President Munson calls racist yearbook photos ‘highly offensive and unacceptable’

Dear RIT community:

It has come to our attention that both national and local media outlets soon will publish stories referencing racist yearbook photos from college campuses across the country. A photo, taken from a student-produced RIT yearbook from the late 1970s, may be included in the articles. A number of offensive photos had previously been removed from online versions of RIT yearbooks, but they remain in hardcopy versions.

The following statement from RIT President David Munson has been sent to the media in response to the yearbook photos:

“These highly offensive photos, which appeared in an old student publication, should have been completely unacceptable back then. Today we condemn them in the strongest possible terms. They do not represent our institutional values nor reflect our efforts to make RIT a more diverse and inclusive campus. We remain deeply committed to maintaining a safe and supportive environment with policies that promote dignity and respect for all individuals.”

These types of images provide the opportunity to learn from the past as part of our continuous campus dialogue on racial issues. We will hold a special Gray Matter discussion from noon – 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, in the Allen Chapel of the Schmitt Interfaith Center. Please join students and leaders from the Division of Diversity and Inclusion for this important session. Gray Matter is a discussion series designed by RIT faculty, students and staff to promote critical exploration of provocative topics related to higher education and the RIT campus community. More information on this event will be coming soon.

University Communications
RITnews@rit.edu