Introduction
A casual reader of the history of Rochester Institute of Technology could be forgiven for posing the question “How did a small evening school offering a single class in 1885 become one of the country’s largest and most leading-edge private universities, with multiple Ph.D. programs, five international campuses, and 19,000 students of whom almost 1200 are deaf and hard-of-hearing?” A close look at RIT’s early history reveals that the origins of this apparent sea change in mission were actually contained within the institutional character of the 19th-century Mechanics Institute, and that they serve as the perfect introduction of the new strategic plan before you.
