Photo Spotlights

The RIT Provost’s Office recently awarded Richard Doolittle, head of the School of Life Sciences, the third annual Changing Hearts and Minds award for his leadership and commitment to diversity on campus.

RIT made a “Voting Bus” available to students who wanted to vote on Election Day. The bus picked up students at three on-campus locations and transported them to their John Street polling place. RIT has been encouraging students to register to vote for the past month and, according to Phyllis Walker, assistant director of RIT’s Leadership Institute and Community Service Center, a record number of students have registered this year. After voting for the first time, first-year student Erin Delventhal got her sticker to prove it.

Rivers Run, a housing project for active adults and seniors, had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 30 to announce the opening of independent-living apartments. RIT offers activities and programs to residents, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at RIT will relocate to Rivers Run in 2009. Here, guests get information from Susan Bussey, vice president of project administration and marketing for project developer Living Communities LLC.

Not politics as usual. Students in Halloween gear discussed politics and offered literature in front of the Wallace Library on Oct. 31.

About 150 costumed children from Care-A-Lot Child Care had their annual trek to Facilities Management Services, building 99, on Oct.31. Treats were doled out at various candy stations and the children posed for group photos in their creative Halloween attire.

RIT’s Center for Religious Life and Hillel sponsored PB Jam, a mammoth peanut butter-and-jam sandwich-making assembly line, on Oct. 29. The 2,000 sandwiches, made by over 100 volunteers, were donated to various needy organizations in Rochester.

In recognition of a $1 million endowment from the Bernard Osher Foundation, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute hosted the Osher Endowment Celebration Oct. 24 at Rivers Run Living Community. Chairperson Peter Luce officiated at a cake-cutting ceremony and Osher members were invited to take a sneak peek at their new classroom facilities that will be open in spring 2009.

Martina (MJ) Bienvenu, professor at Gallaudet University, opened the 2008 Campus Week of Dialogue on Oct. 27. The week’s theme concerns the growth and change in deaf culture. Campus Week of Dialogue is an annual event sponsored by The President’s Commission on Pluralism and Inclusion.

RIT hosted the 2008 Student Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology Oct. 23-26. Here, students examine holograms of the RIT symbol created in a workshop led by Joe Pow, Imaging Science.

A 20-foot green screen, a Foley stage and a surround sound mix theater are among the new features in RIT’s School of Film and Animation following major renovations in the Gannett Building. Student filmmakers and animators have a new studio, prop building shop, four new screening rooms, equipment cage and computer lab for editing.

RIT President Bill Destler lends his support to the official kickoff of RIT’s Raise Our Annual Responses initiative, or ROAR Day, held Oct. 23. The event was intended to encourage members of the campus community to make an annual gift to the university. Contributions from the more than 1,200 RIT alumni employees were particularly encouraged.

The evolution of news media was the focus of the Paul and Louise Miller Lecture Series, sponsored by RIT’s School of Print Media, Oct. 21. A panel featured Traci Bauer, managing editor for multimedia and innovation, Democrat and Chronicle; Stephen Dawe, news director, WHAM-TV; Peter Iglinski, executive producer of public affairs, WXXI-AM; Andrew Lucyszyn, director of digital media, WHAM-TV; and Laura Mandanas (above), editor in chief, Reporter, RIT’s student-published weekly magazine. Panelists examined current news audiences, how people will get their news in the future, and strategies for increasing audiences through various multimedia platforms.