COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE: RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE1 (JANUARY 2011)

According to an early historian of the institution, which became Rensselaer Institute in 1833 and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1861, RPI was "the first school of science and school of civil engineering, which has had a continuous existence, to be established in any Englishspeaking country." The ensuing "transitional structure" was not established by joint action, and transitional committee members have not been chosen by facultydetermined methods. [...] the transitional structure has failed in multiple ways to meet AAUP-recommended governance standards and has left RPI without a legitimate faculty governance structure.