The History of RIT

Respected internationally as a world leader in career-oriented and professional education, Rochester Institute of Technology has been setting an innovative pace since 1829, when a Revolutionary War veteran and the city’s namesake, Col. Nathaniel Rochester, became the first president of the Rochester Athenaeum. Founded as a reading society, the Athenaeum charged members a five-dollar annual fee to hear lectures by some of America’s best-known orators - including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Horace Greeley and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

In September 1885, a group of Rochester businessmen founded Mechanics Institute to establish "free evening schools in the city for instruction in drawing and such other branches of studies as are most important for industrial pursuits of great advantage to our people." Henry Lomb was Mechanics Institute’s first president.

Mechanics Institute merged in 1891 with Rochester Athenaeum to form the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute (RAMI). Comprehensive instruction in mechanical subjects was RAMI’s hallmark. The Institute’s builders responded to both industrial and societal trends in Rochester, and each year the Institute graduated increasing numbers of expertly trained professionals who found work in industry both in Rochester and around the world.

In 1944, in recognition of the increasingly specialized professional nature of its programs, the university adopted the name it holds today: Rochester Institute of Technology.

During each RIT presidency, the university moved to another plane of achievement. Carleton B. Gibson, who took office in 1910, implemented a system that became central to the education of every future student - the cooperative education program, begun in 1912.

When Gibson retired in 1916, America was on the brink of involvement in World War I. His successor, James F. Barker, guided the Institute during these years when its classrooms were filled by military trainees in intensive six-week practical programs. Barker retired when the war ended, leaving Royal B. Farnum to run a school that devoted a large part of its efforts to rehabilitation of veterans. The first Alumni Association was formed during Farnum’s presidency, a health service was begun for students, and a Faculty Council was established.

John A. Randall took the reins of the Institute in 1922. He helped to form a balanced vision for RIT as the source of a technical education every bit equal to the classical education available from a traditional university, offering a blend of practical and liberal arts instruction.

In 1936, a young economics professor, Dr. Mark Ellingson, was named to what would become the longest presidency in RIT’s history - 33 years. During Ellingson’s presidency, enrollment at RIT skyrocketed. He brought the Empire School of Printing to RIT from Ithaca. The downtown campus became larger.

During the Second World War, RIT lost numerous students to military service, but at war’s end many returned, and the Institute’s form of education became more popular than ever. The School for American Craftsmen was added, and the Institute began offering an associate degree. In 1953, RIT received permission to award the Bachelor of Science degree. And, in 1966, it was approved as the home campus of a new, federally established college, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The Ellingson years also saw other changes, such as the establishment of the College of Business and the Graphic Arts Research Center.

When the New York State Department of Public Works decided it would build the Inner Loop through the downtown RIT campus, the decision was made to build a new campus in the suburbs. The year RIT moved to its 1,300 acre campus in Henrietta - 1968 - Mark Ellingson retired. During his tenure, the assets of the Institute had grown from $2.3 million to more than $40 million.

In 1969, sociologist Dr. Paul A. Miller became the Institute’s sixth president. Miller, formerly an assistant secretary of education at the federal level, supervised RIT’s maturation. Enrollment more than doubled during the period in which he served, and academic programs multiplied extensively. The Nathaniel Rochester Society was founded, and a major fund-raising campaign was launched.

The 150th year of the Institute, 1979, saw major campus celebrations and the first year of Dr. M. Richard Rose’s presidency. Dramatic growth and development of RIT’s worldwide reputation as a provider of high-quality education followed in the next 12 years. Programs in microelectronic engineering, telecommunications, computer engineering and biotechnology, among others, became examples of RIT’s response to industry needs. In 1991, the first imaging science students at RIT and in the nation began their studies. Many campus buildings, including the Hale-Andrews Student Life Center, were completed during Rose’s term.

RIT welcomed its eighth president, Dr. Albert J. Simone, in September 1992. Dr. Simone believed that teaching, learning and scholarship were the central enterprises of the university. Under his leadership, RIT developed and implemented a comprehensive strategic plan, the central focus of which is to ensure that RIT leads higher education in preparing students for successful careers over their lifetimes. Simone helped launch Ph.D. programs in microsystems engineering (2002), computing and information sciences (2005) and color science (2007). He also spearheaded the addition of the Gordon Field House and Activities Center and approved RIT's move to Division I men's hockey.

William W. Destler became RIT’s ninth president on July 1, 2007. He was formerly senior vice president for academic affairs and provost of the University of Maryland at College Park. He has a vision to take RIT to the next level by transforming it into the nation’s first "Innovation University."

Today, RIT enrolls more than 16,000 full- and part-time students in its eight colleges. Its co-op program is recognized as one of the nation’s oldest and largest, offering students the opportunity to gain valuable experience and earn funds to support their education. The Institute has achieved international recognition for its quality career and professional programs, and it has more than 100,000 alumni around the world.