Message from Vice President and Associate Provost for Access, Engagement, and Success
Keith Jenkins
Welcome to RIT, a university committed to building an environment where all in our community—students, faculty, and staff—can reach their fullest potential as we advance the exceptional!
Many, from a broad range of backgrounds, make up RIT’s community and RIT endeavors to create an accessible and welcoming environment for all.
As a university, access, engagement, and success are fundamental aspects of RIT’s identity and are intrinsically tied to its historic strength as one of America’s most innovative and forward-looking universities.
Access focuses on creating pathways to higher education, thus addressing barriers that create access and success gaps. For example, history reveals that, for students, RIT was one of the earliest schools to admit women. RIT archives explain that in 1906, Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry, the granddaughter of abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass, took classes at the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute. RIT is also the only national university with an entire college dedicated to the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing populations. As for RIT employees, connections are made not only through community partnerships and professional organizations but also through initiatives designed to attract faculty and/or staff. Regardless the pathway, RIT provides an accessible and welcoming experience for all.
Engagement focuses on fostering a supportive campus environment through meaningful initiatives and programming that empower and enrich the RIT community. Such is seen through myriad campus-wide activities and events such as Tiger Walk and Fall Convocation for New Students, Brick City Homecoming, Together RIT, Let Freedom Ring, Expressions of King’s Legacy, Imagine RIT, and RIT Commencement. Students, particularly, are engaged and supported through every aspect of their RIT experience—whether in the colleges and departments where they pursue degrees; the residence halls and apartments where they connect with others on similar journeys; or through student clubs and organizations where they discover others who share their same passions. Faculty, staff and students are all impacted as they journey into the ROC where they explore the unique challenges and cultural treasures in the greater-Rochester community.
Success is reflected through outcomes. RIT provides the opportunities and resources necessary for students, faculty and staff to develop, flourish, and succeed, collectively creating a beautiful tapestry of success.
Contact
