News

RIT has launched a new bias-related incident report form designed to streamline the process for filing complaints involving students or when the parties involved are unknown, such as graffiti.

New and returning students will move into the residence halls over the next week, in a carefully staged process aimed at ensuring a safe reopening of the campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic. New students will move in today through Aug. 15; returning students will move in Aug. 16-18.

As first-year and returning students gear up for the start of classes on Aug. 19, course schedules will look much different than in past years. This fall, schedules will include designations for RIT’s new instruction modes, including in-person, blended, split classes, and online.

Changes are in place at 21 locations on the RIT campus that will serve thousands of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners to students, faculty, and staff members returning to campus. Online ordering, cashless checkouts, reduced occupancies, outdoor and spaced-out seating, and increased cleaning protocols are all new features offered by RIT Dining in response to COVID-19 precautions.

Students from the states on New York’s travel advisory list can self-quarantine through independent housing, hotel arrangements, or through a friend or relative. Another option is participating in RIT’s university-sponsored quarantine at area hotels, which begins Aug. 12. First-year student Iain Roach traveled from Alaska to Canandaigua, N.Y., before he can move onto campus on Aug. 15.

RIT is developing an alert system that systematically defines levels of COVID-19 prevalence and transmission risk within our community. Each level will be associated with predetermined actions aimed at reducing risk during the coronavirus pandemic.

Meet Shine DeHarder, this year’s Student Government president. DeHarder, who served on RIT’s Community Readiness committee this summer to help the university reopen for students, has three main goals as Student Government president: reducing food insecurity on campus; improving diversity, inclusion, and accessibility on campus; and improving transparency between Student Government and the student body.

Essay co-written by David Reetz, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Approximately 2,900 new students will be arriving at RIT over four days beginning Aug. 12, rather than on a single move-in day, which was the procedure in past years. All residence hall rooms are limited to two students and occupancy will be reduced in elevators to promote physical distancing.

Eengineering technology and computing students at RIT found ways to reduce energy consumption at the university’s Margaret's House Child Care Center. Members of RIT’s student chapter of National Electrical Contracting Association (NECA) worked this spring with child care staff as part of the annual NECA Green Energy Challenge, an annual student design competition.

Prospective students who may be thinking of attending RIT can now take a campus tour from their home with a new mobile app that features augmented reality with 360-degree videos.

More than 20 RIT students have been seated for senators and representative student organization positions in Student Government for the 2020-2021 academic year.