RIT President Simone to Deliver Commencement Address at Gallaudet
Retiring leader to receive honorary doctorate during the May 11 ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The ceremony takes place at 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, at the Gallaudet University Field House. Simone will also receive an honorary doctorate degree. Robert Davila, Gallaudet’s president, called the award “fitting recognition to Simone’s many contributions as an educator, business and civic leader and adviser, and humanitarian.”
The RIT leader, who is retiring June 30, will focus his presentation on the importance of Gallaudet University to deaf people everywhere and also on the need for the Gallaudet community to heal and come together and learn from recent experience. Last year, campus protests over an unpopular presidential appointment forced the school to name a new president.
Simone also intends to note that Gallaudet is fortunate to have selected Davila, who took office in January. Davila, who is deaf, served from 1996 to 2004 as CEO of RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf and vice president of RIT. He is an alumnus of Gallaudet and worked there as a faculty member and administrator from 1972 to 1989.
“Bob’s brilliant leadership will take Gallaudet beyond the recent adversity and into a new era of cooperation,” Simone says. “Bob’s insight and energy, plus the respect he commands nationally and internationally from leaders in all facets of academia, government and business, are a tremendous asset to Gallaudet.
“I’m delighted and honored to serve as Gallaudet’s commencement speaker,” says Simone, who has been president of RIT since 1992.
Gallaudet University, the world’s only university in which all programs and services are designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students, was founded in 1864. National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), one of the eight colleges at RIT, was created in 1965 by act of Congress, and opened in 1968.
RIT is internationally recognized for academic leadership in computing, engineering, imaging technology, and fine and applied arts, in addition to unparalleled support services for students with hearing loss. More than 15,500 full- and part-time students are enrolled in RIT’s 340 career-oriented and professional programs, and its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation.
For nearly two decades, U.S. News & World Report has ranked RIT among the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. The Princeton Review features RIT in its 2007 Best 361 Colleges rankings and named the university one of America’s “Most Wired Campuses.” RIT is also featured in Barron’s Best Buys in Education.