Progress in a Pandemic

In a preemptive strike on cyber­security threats across the world, RIT has created the Global Cybersecurity Institute. RIT is on its way to becoming one of the best places in the world for cybersecurity education, training, and research.

Analytical thinking, complex problem solving, creativity, resiliency, and flexibility are among the top skills needed for emerging careers by 2025. RIT is seizing on the opportunity to guide students to “new economy majors” that are multi­disciplinary, transformative, and future-focused.

RIT welcomed 3,129 first-year students last fall. For students seeking a bachelor’s degree, their average SAT score was just under 1300, and the average ACT score was 30. Sixty-three were at the top of their high school graduating class.

Students on co-op are picking up more than occupational and professional skills. As the pandemic unfolded last spring and summer, they saw firsthand how companies manage even in the midst of a crisis.

Despite restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, RIT students still found ways to participate in hundreds of clubs and organizations last fall, like dancing, designing games, and even skydiving.

Now in its second year, the Performing Arts Scholars Program at RIT has more than doubled in participants, with 368 first-year students involved in classical or jazz instrumental music, voice, musical theater, acting, technical theater, dance, or video game composition.

A record 15 students participated in fall research projects thanks to support from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement programs.

A look at what’s going on at RIT’s global campuses in Dubai, China, Croatia, and Kosovo. Enrollment at these campuses continues to grow.

Several School of Physics and Astronomy faculty secured large grants as principal investigators during a banner summer.c

RIT’s behavioral health program is expanding in new directions with a clinic on campus and federal funding to deliver addiction treatment in rural communities in upstate New York and New Hampshire.

Shaun Foster is leveraging $160,000 from an Epic Games MegaGrant to explore and develop dynamic virtual content that is opening the eyes of RIT faculty and students—and many others—to Unreal Engine’s myriad, multi­disciplinary possibilities.

Design work on the multipurpose Innovative Maker and Learning Complex continued after the COVID-19 pandemic closed the campus in March. The current plan is for work on the foundation to start in spring 2021, and the building to open in fall 2023.

A transformational gift from serial entrepreneur and philanthropist E. Philip Saunders will help fund a major renovation and expansion to Max Lowenthal Hall, home of RIT’s Saunders College of Business.

Plans are being developed to build a performing arts center that will feature a 750-seat theater and, in a second phase, a 1,500-seat orchestra hall for larger audiences.

Plans to upgrade RIT’s outdoor athletic facilities continue to unfold. The first phase of the department’s multimillion dollar stadium project is scheduled to begin this year.

RIT alumni continue to give back during the pandemic, helping people, companies, and health care facilities in need.

When demonstrations calling for police reform and racial equality occurred in cities across the country in 2020, alumni and faculty of RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences were there to capture the gripping moments through their camera lenses.

Phil Castleberry, a 20-year veteran of higher education advancement, began at RIT last February as the vice president for Development and Alumni Relations, now called the Division of University Advancement. Here are his thoughts on philanthropy and engagement at RIT.