SG Update 3/19

5FoodShare

Sharon Kompalla-Porter (cofounder of FoodShare and associate director at the Center of Residence Life), Harold Fields (director of the Center for Residence Life), Kerry W. Fox (director of the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement (CLCE) and Kathryn Cilano (assistant director of Civic Engagement at the CLCE) presented about the FoodShare and the long-term transition to the CLCE.

FoodShare is a need-blind shopping style pantry. The major goal of the FoodShare is to foster a culture of sharing on campus that can progress over time.

Burn's Closet, housed within the FoodShare, provides clothes for students. Often clothes are borrowed during career fairs and by international students that don't have a proper coat for Rochester, as well as the trans community that may not have clothes to express themselves authentically.

COVID-19 has led to various changes in the FoodShare. The FoodShare currently operates under a grocery bag request model and provides students with a degree of agency and empowerment. It gives students the ability to rank their needs and indicate their preferences.

The FoodShare works with companies to donate perishable food to the pantry to accompany the non-perishable food. FoodShare is transitioning to the CLCE over the coming years. The FoodShare's transition is drawn out to ensure that there are no interruptions in service.

Building Project Updates

John Moore, associate vice president for Facilities Management Services, presented RIT's planned expansions in the coming years.

The visible, soon-to-be renamed Innovative Maker and Learning Complex (IMLC) between the SAU and Wallace Library has begun construction. The IMLC will feature Maker Spaces classrooms and a large open lobby. The IMLC will serve as a connection from the Wallace Library to Monroe Hall.

A Music Performance Theater is planning to be built and will seat 750 people. The stage is about the same size as Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater. The theater will have a gift shop, rehearsal space and a lobby. It will have a transparent exterior as a showcase of the action that happens there.

Athletic field improvements are in store for the outdoor track, including a new spring sports stadium and a new softball field coming this summer.

RIT is planning on completely gutting Brown Hall to make room for much more research space.

New York State gave RIT a grant to fund an addition to Lowenthal Hall for Saunders College of Business. The addition will add classrooms as well as a top floor presentation space.

For the College of Art and Design, there will be more animation space and a new lounge area.

Some more long-term projects in the early stages are for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) on the dorm side of campus. There are plans to make Lynden Baines Johnson Hall, which currently contains a significant part of NTID, have a greater presence on campus and to transform Frisina Quad into a Global Village.

Announcements

Jared Ortega has stepped down from vice president of Student Government. Christopher Ferrari is the vice president pro tempore.