News Stories

Turn big dreams into reality. That was just one piece of advice for the newest Rochester Institute of Technology students who attended the New Student Convocation on Aug. 24. The annual event included welcomes from administrators, the new Student Government president, and a lesson in adventure featuring RIT President David Munson.

In what has become a late summer tradition, President David Munson and his wife, Nancy, have returned to the screen with their latest “welcome back” video, this time tasked by a mysterious stranger to search the RIT campus and retrieve the legendary source of its creativity.

Nearly one in six of the more than 3,300 first-year and transfer undergraduates this year received a Performing Arts Scholarship from RIT. That brings the total number of scholars to more than 1,800 in the five years since the program began. The program encourages high school students involved in performing arts to continue their passions at RIT.

Saunders College of Business is entering its first cohort of students into the college’s new Ph.D. in business administration this fall, marking the university’s inaugural social sciences doctoral program. The program is designed to inspire and train scholars to identify, investigate, and solve unique business challenges that influence business and society.

RIT once again made The Princeton Review Best Colleges list. Recognized for its value and career options for its students, the Best 389 Colleges 2024 edition, newly published this month, ranks the university in two Top 50 categories—No. 3 in the undergraduate game design programs and No. 44 in Green Colleges.

AIM Photonics hosted several days of training Aug. 15-17 in Photonic Integrated Circuits: Testing and Packaging Boot Camp, including one day at RIT.

The recent fires that have devastated Maui have hit home for one RIT student. Third-year biotechnology student Maximillian Balter, who is one of four RIT students from Maui, has been busy in the relief efforts. His family’s company, Maui Flight Academy, took the initiative to air deliver supplies.

Symmetry magazine talks to Michael Zemcov, associate professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, about line-intensity mapping and issues with interloper lines.

Darcie Jones, a fifth-year mechanical engineering major from Reading, Pa., is this year’s Student Government president, representing more than 19,000 students on RIT’s Henrietta and overseas campuses. There were four sets of candidates this year, the most in recent history. This year’s Student Government vice president is J.T. Lapham, a fourth-year biochemistry major from Queensbury, N.Y.

A kosher deli, a food truck serving gourmet burgers, self-checkout micro-markets, and a buffet-style, all-you-care-to-eat Gracie’s are welcoming RIT students back to campus this academic year. Easier ordering and accessibility to know when an order is done will also be found throughout campus.

Alumnus Ronald Kemker ’18 Ph.D. (imaging science), a major in the United States Space Force, received the 2021 Harold Brown Award, the highest award given to a scientist or engineer who applies research to solve a problem critical to the needs of the Air Force.

The new undergraduate students come from 48 states (all but Iowa and Wyoming); Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Guam; U.S. Virgin Islands; and 47 countries, with the largest contingent coming from India, Canada, and China. In addition, there are 927 new graduate students.