Photo Spotlights

Robert Manning, professor of finance in RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, shares personal finance tips to first-year students and their families during new-student orientation. “College students are being heavily targeted by credit card companies because they are the one market that is not saturated,” warns Manning, a nationally recognized expert on the dangers of consumer debt. He hopes an open dialogue will educate young adults on the importance of responsible credit usage.

RIT's orientation assistants rev up their "Tiger Spirit" as part of the university's new-student orientation program. More than 100 upperclassmen play a critical role as OAs, helping new students and their families adjust to campus life during the weeklong program. Orientation concludes with the start of classes on Monday, Sept. 4.

Several hundred of RIT's women gathered Thursday, Aug. 31, for the first Lighting The Way ceremony. The ceremony, designed to welcome first-year women to campus, began with speeches that highlighted the support network that exists for women at RIT. Following the speeches, faculty and staff lit lanterns for the students and joined them in a procession to Grace Watson Hall.

Student Government President Lizzie Sorkin delivered a welcome address to first-year students during Convocation for New Students and Families on Monday, Aug. 28, in the Gordon Field House and Activities Center. Sorkin encouraged the students to immerse themselves in the RIT community. RIT President Albert Simone and professors Robert Manning and Hamad Ghazle were among the other speakers at the annual event.

Approximately 3,275 first-year students and their families experienced an RIT tradition on Monday, Aug. 28: the 'Tiger Walk.' Faculty and staff lined the entrance to the Gordon Field House and Activities Center, dressed in RIT garb and equipped with noisemakers, to welcome the students and families as they processed into a convocation ceremony. Classes for the new academic year begin Monday, Sept. 4.

RIT welcomes approximately 3,275 first-year students during move-in day activities on Sunday, Aug. 27. The newcomers are comprised of about 2,435 freshman students, which is 180 more than last year and the largest in RIT’s history, and approximately 840 transfers. Fifty percent of these first-year students come from outside New York state. Class begin Monday, Sept. 4.

The Nathaniel Rochester Society held its annual summer gala in July with a Western theme. Robert Wayland-Smith, left, and his late wife Kathleen, were awarded the Whitaker Service Medallion for their outstanding volunteer service and leadership. Bruce James, center, and his wife Nora were the recipients of the NRS Award for their contributions to the advancement of RIT President Simone, right.

Brick City Catering announces the launch of a new online catering ordering system that enables clients to track orders, receive immediate cost estimates, view order history and create new orders. Log onto www.rit.edu/catering for more information about the new online ordering system, or call Brick City Catering at 475-2346.

What started out as a whim landed four RIT students center stage at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s annual international convention in Indianapolis earlier this month. RIT’s quartet, Four’s Complement, is comprised of Jamie Bedford, a baritone and an information technology major, Michael Ho, a tenor and a software engineer, John Santino, who sings lead and and studies computer science, and Bryce Cooney, a bass singer and a computational mathematics major.

Keith Simmons, center, an alumnus of RIT, was one of three alumni who worked with students from the Rochester City School District on a pilot program called “Rochester Digital Ripple.” The project, supported by Rochester Institute of Technology’s Lab for Technological Literacy, studied the feasibility of providing wireless Internet access for Rochester. During the summer program, the students built routers that were mounted on lightpoles around the Edgerton Community Center. The routers provide a free wireless network in the neighborhood near the center. The Lab for Technological Literacy hopes to replicate the program at a regional and national level.

ROTC student James Bagg stands next to a Marine Corps HMMV, part of the Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies’ military research project. Bagg is now in his third cooperative education assignment with the center and has assisted in both military and industrial research programs.

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Edward McCarthy, senior program manager at RIT’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies, and his family have been named recipients of the National Military Family Association’s Family Award. McCarthy, his wife, Karen, and their five children are one of 12 families in the nation chosen for the honor and the first retired military family ever selected.