Chances are, even if the average college hockey fan knows of Rochester, New York (home to the AHL's Rochester Americans and the hometown of Eastman Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, and Xerox), he or she probably had never heard of the Rochester Institute of Technology before this season. (Or, barring that, before 2005.)
RIT is a private, coeducational, non-denominational university located in the suburbs south of the Rochester city limits, a stone's throw from the banks of the Genesee River. It was founded in 1829 as the Rochester Athenaeum, a society of the burgeoning city's foremost intellectuals. It merged in 1891 with the Mechanics Institute, which was founded in 1885 to train skilled workers for Rochester's factories.
The merged Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute, or RAMI, gradually evolved into a more collegiate institution, establishing a campus in downtown Rochester not far from where the Erie Canal once flowed. In 1944, it was renamed the Rochester Institute of Technology, and in 1950 it granted its first degrees.
A move to the suburb of Henrietta, New York, was necessitated both by the expansion of the Institute's enrollment and by the construction of Interstate 490 through the middle of campus. The move to the new 1,300-acre campus was completed in 1968, the same year Congress named RIT as the location of the federally funded National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Today, RIT has over 14,000 undergraduates and almost 3,000 students working on graduate degrees, including those working in one of six doctoral programs. RIT continues to maintain its focus on career preparation; research is a growing but still secondary priority. Classes are small in size and are predominantly taught by professors, not TAs.
RIT was the first university to offer a bachelor's degree in information technology, and its other flagship programs include microelectronic engineering, software engineering, photography, imaging science, printing, and sign-language interpreting.
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Powers &8^]
RIT is a private, coeducational, non-denominational university located in the suburbs south of the Rochester city limits, a stone's throw from the banks of the Genesee River. It was founded in 1829 as the Rochester Athenaeum, a society of the burgeoning city's foremost intellectuals. It merged in 1891 with the Mechanics Institute, which was founded in 1885 to train skilled workers for Rochester's factories.
The merged Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute, or RAMI, gradually evolved into a more collegiate institution, establishing a campus in downtown Rochester not far from where the Erie Canal once flowed. In 1944, it was renamed the Rochester Institute of Technology, and in 1950 it granted its first degrees.
A move to the suburb of Henrietta, New York, was necessitated both by the expansion of the Institute's enrollment and by the construction of Interstate 490 through the middle of campus. The move to the new 1,300-acre campus was completed in 1968, the same year Congress named RIT as the location of the federally funded National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Today, RIT has over 14,000 undergraduates and almost 3,000 students working on graduate degrees, including those working in one of six doctoral programs. RIT continues to maintain its focus on career preparation; research is a growing but still secondary priority. Classes are small in size and are predominantly taught by professors, not TAs.
RIT was the first university to offer a bachelor's degree in information technology, and its other flagship programs include microelectronic engineering, software engineering, photography, imaging science, printing, and sign-language interpreting.
Next post: RIT Hockey
Powers &8^]
