K. Nicole Murtagh

Strolling along the walkways on campus, I tend to hear the phrase “I hate RIT” or something similar, on a consistent basis. Students complain about how much they hate RIT, but rarely do they have a reason tacked onto their complaint. “There are no girls” or “it’s too cold” shouldn’t be enough to hate your university; people come to RIT for their education, not for the women or weather. So what opinions do students feel the need to voice? Hopefully, by a random selection of students, some of these issues can be revealed.

Let’s Start a Dance Dance Revolution

While walking through the SAU, I heard the sound of throbbing techno and the frantic tapping of buttons in the RITz. After peering into the game room, I saw a student leaning on the balance bar on the “Dance Dance Revolution” machine, his feet dashing back and forth on the four buttons. I discovered that David Bernardone, a fourth year Applied Mathematics major, was not only an avid DDR player but an aspiring math teacher as well.

Bernardone was still on the on-campus debit plan and his main complaint was how Crossroads should be open past 6 p.m. Additionally, he would like to see a club for DDR because the Electronic Gaming Society doesn’t hold any tournaments or play time for DDR. Overall, Bernardone reflected, “I have enjoyed my time here. I mainly came here because my friends were here, and we have similar interests.”

K. Nicole Murtagh

Hey Mr. DJ, Put a Record On

After exiting the RITz, I realized that it might be a little more difficult to find RIT’s unsatisfied population. Having decided to continue down the tunnels under the SAU, I stopped at the entrance to WITR. Music was emanating from the room and I ran into the DJ known as Dr. Watson.

Andy Watson, a second year Game Design and Development major, was reorganizing the racks upon racks of music that WITR has to choose from. When asked about his thoughts on RIT, he initially said he was very happy with RIT and he liked being here a lot, “but I guess there are a few things…” He mentioned his concerns with the idea of the plus and minus system RIT has considered putting into place and how it might hurt students more than help.

Watson then mentioned that Student Government (SG) took a long time giving WITR a budget for the year, and one of the things SG has been focusing on is the bus system, which is now “too complicated to figure out.” Watson also touched on the inevitable concern of the semester system; he doesn’t like how academic programs would be affected by a semester system. For example, Watson believes that for his major, it would be difficult to combine the variety of design and programming classes required. Watson feels that the only reason why RIT is looking to change to a semester system is because of many of the professors’ complaints. “Teachers are here of their own free will. Students come here because of the class schedule.”

K. Nicole Murtagh

Art in Isolation

Resurfacing from the basement depths of the SAU, I wandered over to the home of the more eccentric students: the Booth Fine Arts Building. Wandering up towards the interior and industrial design studios, I ran into a student who was working on bending a long piece of metal for an advanced art design project. Antonio Aresco, a fourth year Industrial Design major, turned down saying much about the changes he’d like to see at RIT. “I’m not interested in the politics and what is going on or what needs to be done. I don’t have the time to be concerned with politics.”

After a few moments of silence, Aresco spoke about how he enjoys diversity and he wished people at the university wouldn’t just stick to their own kind. “For example, I feel like photo is an ethnicity in this school.” He believes that the art students are the outcasts at RIT and that they’re a different species than the rest of the RIT population; “CIAS are the red-headed step children of the university.” He likened RIT to a “melting pot gone wrong” where this university has such a great variety of majors and people but no one mingles. Computing majors stick with other computing majors, photo majors with photo majors, and business majors with business majors; but no one ever mingles with people much different from themselves.

No More Stepford Women Engineers

Moving on to another building, I walked into Java Wally’s to get some coffee for the cold weather. One of the girls working there, Katelyn Cerankosky, a third year Mechanical Engineering major, was interested in voicing her opinion. “When I first came here for the Women Engineers’ orientation, rather than workshops and engineering integration, the week was focused around ice breakers and ‘let’s hold hands.’”

Cerankosky continued the story by saying she observed that the Friday events that the WE@RIT group held during the quarters were ludicrous: ranging from decorating cupcakes and painting flower pots. “How does that integrate us into the field?” Cerankosky asked and then said, “All they’re doing is promoting more female things. I view those as hobbies.” She believes that the group should focus more on activities to help prepare women in a predominantly male field.

One idea she had was to have a workshop consisting of ways to effectively deal with sexist men in the engineering field or learn about different mechanical components on cars. Instead, the Women Engineers group focuses their attention on issues like throwing a fashion show depicting how to dress for the Career Fair. “If I was a new woman here who was really serious about engineering and I heard about this program, I’d be livid,” Cerankosky said. “And if I were a guy who saw that those were some of the activities they were doing, I’d laugh and it’d further separate us. It is so important for us to get respect immediately as women in this field.”

Another idea she came up with is the possibility of doing Friday design competitions to use your mind, to learn new ways to make things, and to have them work well. Cerankosky’s advice for women engineers unsure of their status in workplace: You need to “prove yourself, prove your knowledge, and [show] you’re serious about yourself.”

K. Nicole Murtagh

Temperature and Chemical Reactions

Caffeinated and ready to find more students with concerns and thoughts, I decided to try one of the lesser noticed buildings on the academic side: the College of Science building. Many students in a variety of majors drag through their core math and science requirements and never step foot in the place again. I walked up and down the hallways, passing a variety of professors’ offices and found one of the biochemistry labs. In the lab was a student working with a set of small test tubes containing a clear liquid. Andrew Pinkham, a second year Biochemistry major, was mini-prepping proteins for a grad student working on isolating a specific gene. When asked about what could be changed about RIT, Pinkham had a few things in mind.

He recounted that this past year, up until a week before moving back to RIT, he and his four roommates were set to live in the RIT Inn and then, at last minute, were switched to one of the non-furnished apartment complexes on campus. “It’s really hard to plan for that,” Pinkham said, mentioning that returning and having to buy furniture at the last moment also made it more expensive.

Thinking about his major, Pinkham mentioned that he’d like to see a standardized lab format for all of the Science building. He would also like to see more funding for the chemistry department so they could afford some new equipment. Another complaint that Pinkham had was that there is no air conditioning in one of the organic chemistry labs, making it a less than comfortable environment to work in. “The thing is, there are organic [and] hazardous compounds which makes it not only a comfort issue, but a safety issue,” he said.

The remark Pinkham had was about the bad weather. Many students would agree that the RIT weather machine has been doing a poor job at providing almost any good fall weather this year.

K. Nicole Murtagh

Getting a Hold on Improvement

Brainstorming a sixth and final location to pick at students’ brains, I decided to walk to the far west side of campus — to the Red Barn. Here, a mix of students from a variety of majors and schools come to boulder and climb. This is where I found, Brennah Rosenthal, a first year Photography major.

Rosenthal wishes that she could have chosen what floor she lived on and that RIT would give her an all-debit food plan. As far as her major goes, Rosenthal thinks that the resources for photo are awesome. However, her concerns lie more with her passion: climbing and the Red Barn.

Rosenthal, and many of the climbers at the Red Barn, wish that RIT would give the place enough funding so that the building could have running water and heat. “It’s really hard training and not having a water fountain anywhere,” Rosenthal mentioned. “Also, it’d be nice to have a real bathroom and not a port-a-potty.”

One of Rosenthal’s goals while she is at RIT is to start up a USA Collegiate climbing team at RIT. Whether it’s a club or an actual team, she wants to make sure that by the time she leaves, RIT has a competitive team. She hopes that this will help bring funding to the Red Barn. So far, RIT has said that they didn’t want the club-in-progress to represent RIT at these climbing competitions, but Rosenthal isn’t going to give up. “I have a lot to bring to the climbing team, and I would love to see the Red Barn thrive or expand.”

Through finding a variety of students in a variety of environments, many different concerns across campus can be found. By voicing their own opinions and taking what action when they can, students can get some of the issues that they mentioned can be changed. All issues and concerns can’t be fixed by RIT, but there are resources to help students find effective ways to voice their concerns. These resources, such as Student Affairs and Ombuds Office, can help provide solutions to a vast majority of issues pertaining to campus life.