To the editor,
As a professor of Rochester Institute of Technology, I feel it is my duty to voice my opinion of the campus in hopes of improving the institution that I have called home for the past several. While I appreciate all that Rochester has grown to be, I see on fundamental issue that continues to burden the school: far too frequently students, alumni, and faculty of Rochester Institute of Technology have mistaken the school for RPI.
While the issue itself seems relatively mundane, the confusion between RPI and RIT has caused a bureaucratic nightmare in nearly every aspect of the school. Our mailroom has mistakenly delivered birthday gifts and cards to unwitting RIT students, and my heart has sunk when I see a students eyes light up as they receive a package only to have it ripped away as they slowly realize that the gift wasn’t meant for them. Quite frankly, I think our campus is too emotionally fragile to continue with the the epidemic of disappointment that has occurred as a result of the confusion between RIT and RPI.
The morale of students as a whole is at stake; I can only wonder how many high school seniors has received and acceptance letter from RIT only to find themselves angry that it wasn’t from RPI. How many family reunions have been marred by the relatives sadly shaking their heads as the realize that their niece or nephew goes to Rochester than Rensselaer? How many parents have paid their first tuition bill only to notice that the education they have paid for is not the one that they were expecting? As the world continues to confuse Rochester Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, our students have been subject to the inevitable realization of their mediocrity relative to RPI.
At this, Rochester, I leave you with a call to action. I implore all our students, faculty, and alumni to find some manner to differentiate the two schools; the confusion in acronyms has been incredibly detrimental to our institution. We cannot afford to continue our existence living in the shadow of RPI.