News Stories

As social distancing requirements forced distanced learning, students across the country suddenly had to consider where they would be doing that learning. The estimated 6,000 RIT students who lived on campus in a residence hall or apartment needed to collect, store or ship personal items. And staff members from RIT Housing, Residence Life and Student Affairs were faced with an array of unique situations.

City Newspaper talks to Juliette Daily, mathematical modeling Ph.D. student, and Matthew Hoffman, assistant professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences, about their research on plastic pollution in Lake Erie.

All current RIT graduate students are invited to pit their problem-solving skills against each other in a university-wide competition. The Office of Graduate Education is holding online semifinals for the Graduate 3-Minute Presentation Competition. Contestants are asked to address a societal problem in a three-minute YouTube video, using their research, thesis or project, or creative work.

Professor Emeritus Roger Dube was recently awarded a prestigious Fulbright fellowship for a project to increase retention of First Nations students in STEM higher education programs. The project will take place at the University of Manitoba, where he is serving as Visiting Indigenous Scholar.

After the shift to distance learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, RIT students like Daniel Bacon, a second-year photographic sciences major, had to seamlessly transition to classes in the virtual space. 

RIT will distribute nearly $5.2 million in emergency federal funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to assist students with unexpected costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, senior associate dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named interim COLA dean effective June 1. McQuiller Williams succeeds Dean James Winebrake, who is leaving RIT on June 30 to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

RIT will make submitting ACT and SAT scores optional for prospective students applying for admission for fall 2021 and beyond. RIT joins a growing number of colleges and universities who are no longer requiring applicants to submit their test scores.

WHEC-TV talks to RIT President David Munson about the future of higher education.

PC Gamer features the Minecraft graduation ceremony hosted by RIT's Electronic Gaming Society.

The Democrat and Chronicle features Arkady Belozovsky '94 (applied computer technology), '97 (small business management), a sign language interpreter for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's coronavirus briefings.

WHAM-TV reports on the virtual Minecraft graduation ceremony.