News

RIT welcomes a record number of first-year students today as classes begin in a semester that will look like no other due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new students were welcomed Tuesday afternoon during an online convocation that featured several speakers, livestreamed without an audience from Ingle Auditorium.

Outdoor movies, fireworks, outdoor fitness pods, community engagement, and volunteer opportunities are just a few of the experiences awaiting RIT students on campus this semester.

US Lacrosse Magazine features Ryan Lee '17 (finance).

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.