Items

• College of Continuing Education Class
  In this photo, an unidentified student weaves on a loom as part of the Continuing Education program at RIT’s downtown campus facilities. Date unknown, likely early-mid 70’s. During this time, RIT’s School of American Craftsmen (today just the School of American Crafts) offered a few weaving and textile courses including Introduction to Textiles and Advanced Textiles. These courses cost about $90-$100 each, and were offered each quarter. Unfortunately, RIT no longer offers these types of classes, as the Weaving and Textile program was recently discontinued.
• 1975-76 College of Continuing Education Programs and Courses “Outline of Programs and Schedule of Classes”
  The course catalog provides an in depth over of the courses available. There is an emphasis on flexible scheduling, as many students are working professionals with limited time to learn outside of their job. The course catalog also provides information on grading, tuition, financial aid and department phone numbers for further inquiry. This course catalog advertises RIT’s multiple campuses and flexibility. The Metropolitan Center on 50 West Main Street provided day and evening course work in areas of mathematics, ceramics and management, textiles weaving and design, human behavior, social work and electromechanical technology. The main campus in Henrietta in 1975 was a 12 building complex on 1300 acres of land and the ability to enroll up to 20,000 students.
• Drafting Classroom
  Students take advantage of drafting classes at RIT's 50 W Main campus.
• Applied Arts Classroom
  Students hard at work in an Applied Arts class.
• College of Continuing Education Official Bulletin (1973-74)
  This course catalog was available for students in the College of Continuing Education during the 1973-74 school year. Its psychedelic cover reflects the unique culture and style of the 70s. Students could browse the various programs, courses, and other offerings from the College of Continuing Education before selecting their classes for the semester. Some of these programs, particularly in the engineering field, are still offered at RIT today. Nowadays, RIT students can access all of their academic information in seconds using the online Student Information System, while printed course catalogs have become a thing of the past.
• Extended Services Division
  This is a short letter addressed to Mr. Harold Kentner, dated July 10, 1973, from Mr. Ronald J. Hilton, an Associate in the Extended Services Division of the College of Continuing Education. Mr. Hilton writes of his frustrating experience in trying to create and market a new program, and states that he was unprepared for the time and energy it would take to do so. It is assumed that Mr. Hilton speaks of the Metropolitan Center that RIT purchased the year before.
• Management Diploma Program
  This is a short letter in the annual report addressed to Mr. Robert Kay, dated June 28, 1973, from the Assistant Dean of the Administration College of Continuing Education, Norman A. Flannigan, in regards to the Management Diploma Program. Mr. Flannigan expresses concern about the decrease in students enrolled in the program, and worries that there will be no students enrolled in Management Diploma in four years. He asks Mr. Kay for his opinion.
• The Metropolitan Center
  This is a letter in the annual report addressed to Ronald Hilton, Academic Administrator of the Metropolitan Center, dated May 7, 1973, from Fred Meyer, a professor of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. Mr. Meyer presents an argument against the sale of the Metropolitan Center.
• Introduction to Annual Report
  This is the introduction in the annual report. The document discusses RIT’s decision to move the Extended Services Division to the Metropolitan Center on 50 West Main Street. The move seems to be a response to the diverse needs of the College of Continuing Education’s target audience (adults).
• Mail Registration Form
  Mail registration form for the fall semester, found in the College of Continuing Education course catalog for 1972-73. Rather than registering for courses online like today, RIT students who wished to take evening classes had to fill out the registration form and send it into the Registrar's Office.
• Annual Report of the Dean of the College of Continuing Education
  This is the front page of the annual report of the Dean of the College of Continuing Education addressed to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. It includes a summary of the report, highlighting both challenges and successes from 1972 to 1973.
• Proposed Renovations for 50 W Main
  A renovation plan for a floor of the 50 West Main building. In 1978 the building was rebranded the City Center by the RIT President at the time. 50 West Main was primarily used as a space for evening classes early in its use as an RIT location. The space gave the Institute a wider variety of options for lab, studio, and classroom spaces which in turn allowed it to cater to a student body with a need for more flexible schedules.
• College of Continuing Education: Students Registering
  In this photo, unidentified students stand in line for course registration. It's a good example of how the sign-up process worked before everything was just taken care of online.
• Fall Sports Schedule
  The provided picture is part of a fall sports schedule from 1971. The sports shown here are soccer, football, and cross country. The aspect of this that is most interesting is the still existing football team. At the time, coached by the recent head coach of the NFL NY Giants, Tom Coughlin. Since the end of the football team at RIT, they have shirts that say “RIT Football Undefeated since 1978.”
• Course Offerings
  There were the newly updated class offerings for evening students during the spring quarter, as well. The programs still include many of the ones previously offered, as well as the new offerings from the winter quarter, such as crafts, biology/chemistry, computer systems and engineering. Arts is not included in the spring, however, but there is an addition of industrial technology. This reflects the growing population of evening students at RIT and the need for more diverse and specialized programs. Unlike the prior spring quarters, off campus classes finally became available at Olympia High School and R.L. Thomas High School.
• Fish-Eye of 50 W Main
  A unique photograph of the main entrance of the old 50 W Main Street Campus of RIT in Downtown Rochester. Pictured here are Edward P. Curtis, Dorothy Wadsworth, Gene de Prez, Loma Allen, and two unidentified individuals about to enter the building for an open house. This campus was home to many different work spaces that allowed students access to a wide swath of topics from engineering to applied arts. The space was acquired by RIT in 1961 and was used to house the Colleges of Generalized Studies and Business. A historic building - 50 West Main was transformed from the Kodak Naval Ordnance Plant as a manufacturer of weapons to what then RIT President Paul A. Miller called a “Metropolitan Center”.
• Course Offerings
  There were the newly updated class offerings for evening students during the winter quarter. The programs include many of the ones previously offered, but additions such as arts, crafts, biology/chemistry, computer systems and engineering became available to evening students. This reflects the growing population of evening students at RIT and the need for more diverse and specialized programs. There are still off campus classes offered at Olympia High School and R.L. Thomas High School, and the amount of classes offered has increased as well.
• Course Descriptions From Management Program
  Course descriptions from the discontinued Management program in the College of Continuing Education reflect a time when many RIT graduates were entering the industrial sector. The College of Continuing Education offered courses for employed managers to refine their skills and gain valuable knowledge about their field.
• Social Work at RIT
  This photograph of the Social Work students in the College of General Studies, also paired with the College of Continuing Education, at RIT depicts the students working with "underprivileged” children. In the 1970s, RIT held a budding social work program that did practical, hands-on training with the students and members of the community in Rochester. The program hosted a diverse array of courses including Day Care Programming, Casework, and Neighborhood Organization and Development. This program clearly emphasized the importance of putting practical use to the information learned in the classroom and created open opportunity for the undergraduate students to practice these skills.
• Student and Professor in Printmaking Class
  Photograph of student and professor during printmaking class, found in the 1969-70 College of Continuing Education course catalog in the Arts and Graphic Arts section. Some of the printmaking courses offered included Flexographic Printing, Offset Lithography, and Typography and Letterpress Printing.
• Rochester Campus
  This image shows a map of the RIT campus in 1969, taken from the back of a spring schedule. It is interesting to see how much the campus has grown since this time. Many if not all of the buildings and parking lots are still the same. It might be a bit confusing deciphering this map at first because most maps of the current campus are oriented upside down in comparison to this one. Also obviously it is much smaller than the campus today.
• Downtown Campus Laboratory
  Several students shown in the photograph are hard at work in one of the many laboratories at the 50 West Main campus building that was part of the larger RIT campus network. Classes like chemistry could be taught to these students to supplement any type of coursework including night classes part of the Continuing Education program.
• "A Firefly by Any Other Name Would Still Glow as Brightly"
  Rochester Evening School Mascot, from RIT Evening Student Association newsletter, The Image. September 1968 issue, From RIT Evening School Records, RIT Arc. 0476, Box 2, Folder 17 Shrouded in mystery and collective intrigue, a presumably under-appreciated mascot once laid claim to the RIT evening college. Neither tiger nor Techman, this being was brief and, nearly forgotten. But, as they should, these evening college memoirs live on; and with this recent finding, this topic will not dissipate so soon. The mascot was discovered in a September issue of a 1968 RIT Evening Student Association newsletter known as The Image (RIT Arc. 0476, Box 2, Folder 17). Here, information about the school, different faculty, college events, general news, etc. is shared on a student-student platform. Since this is a newspaper that primarily addresses evening college activity, it only makes sense that it should advertise evening school customs—including, but not limited to, a personal mascot. What are the types of creatures you think of in the night? What nocturnal names do you know? Owls, bats, lemurs, cats—the list goes on. But what could present a bit more flare? Something flashy to get students excited. What symbol would serve this position better, than a firefly? Fireflies are not only visually appealing, but also serve as a quiet source for inspiration. A sort of intrigue that could symbolize thought and knowledge. Wouldn’t this be an area of interest, one to inspire you to learn something as simple as: why does a firefly glow? What is the science behind that luminescence? What evolution caused such unique traits in these insects, and other creatures with seemingly similar qualities? Are they relatable to one another? RIT has always been an advocate of continued education. One pursues knowledge for the sake of learning, growing, and subsequently achieving more. Is a firefly mascot a small promotion of this precedent, or, perhaps, just a playful reminder that you’re a member of a community which takes their classes after the sun has set? While this little bug only held its reign for about four years, we'll hold belief that it was the latter. “A firefly by any other name would still glow as brightly,” (firefly.org).
• Faculty Handbook and Classbook
  This is a faculty handbook from 1967 for workers at the Evening College at Rochester Institute of Technology. Shown at the bottom as well, is the address of the school. What was included in this book was an introduction to the evening college, wait their goals were, a list of their responsibilities as a faculty member, location of where they are able to acquire materials needed for their classes, how parking works, etc.
• Article From "The Image"
  An April 4th, 1967 article from "the Image," a student run newspaper at RIT. The article talks about the increase of evening students in arts programs and possible reasons why people seem to to be more interested in creating and working with their hands.