Photo Spotlights

Hundreds of hockey fans celebrated the opening of the Gene Polisseni Center on Sept. 18. Wanda Polisseni, the wife of the late Gene Polisseni, the arena’s namesake, dropped the first puck. RIT President Bill Destler, members of the Polisseni family, Tom Golisano and Steve and Vicki Schultz participated in the dedication ceremony, along with men’s head coach Wayne Wilson, women’s head coach Scott McDonald, team captains, the Corner Crew and Ritchie. Festivities included self-guided tours, open skate and RIT hockey trivia. The $38 million, 112,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art arena has a total capacity of 4,300 fans and features exclusive seating options, two full-service concession stands, a new RIT Athletics Hall of Fame and a Barnes and Noble store where fans can purchase Tiger gear. For more on the arena, go to rit.edu/news/polisseni.php.

“Alchemic Elegy” features photographs and text by Doug Manchee, associate professor and program chair of the advertising photography program. The Gallery r exhibit is part of the third annual First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival Sept. 18-27. Attendees can participate in an evolving sculpture of analog photographic objects from the not-so-distant-past. For a schedule of additional RIT Fringe events, go to www.rit.edu/fringefest.

Austin McChord, founder and CEO of Datto Inc., officially opened his Inc. 500 firm’s offices in downtown Rochester on Sept. 12. Datto, an information backup and disaster recovery firm, is the first company in the Rochester region to launch as part of the START-UP NY program. The company takes the fourth floor of the RIT-owned 40 Franklin St. in Rochester. McChord started Datto in 2007 while finishing his degree in bioinformatics from RIT.

A single orange seat in the Gene Polisseni Center honors RIT men’s hockey alumnus Green B. Williams ’78. Williams enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was killed in a pilot-training accident in 1984. Today, RIT men’s hockey athletes know of Williams through the annual Green B. Williams Award for Academic Excellence, given to the men’s hockey student athlete with the highest grade point average. The Polisseni Center dedication starts at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 18 and is open to the public.

The third annual 9/11 Remembrance Vigil was held Sept. 11 on the grass knoll in front of the Sentinel statue. Taps was played at 8:46, 9:03, 9:37 and 10:03 a.m. in remembrance of each airplane that crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. An American flag was planted on the knoll for each of the 2,997 people who died in the attacks.

The third annual 9/11 Remembrance Vigil was held Thursday, Sept. 11, on the grass knoll in front of the Sentinel statue. Taps were played at 8:46, 9:03, 9:37 and 10:03 a.m. in remembrance of each airplane that crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. An American flag was planted on the knoll for each of the 2,997 people who died in the attacks.

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the opening of the Gordon Field House and Activities Center. On Sept. 10, 2004, the festivities included demonstrations of the multi-use facility by student athletes and cheerleaders and a special appearance by Jim Kelly, four-time Super Bowl quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

A memorial service for Professor Emeritus Robert F. Panara is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sept. 12 in the theater that bears his name, in Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall. Following the service, a reception will be held in the Dyer Arts Center at RIT/NTID. “Rustling of a Star,” a collection of items in tribute to Panara, will be on display in the center through Sept. 25.

Joe Sciandra, a member of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, looks through a dunk tank on the Quarter Mile on Sept. 8. The fundraiser will benefit The Ability Experience, a nonprofit organization that serves people with disabilities.

More than 2,900 volunteers turned out for RIT’s 30th Big Shot photo project on Saturday night. The image captured RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Louise M. Slaughter Hall and the surrounding quad.

Robert and Susan Pearson met at RIT in 1980 after Susan borrowed his calculator. Robert gave her a new calculator, pictured above, the following Christmas. Thirty-four years later, the Pearsons are still together and RIT continues to be a part of their lives.

Jessica Pardee, assistant professor of sociology/anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts, recently published a book that examines the experiences of low-income African American women during Hurricane Katrina. In her book, she uncovers the ways that race, class and gender shape the experiences of disasters. August 29 marked the ninth anniversary of Katrina.