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Brick City Homecoming is RIT's annual celebration of alumni, students, parents & families, faculty, staff and friends of the university.

Brick City events to look different this year at RIT

In a typical year, Rochester Institute of Technology normally sees more than 17,000 students, alumni and parents gather on campus to experience Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend, featuring more than 100 events during three days in October.

But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brick City 2020 will not be a traditional homecoming. Instead, events are being designed to allow alumni and parents to participate virtually during the week of Oct. 19 to Oct. 25, while activities for students are being planned on campus throughout the fall, including the weekend of Oct. 10-11.  

Details about those events will be announced as they become finalized.

“We are planning to engage as many students, alumni, parents, faculty and staff as possible with safe and creative opportunities to allow us to come together as the resilient, proud and supportive RIT family that we are,” said Lynn Rowoth, assistant vice president for community relations and special events. “While it is disappointing we won’t be seeing our alumni and parents in person this fall, we are encouraged that they may join us virtually to show their Tiger spirit.”

Information related to the RIT vs. Notre Dame men’s hockey game scheduled for Oct. 24 will also be released when it is known if it will occur.

The President’s Alumni Ball will be postposed to spring or later, but other traditional favorites, such as the Brick City 5K, may be held virtually to include alumni and parents from wherever they are.

Some of this year’s live events may be streamed to allow others to enjoy them. A large outdoor stage that can hold up to 15 people (safely distanced) is expected to be erected in Throws Field throughout the fall semester. And two 23-foot diameter projection screens – one on the grass next to the Student Life Center and Gordon Field House – will be available from dusk to dawn to show movies, videos of performances, memorable sports games and more.

With alumni not being able to celebrate Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend on campus this year, the Office of Alumni Relations will be offering virtual activities October 19-24, 2020.  Activities will include opportunities to engage with alumni and faculty presenters, participate in e-Sports and even compete in Tiger Trivia!  There will be activities for everyone - join as many or as few as you wish during the week.

Interpreting services have been requested for campus events. In the event there is not an interpreter available all our volunteers will have RIT TigerChat ready to use on their mobile device.

A new app that’s been developed to help the RIT community eliminate communication barriers. As a member of the RIT community, you can use TigerChat to converse with another person or group using automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology and typing. You can watch the conversation as is happens rather than wait for someone to press the “send” button.

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