News
School of Communication

Editors and reporters from Rochester news outlets will discuss how they are fulfilling their duties of a free press during the COVID-19 pandemic during a panel discussion organized by RIT’s School of Communication. “The Future of News in ROC” will be held via Zoom on Sept. 8 and is free and open to the public.

RIT has partnered with Syracuse University College of Law to establish a “3+3” program for students interested in earning a law degree. A memorandum of understanding between the two universities was recently signed to allow students to complete three years of liberal arts and other studies at RIT, then transfer to the College of Law for three years to complete their doctorate in law.

Donathan Brown, assistant provost and assistant vice president for faculty diversity and recruitment, is one of 13 scholars nationwide selected to serve in the latest cohort of the Fulbright Scholar Alumni Ambassadors program. Brown will serve a two-year stint in the program designed to increase the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program’s visibility nationwide and expand the diversity of future participants.

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, senior associate dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named interim COLA dean effective June 1. McQuiller Williams succeeds Dean James Winebrake, who is leaving RIT on June 30 to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts honored student achievement in writing with more than a dozen writing awards for essays varying from wasteful energy, maternal mortality, eyewitness testimony policies and seeking worth in a liberal arts degree. Each department within the college selected student awardees whose work embodies the ideals and standards of excellence, creative endeavor and scholarship.

Spectrum News talks to Miles Hood, fourth-year communication major, about how he's making the best of the situation.

Dean James Winebrake will be leaving RIT’s College of Liberal Arts to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Winebrake, who came to RIT in 2002 as chair of the Department of Public Policy and became dean in 2011, will leave RIT effective June 30.

Nearly 30 faculty and staff members from RIT’s College of Liberal Arts have volunteered to help their colleagues run errands, walk their dogs or just offer a voice of support during this period of social distancing.

A traveling exhibit that calls upon craft as a creative force in voicing dissent and expressing hope in an era of political disruption is making its first-ever stop at RIT over the next month.

Four faculty members from RIT’s College of Liberal Arts have recently written books on diverse subjects: how disability is viewed in the media, the commercialization of 19th-century autobiographies, how birth and death costs and practices have changed over the years, and how Germany adopted technology and a productivity culture after World War II.

Roughly one person in four has a fear of public speaking, but the anxiety can be reduced if you know just what to say, how to organize, begin or end. RIT’s Expressive Communication Center strives to help students better prepare to deliver speeches and presentations.

Research is underway at RIT to create an app that will serve as a resource to help young mothers answer questions about raising a child, connect them with programs and resources, as well as foster a virtual parenting community.