The University Magazine
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
BY ALBERT SIMONE
In what follows, I shall list my top 10 – in priority order – aspirations for RIT as it moves to Category-of-One status over the next 10 years. These 10 aspirations are connected. They overlap. And this connectedness and overlapping enables them to be synergistic and mutually reinforcing.
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A Category-of-One university is a university that stands alone among universities. I like to describe RIT Category-of-One in the following way: Ten years from now, the top 100 students graduating from high school in the country will all apply to MIT, Harvard and RIT. All 100 students will be admitted by all three universities. One-third of the students will chose RIT over MIT and Harvard. These students will choose RIT not because it is like MIT and Harvard but, rather, because it is different from MIT and Harvard. This differentiated RIT is what these top students value most.
Reaching any one or a few of the 10 aspirations listed below will not do the job. Rather, all 10 aspirations must be satisfied simultaneously by the end of 10 years, and each aspiration must be satisfied at a very high level. There may be some universities that may be stronger than RIT in any one or a few of the aspirations, but taken as a whole, no other university will attain the collective impact that RIT will represent.
That is my dream for RIT as a Category-of-One university. There are no guarantees, of course. However, if we truly believe and work as hard as we can, the worst that can happen is that we will be a lot better university than we would otherwise be if we had not tried. In this way, we will serve our students over these next ten years in ways that are better than we might otherwise have been able to achieve.
Let me turn now to these aspirations.
1. Culture
The RIT culture is one in which students, alumni, faculty, staff, trustees
and the community outside of RIT take great pride in RIT as an institution
of higher learning. The RIT family respects and celebrates the achievements
of faculty in different disciplines, the growth and development of staff throughout
the university, the accomplishments of trustees in their areas of specialization,
the awards our students garner, and the success of our alumni across the world.
2. Teaching and Learning
The most important activity of faculty is their teaching. The most important
outcome of our students is learning. The most important activity of the staff
and trustees is to facilitate the teaching/learning activities of our faculty
and students. Experientially based education is the foundation of this teaching
and learning.
For example, undergraduate students have the opportunity to learn not only in the classrooms and laboratories as part of formal curriculum development, but also through the opportunity to engage directly in undergraduate research, to travel and learn abroad, to engage directly in the creation of new ideas and products through involvement in the RIT incubator and start-up companies, and to integrate work experiences through our co-op and intern programs.
Some faculty bring to their teaching and students strong commitment to and accomplishment in applied research, some bring significant achievement in business and government, and some will bring both. All faculty incorporate real-world research and/or organizational decision-making into their coursework and interactions with students.
3. Scholarship
Teaching and learning is enriched by scholarship. Every faculty member exhibits
scholarship in every activity in which they engage every day. Scholarship
can take the form of applied (primarily) or basic research, creative works
(particularly in art and design, as well as in software development), integration
and application of knowledge, and pedagogical innovation. As each faculty
member works every day on his/her scholarship, the teaching/learning function
is enriched and students are motivated and stimulated by knowing that they
are not only on the cutting edge of the disciplines they are studying but
are actually participating in the extension of the frontier of knowledge.
4. Leadership Development
Outside of the classroom, students develop their leadership potential. They
leave RIT with a keen sense of personal, professional, and civic responsibility.
Much of this leadership, interpersonal engagement, sense of team and communication
development occurs through our extensive extracurricular programs centered
in the Division of Student Affairs but also nurtured in every other division
at RIT.
5. Students, Faculty, Staff
By the time each student graduates, he or she has a close personal and professional
relationship with at least one faculty or staff member at RIT. In effect,
each student has developed a close mentoring relationship with one or more
faculty or staff members, a relationship that extends beyond RIT and over
a lifetime.
6. Student Success
Students who attend RIT work hard in and outside of the classroom. They come
to value and appreciate the challenges and opportunities presented to them.
More than 90 percent of the students who enroll at RIT graduate from RIT. Because
of the successful attainment of the aspirations already described, RIT students
not only graduate, but they value their RIT experience for the rest of their
lives. They attribute much of their personal, professional and civic success
over their lifetimes to the unforgettable and life-defining years they spent
at RIT. They are loyal and dedicated alumni who serve as RIT’s strongest
and most effective ambassadors over their lifetimes.
7. Shared Governance, Collegiality
Everything discussed so far is achieved because of shared governance and collegiality.
People who are in decision-making modes communicate effectively with individuals
and organizations within RIT who will be affected by the decision they will
make, prior to their making the decision. In this way, those affected by
the decision are informed beforehand and have an opportunity to provide input
and to help shape the decision. The decisions made by those who are held
accountable for those decisions may not always be the most popular decisions;
however, because those affected by them have the opportunity to provide input
and to understand the rationale, they support the decisions even though they
may not fully concur with them. In this way, RIT moves forward and effectively
implements change, as it must in the dynamic global environment in which
it lives.
Communication, of course, is a two-way street. There are avenues for people who are not in decision-making positions to reach decision makers with ideas and concerns with full confidence that their voices are listened to and their ideas taken seriously. RIT is noted for its fairness, openness, and integrity. Always there is debate. Typically there is some disagreement. But always the individuals affected are not disagreeable.
8. Partnerships
RIT cannot become a Category-of-One university without partnering with business,
government, the community-at-large outside of RIT, and other universities.
RIT is a university that not only seeks partnerships in order to reach its
goals, but is an institution that is sought after by others who wish to find
a reliable partner to support their own goals.
9. Balance
The key to achieving Category-of-One status is balance. There is a balance
among RIT’s Ph.D., master’s, and bachelor’s programs, so
that they are mutually supportive and not competitive or in conflict. There
is a balance among teaching, scholarship and service. Service is broadly defined
as individual contributions to the department, college, university, profession
and community. Not every faculty member provides an equal contribution in each
of these functional areas, allowing faculty members to focus in their areas
of greater interest or comparative advantage.
10. Recognition/Branding
Ten years from now, the above aspirations come together in an orchestrated
way, producing a magnificent symphony that is truly world-class and one-of-a-kind.
The world will notice. RIT will be branded, acknowledged and recognized as
a Category-of-One University in which all of the aspirations described above
form a mosaic that is unmatched by any other university.