NTID President Caroline Solomon Welcome Back Fall 2025 Address

Hello, everyone! Welcome! I am honored to be the new president of NTID. 
I want to share a little about myself. I am originally from Delaware, and I worked at that other college down in Washington, D.C. I consider myself a “dual citizen” of both institutions.

My educational focus has been in STEM, and specifically, environment and oceanic biology. At Gallaudet, I served as a professor of biology, chaired the faculty senate, was a department chair and director of the School of Science, Technology, Accessibility, Mathematics and Public Health, and prior to coming to NTID, I served as dean of the faculty.

On the personal side, I am married, and my husband, Barry, is an attorney. We have two children: Eli and Hannah, and a dog named Finn.

I participated as a swimmer in the Deaflympics in New Zealand and then in Bulgaria. And I was inducted into the USA Deaf Sports Federation Hall of Fame. 

I am excited that this November we have three RIT/NTID student athletes competing in the Deaflympics in Tokyo, Japan: Antoine, Dov, and Zain. NCCC Director John Macko will also be there as head coach for the men’s indoor volleyball team, and Skip Flanagan will be part of the inaugural Deaflympics Performance Psychology team. Please join me in wishing all of them great success!

I want to encourage you all to follow me on social media (at) NTIDPres. I also want to get to know all of you better. Let’s make this interactive. Please stand if like me, you’ve recently joined NTID. And if you’ve been here less than five years, please stand. Who’s been here five to 10 years? How about 11-20 years? And who has been here 21 years or more?

This is going to be an exciting year of exploration. My goals are to focus on fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, listening and learning from each of you, and meeting each of you. My focus, and our collective focus, will always be on the students—they’re why we’re here, after all!

I am interested in your ideas and feedback. Please let me know how we can make great things happen together! Snap the QR code for a feedback form, or visit rit.edu/ntid/president. I look forward to your thoughts!

I am so excited to welcome our new students. I’m starting my journey at RIT/NTID with 346 new students across all degree levels. Our Director of Admissions, Rick Postl, will tell you more about our incoming class in a minute.

For now, I want to update you on our budget situation. As you know, federal appropriations keep NTID operating. We are fortunate that members of Congress and government representatives are impressed by our students. Unfortunately, the fiscal year 2026 budget is delayed in Congress. We are expecting the same level of funding for the fiscal year that begins October 1 as we had for the fiscal year that’s ending soon, but we won’t know our actual funding level until the budget passes or a continuing resolution is passed. We will continue to foster relationships with government officials in Washington, so they continue to learn about the work we are doing and the success of our students. 

If we are level-funded for a third year, we will need to cover the increases in our non-controllable expenses, which include inflation, merit and benefit increases, scholarships, and more. We have put cost control measures in place, and we will continue to follow RIT’s fiscal guidance. We are also reviewing other revenue sources to ensure our financial health and looking for opportunities to enhance revenue. As always, we are looking carefully at spending, and I invite you to share your thoughts on cost-saving measures.  

Now, we will have presentations from some of the other NTID leaders, including Academic Affairs, the NTID Co-op and Career Center and more. Thank you all and have a great year!