Photo Spotlights

RIT hosted its annual tribute to the Outstanding Undergraduate Scholars on April 12 in the Gordon Field House. In order to receive the scholars designation, students must have earned a GPA of 3.85 and completed at least 125 quarter credits of study. Selection is also based on factors complementing their academic achievement, including creative work, independent research and community service.    

During a stop today at RIT, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced his support for legislation to kill a rise in student-loan interest rates. On July 1, interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, unless Congress takes action to block the increase. Joined by RIT President Bill Destler, Schumer addressed students from RIT and other area colleges in the Fireside Lounge.

Rebecca Edwards, associate professor of history and chair of the department, recently published her book, “Words Made Flesh: Nineteenth-Century Deaf Education and the Growth of Deaf Culture.” The book is part of the New York University Press’ The History of Disability Series.

The Rochester Parkour group, which includes RIT alumni and students, cleaned up Manhattan Square Park on April 7. They meet on Saturdays in the park to practice their sport. Kyler Mulherin, a third-year game design student, has participated since he came to RIT.

Graduate Thesis 2 is on view through April 18 in Bevier Gallery. The exhibit represents work from the School of Art, School of Design and School for American Crafts.

Barry Schwabsky, art critic for The Nation, spoke to students in RIT Professor Alan Singer’s fine art painting class on April 5. Schwabsky is a poet, critic and teacher who has edited and published monographs on artists as diverse as Alex Katz and Jessica Stockholder.

Erik Ellingson, a third-year photography major, picked RIT because of the photography program. He didn’t realize that his grandfather and great-grandfather made the university what it is today. Ellingson’s grandfather is Mark Ellingson, who was RIT’s fifth president from 1936-1969. Ellingson’s great-grandfather was John Randall, who was the fourth president of RIT from 1922 until 1936.

A standing-room-only crowd listened to entrepreneur David Bornstein speak April 2 in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science auditorium. Bornstein, founder of Dowser.org and the author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of Ideas, discussed new-solutions journalism and social innovation during his talk, “Are We on the Verge of a New Enlightenment?” Bornstein joined the list of presenters for RIT’s 2011–2012 Caroline Werner Gannett Project’s “Visionaries in Motion V” speaker series. The series concludes May 2 with a presentation by sculptor Elizabeth Turk.

“Three Artists, Three Views” is on exhibit in the NTID Dyer Arts Center through April 30. The exhibits feature photography, sculpture and paintings. An artists’ reception is 3:30-5 p.m. April 4.

Rochester Mayor Thomas Richards honored the 2012 RIT women’s hockey team with a key to the city March 30. The women’s team won its first NCAA Division III championship March 17. The following week, RIT announced plans to become a Division I program. The East High School Class-A girl’s basketball championship team also received an honorary key at the City Hall ceremony.

Mixed-media artist Radcliffe Bailey spoke about his traveling exhibit, “Memory as a Medicine,” on March 29 in Webb Auditorium. The lecture was sponsored by the College of Imaging Arts & Sciences.

Middle- and high-school students from 20 schools across the country competed March 24 for prizes and bragging rights for their schools in the seventh annual RIT National Science Fair for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students.