Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Get ready as we take a journey back to November 5, 1824. It was on this day that Stephen Van Rensselaer penned a decisive letter to Reverend Dr. Samuel Blatchford, leading to the establishment of the Rensselaer School. With Blatchford at the helm as the first president and Amos Eaton as the leading professor, the institute began its academic journey on January 3, 1825, in Troy, New York. Charging about $40 per semester, an amount you'd find equivalent to $800 in 2012, students flocked to the institution, attracted by Eaton's sterling reputation, from as far as Ohio and Pennsylvania. A successful 14-month run led to the official incorporation of the school on March 21, 1826, by New York State.

Back in those days, the Rensselaer School resembled more of a graduate institution than a college, an interesting proposition given that the majority of students were fresh graduates from other institutions. Under Eaton, the school became a hotbed of technological research. In 1832, it was rebranded as the Rensselaer Institute. The institute granted the first civil engineering degrees in the United States in 1835 and had some of the most renowned civil engineers of the time as alumni.

By 1847, change was in the air, and an alumnus Benjamin Franklin Greene took over the reins as the senior professor. Greene had meticulously studied European technical institutes to see how Rensselaer could be enhanced. His ingenuity led to a reorganization of the school into a three-year polytechnic institute with six technical schools in 1850. A decade later, in 1861, the name was changed to the now widely recognized, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Disaster struck in 1862, with the infamous "The Great Fire". It razed over 507 buildings in Troy, forcing the institute to consider a merger proposal with Columbia University in New York City. The proposal was ultimately discarded, and the institute moved from a bustling downtown to a quieter hillside area. Transitioning from interim locations like the Vail House and the Troy University building, it was only in 1864 that the institute found a new permanent abode on Broadway on 8th Street.

Fast forward to 1890, when the first Latino student organization in the United States, the Club Hispano Americano, was founded at RPI. Sparking the beginning of a culture of diversity, the institute soon recovered from yet another devastating fire in 1904 to enter an era of academic expansion under the leadership of President Palmer Ricketts.

Ricketts took over as the President in 1901, and under his dynamic leadership, the range of degrees offered increased from two to twelve, including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. Ricketts' tenure saw an exponential increase in enrollment from around 200 in 1900 to 1,700 in 1930.

Post-World War II, RPI experienced yet another expansion phase as veterans sought to utilize their GI Bill education benefits. A string of residential complexes and esteemed faculty appointments further bolstered the institute's reputation.

Skip to 1961, the eventful year when the Gaerttner Linear Accelerator, then the most powerful in the world, was constructed at the institute, signifying a milestone in academic progress at RPI. The subsequent decades witnessed consistent growth and stronger ties to industry.

As we reach the turn of the century, in 1999, RPI drew national attention by being one of the first universities to implement a mandatory laptop program. It was also in this year that Shirley Ann Jackson, a former chairperson of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under U.S. President Bill Clinton, became the eighteenth president of RPI. Jackson launched "The Rensselaer Plan", an ambitious initiative to revitalize the institute, which led to several advances and growth.

Cut to the present day in July 2022, Martin A. Schmidt, formerly the provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, assumed RPI's nineteenth presidency, promising the continuation of excellence and innovation for many years to come.

Remember, these incredible transformations you read did not happen overnight. They were the result of the collective dreams, hard work, and determination of several remarkable individuals. This brief history of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute only serves as proof that with belief, innovation and a spirit of perseverance, an institution can endure more than any natural or man-made adversity, paving the way for future generations to innovate, explore and make a difference.