Remarks to Accepted Students
Bill Destler
Welcome to RIT, and congratulations to all of you students on
earning acceptance to this remarkable university! RIT is indeed a very
special place – surely one of the greatest collections of geeks and artists
on earth! RIT is also a remarkable community of innovative and creative
scholars that are dedicated to making a difference in the world, and our
students and graduates are doing just that in all 50 states and more than
100 countries around the world.
What makes RIT unique? Let me give you a few examples:
 RIT is a comprehensive technical and fine arts university with
more than 18,000 students enrolled in 150 different degree
programs in Rochester and at four international locations, but
because of our commitment to undergraduate students and a
tradition of small classes and individual attention, it feels like a
small college to most of our students.
 RIT’s wonderful blend of artists, designers, engineers, scientists,
and business majors has made it a leader in such emerging fields as
computer gaming, animation, industrial design, digital media,
photography, cyber security, and sustainable production. And RIT
has at least a dozen academic programs ranked in the top ten
nationally, including programs in these fields and others.
 RIT is a wonderfully diverse community – so diverse, in fact, that
if you are afraid of interacting with students from different
cultures, nationalities, races, genders, and religions, it may not be
the right place for you. But if you are willing to immerse yourself
in this multifaceted community, I can promise you it will be an
experience you will never forget.
 RIT is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, one
of two federally supported colleges for the deaf and hard-ofhearing, and about 10% of our students fall into this category.
These students add a measure of diversity to our community that
simply cannot be found elsewhere, and one indication of the
impact that NTID has had on RIT is that we cannot meet the
demand for sign language courses for our hearing students who
want to communicate with their deaf friends.
 Other universities may claim to be centers of innovation and
entrepreneurship, but at RIT, innovative and creative work leading
to new products, businesses, and works of art are part of our DNA.
In fact, a recent survey indicated that about 200 of our students are
pursuing their own businesses while enrolled here – I just hope
they’re all legal! Each year we celebrate all of this innovative work
at our Imagine RIT Festival, where more than 400 student and
faculty projects are presented to more than 35,000 visitors.
 Some examples: Last year a Freshman student here, Adam
Munich, won the Texas Instruments International Analog Design
competition, and a team of cyber-security majors won the national
championship in the design of secure networks. The Microsoft
Kinect system was designed by a team led by a recent RIT
graduate, and 4 RIT graduates animated the tiger in the recent film
“Life of Pi.”
 RIT faculty and graduates are Pulitzer prize winners and Academy
Award winners. Last year, one of our faculty, Todd Pagano, was
named one of three Outstanding Professors in the nation by the
Carnegie Foundation. Just recently, a consortium in which RIT is a
core team member won a national competition initiated by
President Obama to establish a National Network for
Manufacturing Innovation Institute in the area of digital
manufacturing. RIT is the only New York university to be included
in any of the three NNMI Institutes announced to date.
 RIT is a national leader in sustainability, both in our campus
operations and in our curriculum. Our Ph.D. degree in
sustainability is one of only two offered nationally, and we
recently opened our second LEED-Platinum certified building, the
highest sustainability standard possible in building construction.
These two LEED-Platinum facilities are, to our knowledge, among
the only such buildings on a college campus in New York State.
 RIT students enjoy a rich outside-the-classroom experience that
includes opportunities for participation in intercollegiate, club, and
intramural athletics, more than 200 student clubs and
organizations, Greek life, and theater and music performance
groups. RIT offers no athletic scholarships, but nevertheless our
Division I men’s and women’s hockey teams compete successfully
against all the major national powers. In 2010, our men’s hockey
team reached the NCAA Frozen Four, and just this year our
Women’s hockey team won the College Hockey America
conference championship in only its second year as a Division I
team. And be sure to follow our No. 1 ranked men’s lacrosse team
this year as they pursue a national championship.
 RIT is a hands-on, learn how to do the real thing kind of place.
And most importantly, RIT is a co-op school. This means that
most of you will be required to spend up to a year working in
government or industry in your field before graduation. In fact, we
send about 3,500 students to more than 1,900 employers each year
on paid co-op assignments. This experience both adds to your
ability to do productive work in graduate school or in the business
sector upon graduation and makes you unusually attractive for
placement upon graduation with the best employers or graduate
schools. In fact, last year a survey of recent graduates indicated
that 95% were employed full-time in their field or going to
graduate school full-time 6 months after graduation.
So come join us here at RIT. No matter who you are or where you
come from, you will find friends and mentors here. We would not have
admitted you if we felt that you could not flourish at RIT, so come with
the confidence that you will find your future here. And when you do
come please contact me should there be any way in which I can make
your experience at RIT better. It will be my privilege to serve you.