The RIT community has been on the edge of its seats since the Fall 2025 semester, when it was announced that a select few clubs would eventually be evicted from their locations and forced to downsize. Though some areas are still up in the air, the situation appears to have improved.
Model Railroad Club
During a Feb. 2 meeting with Campus Life staff Courtney Bringley and Sarah Bayerl, Model Railroad Club was informed that RIT is willing to wait for them to find an acceptable new room before repurposing their old one. Additionally, they were told that Campus Life would help set up the inside of that room to suit the club’s needs, as well as help them move their equipment to the new location when the time came. On Feb. 11, the club posted a message on Reddit thanking the RIT community for all the support.
“They’re willing to work with us a lot more on this compared to how they originally approached this whole thing,” stated Drew LaTerza, the vice president of RIT Model Railroad Club, regarding the Feb. 2 meeting.
However, the club members stated they still hold distrust towards Campus Life because of past events. In addition to their near-eviction, they have also had issues with being told that alumni cannot participate in work sessions or having those work sessions otherwise restricted. Additionally, they cited having the nameplate taken down that dedicated their workroom to their founding advisor, James Scudder, as a point of contention.
RIT Model Railroad Club president Miles Davenport summarized, “We still have some reservations.”
Campus Life
“In regard to the Model Railroad club, there have been multiple occasions where compromises seem difficult to come to,” described Student Affairs Committee Chair Noah Manning.
Manning has endeavored to connect clubs with the correct people and help their e-boards advocate for them since the beginning. He explained that the deadlines for the clubs to move out of their locations have been softened in many cases.
“Our discussions with the clubs have been very productive,” Sarah Bayerl, the Senior Associate Director for Student Engagement, stated. She went on to explain that some of the clubs in question have been able to take advantage of resources such as the RIT Archives to preserve their historical items.
Anime Club
While things have improved for Model Railroad Club and some other campus organizations, the Anime Club’s future remains uncertain.
“We feel like there hasn’t been any sort of compromise from their [Campus Life’s] end,” stated Destinye Yamada, the club president. “The fact is simply that we’re going to be out whether we like it or not.”
Yamada felt that the club’s contributions were being “consistently devalued” by Campus Life, especially as they continued working toward holding Tora-Con. Additionally, she noted feeling especially upset upon seeing an email regarding the creation of new installations in the SAU to honor RIT’s history.
“It felt more like making room for the future by removing the rest of us,” she stated.
Campus Life continues to work toward earning the trust of students and solving the issues that arose following the evictions. However, they do seem to have listened to the voices of the student population and taken some of their advice by upping the support for the clubs in question.
