Problems in Rice land

[E. The Kidd]

I got an e-mail from some one today that said:

"Evan:

I just spoke with Brother Connolly, and through this conversation it became very clear that as per your school leadership, there is "no Robotics project at Rice at the moment." As worthwhile and valuable your efforts in organizing the FIRST team are, (and I do applaud your incredible enthusiasm and determination), Brother Connolly does not consider this an official school effort, or Ms. Berenguer as the moderator he needs to consider this a viable project.

Regarding fundraising, while Brother Connolly is willing to sign letters you might write, he does not consider the Robotics program a priority, and as such he considers that "official" school fundraising efforts (letters to foundations or reaching out to corporate sponsors) should address other priorities than robotics. I urge you and the team to support Brother Connolly's agenda, and encourage you to look for alternatives for Rice students still willing to partake in Robotics this coming season. It is important that we recognize, respect, and support Brother Connolly's agenda, for nobody better than your leaders to know what is best for the school and for your future.

I have asked him to discuss this with you and Ms. Berenguer, for I think we need to be clear that as much as we would want you to continue having a Robotics team, founders will want to fund teams where there is school leadership support and where there is a connection between the academic potential of this project and the institution's own academic and organization goals.

I know how many efforts you have devoted to keeping FIRST at Rice, and how valuable you feel this is for you and other individual members of your team. I strongly encourage you, however, to consider combining your efforts to those of other organizations already involved with robotics, such as the Harlem YMCA or even CityCollege IEEE and/or NSBE student chapters or other high schools for the 2003 season. I will be glad to discuss this further and help you find alternative options for the members of your team."


I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what to do at this point. I got this team back together in the hopes that we would have school support in this venture, since we have no support we're back to square one. Grr....maybe I shouldn't have gotten the team back together.


p.s. Brother Conally is the school president (the equivalent of the BOE in one person)

Mrs. Berenguer is our team Moderator

I'm Evan and I can be contacted at Trueyank32 on AIM