The Inanimate Objects Party is a rogue political party dedicated to the promotion of absurdity. Every year, we run an inflatable whale by the name of Arthur Galpin for the position of Grand Marshal, the most important office in student government at RPI. Unlike animate objects, Mr. Galpin cannot be expelled, fired, or killed. This comes in handy when he is saying things that the people in charge of the Institute and student government do not want to hear, such as that an inflatable whale would do a better job than they would.
The IOP has been a thorn in the side of campus politicians since 1997 (yes, that makes us older than Genesis.) Our history has been long and uneven, and the organization has sometimes faded out of sight, but things have begun to change. IOP posters returned to campus last year. Signs, balloons, and miniature inflatable whales appeared during GM Week. A band of dedicated Ioperatives took over the Commons polling center on election day. Finally, Arthur Galpin made his appearance in person (or perhaps "in whale") at the Spring Fling. Already, the followers of The Man have begun to tremble...
The leader of the IOP has traditionally been known as the Grand High Exalted Poo-bah (ghep). This position is currently vacant. If you wish to contact an Ioperative and do not know any method of doing so, e-mail arthurgalpin (at) yahoo.com. To contact the maintainer of this site, send mail to webmaster (at) inflatablewhale.org.