$2 million to launch telecom center

Another new edifice will soon rise on the RIT campus when the university creates a comprehensive center for telecommunications education and research.

The late William McGowan, founder of MCI Communications Corp.

Spurred by a $2 million grant from the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund, RIT will create the William G. McGowan Center for Telecommunications, the centerpiece of a new 50,000-square-foot School of Engineering Technology Building. The structure, which will be located near the Louise M. Slaughter Building, will also include McGowan Student Commons, a three-story, 7,000-square-foot main entrance and gathering space for students and special events.

The telecom center will bring students, university and high school faculty, and working professionals together for collaborative teaching and research. It will house the telecommunications system lab, featuring the most advanced curriculum and equipment in the nation; the optoelectronics lab; the K-12 networking lab and “smart” classrooms. The $2 million McGowan grant will fund two-thirds of the cost of the telecom center.

“The grant is a great honor in the name of a true pioneer in the telecommunications field,” says Wiley McKinzie, dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology. “It’s the keystone gift for the School of Engineering Technology Building.”

Rendering of McGowan Student Commons

The structure will be home to CAST programs in electrical, computer and telecommunications engineering technology; civil engineering technology/environmental management and safety; and manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology/packaging science. It will house RIT’s Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly and the National Technology Training Center, where high school teachers train in engineering technology curricula through Project Lead the Way and the Cisco Networking Academy. It will be a center for cross-disciplinary projects in CAST, the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences and the Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

“The board of directors of the McGowan Charitable Fund is pleased to be able to join with RIT in the creation of this unique and needed telecommunications center named after our founder, Bill McGowan,” says Monsignor Andrew McGowan, chairman of the fund and brother of the late William McGowan. “It will help fulfill the vision Bill had for the entire telecommunications field and will, for years to come, advance research and learning in this important industry.”

William McGowan, a pioneer in the telecommunications field, founded MCI Communications Corp. in 1968 and led the company until his death in 1992. His vision helped shape RIT’s telecommunications engineering technology program when he urged universities to prepare a workforce for the changing industry by stressing technology, public policy and marketing.

“The telecom field is dynamic and resilient,” adds Carol Richardson, professor and chair of RIT’s electrical, computer and telecommunications engineering technology program. “RIT is seeing growth in the number of permanent and cooperative educational opportunities for our telecom students.”

RIT’s telecommunications engineering technology undergraduate program was the first accredited program of its kind in the nation when it was launched in 1989.

Today, it is one of only four such programs in the U.S. It features technical and management tracks and certificate programs, all available on campus and online. Last year, RIT began a master’s degree program in telecommunications engineering technology, the first of its kind in the nation.

The grant is the largest to RIT from the Washington, D.C.-based William G. McGowan Charitable Fund Inc. and among the fund’s largest to any institution. Founded in 1992 by William McGowan, the fund has provided RIT with more than $100,000 in business scholarships.