News by Topic: Gifts

Construction on RIT’s maker space and performing arts complex at the center of campus enters a new phase this summer, with finished architectural drawings, projects out to bid, and work beginning on the steel frame.

The project is part of a five-year masterplan that has already begun to renovate, rejuvenate, and transform spaces to meet the growing demands for a college that serves as the RIT’s creative hub at the intersection of technology, art, and design.

The first phase of the project is the relocation of the outdoor track and an upgraded synthetic running surface. The baseball and softball fields are also under construction with upgrades to all-weather artificial turf fields.

Designed by LaBella Associates, the renovations will almost double the size of Saunders College of Business's Max Lowenthal Hall. Existing spaces will also be renovated.

With thousands of RIT students involved in performing arts expected in the next few years, plans are moving forward for a performing arts complex that will feature a 750-seat theater and eventually a 1,500-seat orchestra hall for larger audiences.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is funding a team of RIT imaging scientists to study the limits of spectral remote sensing imaging systems. The team received a grant of up to $1 million to conduct fundamental research on imaging systems over the next two to five years.

The National Science Foundation renewed its support of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) with a $17 million grant over five years to operate the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center (PFC). RIT will receive $703,000 over the next five years to contribute research to the NANOGrav PFC.

Kiersten Kennedy, a senior at Dansville High School, and Ella Sexton, a senior at Livonia High School, are recipients of this year’s annual E. Philip Saunders Endowed Business Scholarship. The students have been accepted at Saunders College of Business, where they will begin classes in the fall.

The gift from alumna and vice chair of RIT’s Board of Trustees, Susan Riedman Holliday ’85 (MBA), will fund the creation of a 6,000-square-foot fourth floor signature event space, comprised of a conference hall, reception gallery, and wine room–all featuring expansive views of the RIT campus.

Micatu Inc. donated its groundbreaking Gridview optical sensors to RIT for a new campus learning lab. The equipment allows faculty and students to monitor renewable integration and manage the addition of distributed energy resources onto the campus microgrid.

Unique Fair-Smith and Tymoni Correa-Buntley are the first two recipients of the Mark and Maureen Davitt Graduate Education Endowed Scholarship and are both set to graduate with their master’s degrees this weekend.

CloudCover, an automated intelligence-driven cybersecurity platform, has made a $500,000 gift to name the conference center in RIT’s new Global Cybersecurity Institute (GCI). The CloudCover Conference Center serves as a central space for cybersecurity-related events and meetings with industry, students, government, and organizations.