News

People from across the university are helping RIT make substantial progress on the initiatives laid out in the Action Plan for Race and Ethnicity. Launched in July 2021, the plan unveiled an extensive series of initiatives designed to make RIT more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

WHEC-TV features RIT's Expressions of King's Legacy event.

WROC-TV features RIT's Expressions of King's Legacy event.

For years, Joseph Hill, assistant dean of NTID Faculty Recruitment and Retention and an associate professor in the Department of ASL and Interpreting Education, has studied how the segregation of southern Black Deaf Americans, along with their history and culture, has impacted the linguistics of today’s Black Deaf youth. Hill hopes his research will continue to uncover and preserve Black American Sign Language.

Fifty years ago, Title IX set the stage for change. But the reason why RIT now has more women faculty, administrators, coaches, and exemplary students is that women acted. Prior generations of women invested their careers to make RIT a better version of itself, including winning two transformative grants from the National Science Foundation focused on gender equity.

RIT’s annual event commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day will feature a keynote address by a faculty member whose work explores the intersections of communication, race, and identity. Katrina Overby, an assistant professor in the School of Communication, will headline the sixth annual Let Freedom Ring.

Tina Cannaday Chapman DaCosta ’04 MS, ’14 MFA is using her parents’ life stories to teach important lessons about diversity, equity, and inclusion. In fall 2022, the director of RIT’s Diversity Theater program released Dear Eleanor, her second short film based on her parents’ lives.

Christine Jones, a third-year management information systems student from Inkster, Mich., was awarded the Doug Peacock Scholarship. The scholarship helps underrepresented students at RIT.

Joseph Vazquez is a third-year mechanical engineering student from Rochester and is a part of the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) at RIT. Last summer, Vazquez conducted research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

RIT will launch a new yearly tradition this week when students, faculty, and staff gather Friday for the first Together RIT: A Day of Understanding, Solidarity, and Racial Reconciliation. Registration closes Oct. 19 and is required to ensure a seat for desired sessions.

RIT’s annual award for success in diversifying the university’s faculty ranks and helping to advance RIT’s overall commitment to diversity went to the College of Art and Design. CAD received the 2022 Changing Hearts and Minds Award, sponsored annually by RIT’s Office of the Provost and the Office of Faculty Diversity and Recruitment.

The Democrat and Chronicle spotlights Keith Jenkins, vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion.