Education at the intersection of technology, the arts, and design
Gabrielle Plucknette-DeVito
MAGIC Spell Studios opened the doors to a new learning laboratory in 2018. The building houses a sound stage, movie theater, audio mixing studio, color correction studio, and 2D and 3D animation classrooms.
RIT continues to move ahead by taking stock of its academic strengths while looking for new opportunities to enhance the academic experience for its students.
Guiding those efforts is the 2025 Strategic Plan: Greatness Through Difference, which is keenly focused on student success and academic quality, including a commitment to enroll a diverse mix of multitalented students, recruiting and retaining world class faculty, and embracing alumni.
Another guiding principle is RIT’s unique position as a university offering education at the intersection of technology, the arts, and design. The 2018 opening of MAGIC Spell Studios, for example, brought together multiple academic programs with project-based curriculum and faculty research into all kinds of digital media. Also, the College of Art and Design opened its City Art Space, an exhibition and event venue in downtown Rochester.
Meanwhile, substantial work is underway to bolster liberal arts and performing arts offerings at RIT, including new lecturer positions to support the performing arts and a variety of partnerships that will enhance student opportunities for experiential and classroom learning.
In the College of Health Sciences and Technology, the RIT-Accelerated Scholars Program with Upstate Medical University is paving a path for the next generation of physicians.
It’s a bridge program that guarantees qualified RIT undergraduates admission to the Upstate Doctor of Allopathic Medicine program. To date, six students have been accepted into the program.
Each RIT college has a set of experiential and engaged learning programs.
RIT’s National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges Scholars Program is one of the only Grand Challenges programs in the nation that systematically incorporates liberal arts instruction. A joint program between engineering and liberal arts, the program plans to expand to the College of Engineering Technology and Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. Also, a joint initiative between computing and liberal arts, humanities, and social sciences programs incorporates introductory computer science directly into liberal arts studies.
About 2,600 first-year students this year also are participating in RIT365. In 115 sections of the class’s first semester, students engaged in learning opportunities based on themes they ranked by preference: creativity, entrepreneurship, technology and society, well-being, innovation, and global citizenship.
Fall 2019 Enrollment by College
- Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences: 4,590
- Kate Gleason College of Engineering: 3,562
- Saunders College of Business: 2,324
- College of Art and Design: 1,869
- College of Engineering Technology: 1,698
- College of Science: 1,124
- School of Individualized Study: 812
- College of Health Sciences and Technology: 613
- National Technical Institute for the Deaf: 587
- College of Liberal Arts: 569
- University Exploration: 94
- Golisano Institute for Sustainability: 76