campus.  Cane rushes or cane contests involved a game of sport or wit between the freshmen and sophomores to win this right.  If the RPI freshmen lost, they could not carry canes until Washington's birthday.  Check out this web page to learn more about the contest at RPI: