Re: >> RIT Tigers 2011-12 Part II: Making Some Noise at the House that Roars <<
Re: >> RIT Tigers 2011-12 Part II: Making Some Noise at the House that Roars <<
Awesome. Can you link the newsletter? Or tell me where to find it?
No link - sent directly via email. See below. Apologies for the long post:
To: RIT Trustees, faculty, staff, students, and alumni
From: Bill Destler, President
Date: January 10, 2012
Subject: Progress at RIT
It has been a while since I gave an update to the RIT community on progress toward our shared goals for this remarkable institution, and the beginning of a new year seems like an appropriate time to do so. RIT is on as positive a trajectory as any university in the nation, and it is a privilege to communicate some of what RIT family members are achieving.
First, RIT’s reputation for academic excellence is rising rapidly, with no fewer than 10 of our academic programs now ranked in the top-ten nationally. The latest additions to this list are our Interactive Games and Media program, ranked 4th by The Princeton Review, and our Industrial Design program, ranked 2nd by DesignIntelligence. Another RIT top-ten program, Photojournalism, recently recognized all seven of its Pulitzer Prize winning alumni (who have collectively won 11 Pulitzers!) at a highly publicized event in the nation’s capital. In addition, our Saunders College of Business MBA program was recently ranked for the first time by U.S. News & World Report and was ranked higher than Syracuse, Case Western Reserve, and Drexel Universities, among others.
RIT’s rapidly growing reputation has resulted in a record number of applications from prospective undergraduate and graduate students. Last year, for example, more than 20,000 applied for admission to our freshman class of only 2650 students, and as a result our Fall class was both academically significantly more talented and more diverse than in previous years. Total enrollment at RIT now is approaching 18,000 students, making RIT one of the nation’s top dozen largest private colleges and universities in terms of undergraduate enrollment.
RIT student retention and graduation rates are also on the rise, with more than 91% of enrolled freshman students returning for their sophomore year for the second year in a row. Our undergraduate student graduation rate now exceeds 70%, and the strong freshman retention rates of the last two years should result in rapidly increasing graduation rates over the next few years.
The RIT campus continues to expand, with over 240 buildings now located on our sprawling 1400 acre suburban-Rochester campus. New facilities currently under construction or in design include a new facility for the Golisano Institute for Sustainability, a new building for our new Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programs, and a new innovation and research facility for NTID to be named Lenore and Sebastian Rosica Hall as a result of a significant gift from the McGowan Foundation.
And speaking of new facilities, our campaign to raise funds for a new hockey arena has reached the halfway point toward our $15,000,000 goal with a $4,500,000 gift from the Polisseni family and Trustee Tom Golisano in honor of Gene Polisseni, for whom the new arena will be named. Gene Polisseni was a close personal friend of Tom Golisano who joined him at Paychex several years after Tom founded the company, and he was a very active local advocate for youth hockey in the Rochester region.
A second campaign to raise $15,000,000 for the Saunders College of Business in response to a $5,000,000 challenge gift from Trustee Phil Saunders was recently given a significant boost when an anonymous alumnus donated $3,000,000 to establish the Eugene Fram Chair in Critical Thinking, in honor of one of RIT’s most distinguished Emeritus Professors.
Alumni support for RIT is also growing, with several million dollar-plus gifts to RIT from alums received over the last year. Special thanks goes to alums Don Truesdale, J.M. Allain, Steve and Vicki Schultz, and three anonymous donors for their extraordinary support for their alma mater. RIT also experienced record attendance at our Brick City Homecoming last October, with virtually every event sold out.
RIT athletic teams are also making strong progress in moving RIT’s reputation forward. Our Division III teams now compete in the Liberty League against some of the finest private colleges and universities in the nation, including Hobart/William Smith, Union, St. Lawrence, RPI, Vassar, Skidmore, Bard, Clarkson, and the University of Rochester. Last Spring our men’s lacrosse team advanced to the NCAA Final Four, losing only one game all season. Our Division I men’s hockey team is once again near the top of the Atlantic Hockey Association standings and our Division III women’s team is, as I write this, undefeated and ranked no. 1 in the nation.
This year we will apply to the NCAA to move our women’s team to Division I, a move that we anticipate could occur as early as next year.
RIT’s new Institute for Health Sciences and Technology (IHST), which includes RIT’s 9th college, the College of Health Sciences and Technology, opened its doors this Fall with an enrollment of about 600 students in a variety of programs from Biomedical Science to our highly regarded Physician Assistant program. The new IHST is a result of extensive strategic planning efforts conducted by a committee representing both RIT and our alliance partner, the Rochester General Health System. And on December 1, we welcomed Dr. Daniel Ornt as the first Vice President and Dean of the new Institute. Dr. Ornt comes to us from Case Western Reserve University, where he was Vice Dean of Medicine, and he is expected to provide strong leadership as RIT grows its academic and research programs in this vital area.
Student life continues to flourish at RIT with students involved in over 200 clubs and student organizations. Last Spring, for example, our students broke the Guinness Book record for the largest dodge ball game, with over 2,300 students participating. And more than 10,000 students, alumni, and friends attended the homecoming hockey game (a thrilling overtime win for RIT over St. Lawrence) at the downtown Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
Our planning for the move to a semester-based calendar continues on schedule with the change planned for the Fall 2013 academic year. As part of this process every academic program at RIT has been reviewed and updated to ensure that RIT students get the best and most current education possible. Associated with this change is the introduction of a new student information system that will support many campus operations ranging from admissions to course registration. Parts of the new system are already operational, with full implementation expected by next Fall.
RIT continues to be a center of innovation and entrepreneurship, with several companies emerging out of our Venture Creations incubator as growing, successful contributors to our regional and national economies. One of our student-launched companies, Digsby, was recently purchased by a California company, and a spinoff company utilizing technology from RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Vnomics, has recently left the incubator to find additional space that can accommodate its rapid growth. A third company, Cerion Energy, also a former incubator company founded by alumnus Ken Reed, is now located in the Kodak Business Park and employs more than 40 people.
RIT’s overseas campuses in Croatia, Kosovo, and Dubai continue to grow. In Croatia, a second campus has been added in Zagreb, the capital, to complement the campus in Dubrovnik. In Dubai, RIT has moved into a brand new facility which will support our growing undergraduate and graduate programs there for years to come. In Kosovo, enrollment in RIT degree programs continues to be the highest of all of our overseas locations, and we are playing an important role in the development of that young nation.
So, as you can see, RIT continues to grow in both size and reputation. All of this progress is a result of the wonderful work of so many of you in the RIT family. For that, and for your support during the last five years, I am profoundly grateful. GO TIGERS!
88-35 mil. We will see which barn will have more intensity in it.