Dimension One: Career education and student success

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The strategic plan calls for providing student leaders such as Ashley Carrington, a fourth-year finance and management information systems student and the Student Government president, with a broad range of leadership development opportunities during their time in school. Carrington is a legacy student.

Cultivating student success is what we do—it is and will continue to be our core mission. Of course, as the world changes, so too does the definition of student success. The knowledge and skills that will be required of graduating students in 2025 are virtually unimaginable to us today, and what distinguished graduates in the job market of 1995 could well be obsolete in 2025. RIT’s tradition of academic excellence, its appetite for difference and adaptation, and its commitment to students will ensure the continuation of student success as our paramount institutional mission. Recognizing that new models of “the successful college graduate” place increasing demands on the already limited time of college students, RIT will be innovative and flexible in the supplemental learning experiences it develops.

There are some elements of student success over which no institution has control; we cannot re-write students’ high school preparation or re-program their social skills or even require them to learn. But we do have control over the single most important determinant of success: the quality of our academic enterprise. Without absolute confidence in the quality of the teaching, learning, research, scholarship, and academic support services that are the student’s academic environment, we cannot expect to provide our graduates with the knowledge and skills that will guarantee their success.

Difference Makers

• RIT will build upon its strong academic portfolio, extensive experiential learning and co-curricular offerings, and the rich diversity of its people and programs to develop “T-shaped” graduates possessing both disciplinary depth (the vertical axis of the “T”) and breadth across multiple skills and competencies (the horizontal axis, or “transversal” skills).
• RIT will offer opportunities for study at the intersections of technology and the arts, imagination and application, and rigor and curiosity—all designed to meet the demands of future careers in the complex global economy.
• RIT will further enhance its position as the preeminent academic institution and model for professional and technical education for people who are deaf or hard of hearing around the world.
• RIT will lead higher education with a bold new model for ensuring academic quality through a unique outcomes-based assessment model designed to ensure continuous progress in student learning, graduate success, stakeholder satisfaction, and academic excellence.
• RIT will expand and strengthen opportunities for experiential learning to the point that there are sufficient placement opportunities for all undergraduate and graduate students to participate in at least one such experience.
• Through a blend of curricular, co-curricular, and experiential offerings, RIT will build a leadership program that will equip more graduates to become leaders in their fields.
• RIT will make the on-time graduation of its undergraduate and graduate students a highly visible university priority.
• RIT will be a center of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship that serves as an important economic engine for Rochester, the region, and the nation.
• RIT will establish a campus-wide culture that embraces alumni, contributes to their lifelong learning, and relies upon them for counsel and support.

Supporting Objectives

• Within five years, lead private U.S. universities in the number of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) undergraduates enrolled at and graduating from RIT.
• Launch 20 startup companies per year.
• Expand the university’s role as a national and international Resource Center of Excellence in the education of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Design and implement “RIT for Life,” a program for alumni that serves as a catalyst for their lifelong learning and continuous career development.

More on the Strategic Plan:

Greatness Through Difference: Preface
A University of Firsts: The Past
A University of Innovation: The Present
A Responsive University: The Context
The Power of Diversity: The future
Dimension I: Career Education and Student Success
Dimension II: The Student-Centered Research University
Dimension II: Leveraging Difference
Dimension IV: Affordability, Value, And Return on Investment
Dimension V: Organizational Agility
Already Great and Making a Difference