News

New and returning students will move into the residence halls over the next week, in a carefully staged process aimed at ensuring a safe reopening of the campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic. New students will move in today through Aug. 15; returning students will move in Aug. 16-18.

Changes are in place at 21 locations on the RIT campus that will serve thousands of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners to students, faculty, and staff members returning to campus. Online ordering, cashless checkouts, reduced occupancies, outdoor and spaced-out seating, and increased cleaning protocols are all new features offered by RIT Dining in response to COVID-19 precautions.

Students from the states on New York’s travel advisory list can self-quarantine through independent housing, hotel arrangements, or through a friend or relative. Another option is participating in RIT’s university-sponsored quarantine at area hotels, which begins Aug. 12. First-year student Iain Roach traveled from Alaska to Canandaigua, N.Y., before he can move onto campus on Aug. 15.

Film and Animation (Production option) student Sophie Walter further hones her video editing skills by working for RIT SportsZone, an on-campus production organization covering RIT athletics.

WHAM-TV talks to Thomas Warfield, director of dance; Andy Head, assistant professor in the Department of Performing Arts; and Jonathan Kruger, chair of the Department of Performing Arts, about changes to the dance, theater, and music programs.

An RIT student is on a mission to help build detectors that could identify individual photons from distant, inhabitable planets. Justin Gallagher, a fifth-year student from Rochester, N.Y., pursuing his BS in physics and MS in astrophysical sciences and technology, is serving as project manager for a nearly $1 million grant funded by NASA to create a single photon sensing and number resolving detector for NASA missions.

Meet Shine DeHarder, this year’s Student Government president. DeHarder, who served on RIT’s Community Readiness committee this summer to help the university reopen for students, has three main goals as Student Government president: reducing food insecurity on campus; improving diversity, inclusion, and accessibility on campus; and improving transparency between Student Government and the student body.

The unexpected transition to remote learning during the spring semester challenged faculty across RIT to experiment, create, and deploy new methods of instruction to ensure student success. As the university gears up for in-person and online classes—or a combination of both—faculty members are applying a wide range of lessons learned from the spring to keep academic momentum moving forward in the fall.

Douglas Merrill, who inspired countless students during his 40-year tenure in the College of Science and the College of Health Sciences and Technology, has retired. He developed the Premedical Advisory Program and created the Center for Bioscience Education and Technology. And he retires with numerous honors recognizing his outstanding teaching and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Seventeen interdisciplinary teams of students presented their innovative designs developed this summer in the Studio 930 design consultancy.

The show must go on – even if it means virtually. While performing arts offerings at RIT may look and feel differently from how they normally operate, RIT is committed to making sure they are available in a healthy and safe manner.

RIT is requiring all students, faculty, and staff to monitor their health for COVID-19 symptoms. The new policy will help protect the health and safety of the community at RIT and in the Greater Rochester area during the ongoing pandemic. Starting July 27, the university will launch the RIT Daily Health Screen website and call-in option.