The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in Henrietta, New York, United States, a suburb of Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institutes of technology in New York state, the other being the New York Institute of Technology. RIT enrolls about 21,000 students, of whom 18,000 are undergraduate and 3,000 are graduate students. These students come from all 50 states in the United States and more than 100 countries. The university has more than 4,000 faculty and staff. It also has campuses abroad in Croatia, Kosovo, and the United Arab Emirates. The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". It operates the publisher RIT Press, a university press.
History The university began as a result of an 1891 merger between Rochester Athenæum, a struggling literary society founded in 1829 by Colonel Nathaniel Rochester and associates, and The Mechanics Institute, a Rochester school of practical technical training for local residents founded in 1885 by a consortium of local businessmen including Captain Henry Lomb, co-founder of Bausch & Lomb. The name of the merged institution at the time was called Rochester Athenæum and Mechanics Institute (RAMI). The Mechanics Institute was considered as the surviving school and took over The Rochester Athenæum's 1829 founding charter. From the time of the merger until 1944, many of its students, administration and faculty staff alike, not only celebrated the former Mechanics Institute's 1885 founding charter, but its former name as well. In 1944, the school changed its name to Rochester Institute of Technology, re-established The Athenæum's 1829 founding charter and became a full-fledged research university.
The university originally resided within the city of Rochester, New York, proper, on a block bounded by the Erie Canal, South Plymouth Avenue, Spring Street, and South Washington Street (approximately 43.152632°N 77.615157°W / 43.152632; -77.615157). Its art department was originally located in the Bevier Memorial Building. By the middle of the twentieth century, RIT began to outgrow its facilities, and surrounding land was scarce and expensive; additionally, in 1959, the New York Department of Public Works announced a new freeway, the Inner Loop, was to be built through the city along a path that bisected the university's campus and required demolition of key university buildings. In 1961, a donation of $3.27 million from local Grace Watson, for whom RIT's dining hall was later named, allowed the university to purchase land for a new 1,300-acre (5.3 km2) campus several miles south along the east bank of the Genesee River in suburban Henrietta. Upon completion in 1968, the university moved to the new suburban campus, where it resides today. In 1966, RIT was selected by the federal government to be the site of the newly founded National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID). NTID admitted its first students in 1968, concurrent with RIT's transition to the Henrietta campus. In 1979, RIT took over Eisenhower College, a liberal arts college located in Seneca Falls, New York. Despite making a 5-year commitment to keep Eisenhower open, RIT announced in July 1982 that the college would close immediately. One final year of operation by Eisenhower's academic program took place in the 1982–83 school year on the Henrietta campus. The final Eisenhower graduation took place in May 1983 back in Seneca Falls.
The microelectronic engineering program, created in 1982 is the only ABET-accredited undergraduate program in of its type the country. At its inception, it was the nation's first Bachelor of Science program specializing in the fabrication of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. In 1990, RIT started its first PhD program, in imaging science – the first PhD program of its kind in the U.S. The information technology program was the first nationally recognized IT degree, created in 1993. In 1996, RIT became the first college in the U.S. to offer a Software Engineering degree at the undergraduate level.
Campus
The main campus is housed on a 1,300 acres (5.3 km2) property. This property is largely covered with woodland and fresh-water swamp making it a very diverse wetland that is home to a number of somewhat rare plant species. The campus comprises 237 buildings and 5.1 million square feet (470,000 m2) of building space. The nearly universal use of bricks in the campus's construction – estimated at 15,710,693 bricks as of August 6, 2018 – prompted students to give it the semi-affectionate nickname "Brick City," reflected in the name of events such as the annual "Brick City Homecoming." Though the buildings erected in the first few decades of the campus's existence reflected the architectural style known as brutalism, the warm color of the bricks softened the impact somewhat. More recent additions to the campus have diversified the architecture while still incorporating the traditional brick colors. The main campus was listed as a census-designated place in 2020. In 2009, the campus was named a "Campus Sustainability Leader" by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. The residence halls and the academic side of campus are connected with a walkway called the "Quarter Mile". Along the Quarter Mile, between the academic and residence hall side are various administration and support buildings. On the academic side of the walkway is a courtyard, known as the Infinity Quad due to a striking polished stainless steel sculpture (by Jose' de Rivera, 1968, 19'×8'×21⁄2') of a continuous ribbon-like Möbius strip (commonly referred to as the infinity loop because if the sun hits the strip at a certain angle it will cast a shadow in the shape of an infinity symbol on the ground) in the middle of it; on the residence hall side is a sundial and a clock. Standing near the Administration Building and the Student Alumni Union is The Sentinel, a steel structure created by the acclaimed metal sculptor, Albert Paley. Reaching 70 feet (21 m) high and weighing 110 tons, the sculpture is the largest on any American university campus. There are four on-campus RIT-owned apartment complexes: Global Village, Perkins Green, Riverknoll, and University Commons. RIT also operates two off-campus apartment complexes: 175 Jefferson Road, and RIT Inn and & Conference Center
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