University News

RIT is launching a social media campaign to urge members of the RIT community to take a stand against racism, demonstrate ways to be antiracist, or explain what steps they will take to become antiracist.

As first-year and returning students gear up for the start of classes on Aug. 19, course schedules will look much different than in past years. This fall, schedules will include designations for RIT’s new instruction modes, including in-person, blended, split classes, and online.

Changes are in place at 21 locations on the RIT campus that will serve thousands of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners to students, faculty, and staff members returning to campus. Online ordering, cashless checkouts, reduced occupancies, outdoor and spaced-out seating, and increased cleaning protocols are all new features offered by RIT Dining in response to COVID-19 precautions.

Students from the states on New York’s travel advisory list can self-quarantine through independent housing, hotel arrangements, or through a friend or relative. Another option is participating in RIT’s university-sponsored quarantine at area hotels, which begins Aug. 12. First-year student Iain Roach traveled from Alaska to Canandaigua, N.Y., before he can move onto campus on Aug. 15.

As RIT makes changes and enhancements to the campus’s infrastructure, cleaning, and safety procedures to prepare to reopen this fall, it is doing so largely thanks to the help of American-manufactured and sourced supplies.

COVID-19 has challenged the university to consider an even more creative academic portfolio with blended, online, split A/B, and flex class options. To prepare for in-person instruction, RIT has upgraded academic buildings and classrooms. And physical distancing and face coverings, required of faculty and students in classrooms, together provide some of the greatest protection against the spread of COVID-19.

RIT’s Upward Bound summer program is providing area high school students a preview of life as a college student. This year, 24 students from the Leadership Academy for Young Men and Greece Olympia High School participated in the six-week enrichment program, held virtually for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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.