On behalf of the RIT Academic Senate, it is my pleasure to welcome you as new faculty to the Rochester Institute of Technology. I believe that you will find RIT a welcoming and vibrant community. You have arrived at an exciting time for our university where positive growth and transition have empowered faculty and created an environment devoted to learning, scholarship and professional development. We look forward to you sharing the ideas and expertise you bring with our students, academic departments and community as a whole.

At RIT you join a faculty who participate in institutional affairs through a system of shared governance. The Academic Senate includes representatives from Student Government, Deans Council, and Administration, but is primarily composed of faculty representing the nine Rochester based colleges. The College of Applied Science and Technology, the E. Philip Saunders College of Business, the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Science, the College of Health Sciences and Technology, and the National Technical Institute of the Deaf. The Senate is committed to timely communication and actions on issues and policies that affect the faculty, academics, the campus environment, and the RIT community.

The faculty voice in decision making is dependent on the extent to which individual faculty members are willing to devote time to governance. We encourage you, as new faculty members, to look to us as a resource for any questions that you may have, a forum for participation in discussions involving campus issues and ultimately, as a site of authentic decision making about our academic community and its future.

Opportunities for your participation are extensive and involve the Senate Committees that work throughout the year. Information about the Academic Senate can be found on the Senate's web site at http://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/academicsenate/ which includes the Senate's Charter of Academic Committee information, committee reports, discussion topics, meeting agendas and minutes from the meetings.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I can be reached by phone at 475-7908 or via e-mail at paul.tymann@rit.edu. The Office of the Academic Senate is located in Room 2106 of the Eastman Building. The Senate administrative support person is Vivian Gifford. Viv can be contacted at 475-2016 or via e-mail at asenate@rit.edu.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Paul Tymann, Chair
Academic Senate

Academic Senate Executive Committee:

• Paul Tymann, Chair, GCCIS, x5-7908, paul.tymann@rit.edu
• S. Manian Ramkumar, Vice Chair, CAST, x5-6081, smrmet@rit.edu
• Heidi Miller, Operations Officer, CHST, x5-5945, hbmscl@rit.edu
• Andy Phelps, Communications Officer, GCCIS, x5-6758, andy@rit.edu
• Charlotte Thoms, Treasurer, NTID, x5-6688, cltnbt@rit.edu