Welcome to Rochester Institute of Technology! We are delighted that you will be devoting your expertise and teaching talent to the development of our students. As you begin your exciting assignment here at RIT, we are pleased to encourage you to take advantage of our newly developed Adjunct Faculty Online Orientation.

RIT is committed to providing the support and the tools you need for a successful and enjoyable teaching experience. Adjunct teaching presents rewards but also unique challenges for communication with the university, especially if you will not regularly be on campus.

Our current Strategic Plan, "Learning and Careers 2004", has served us well. Its primary focus was to maintain, sustain, and incrementally enhance RIT's presence as a leading institution of higher education. As a member of our faculty, I strongly encourage you to review RIT's Strategic Plan. The next strategic plan will be more than a strategic plan. It will offer a "dream" which will shape RIT's "destiny". The vision, structure, and the essence of the next strategic plan will incorporate and reflect the dream and destiny.

The student is the most important individual on campus. Teaching is the most important activity or function of the faculty. Student learning and success are the most important outcomes of the teaching function. Learning involves collaboration between faculty and students and among students. Supporting Student Success is one of our core values and to that end you play a very important role. RIT is unique in the diversity of our students and so we must work differently as we take this into account.

As a member of the adjunct faculty, you should maintain an attitude that reflects your role as mentor for students, leader in the classroom, and colleague and partner with students in the overall learning effort. You are expected to advise and counsel students on matters relating to the course or courses you teach, academics in general, and the profession for which the student is preparing. It is with this charge that I welcome you to RIT and present to you the Adjunct Faculty Online Orientation.

Albert J. Simone
President

Please visit my website at http://www.rit.edu/president.