I am very upset over the way the RIT administration handled notifying the death of a friend of mine. His name was Dominic Clemente-Gould and he was a very special person in the lives of many.

One of the hardest things for me at the moment is to refer to him in the past tense ... Especially since he was the closest to the epitome of a vibrant and lively soul that I have encountered to date.

On Thursday, August 20, Dom passed away quietly and alone. He did not make headlines in the papers nor was he mourned in a Robin Williams-styled social media grieving wave. He has a cluster of close friends, family members and acquaintances that have been deeply affected by his passing...

RIT has every reason to try to ensure that many people return to Imagine RIT each year. Not only does the festival provide a great opportunity for attracting new students, improving the view of the school within the public eye, and simply showcasing many of the amazing things that students do on this campus, but it also provides thousands of people with an enjoyable and interesting Saturday. With this in mind, I think that blocking full circulation of Reporter until after the festival was not only a smart decision, but it was also perfectly within the rights of the institute...

I have a few things I would like to say to you regarding the Reporter advisory board decision to limit the availability of this reporter issue. 

I come from a very small town, roughly about 700 or so people. I grew up with ignorant parents, around a lot of very ignorant people. I was never taught about what being gay meant, who homosexuals were, what transgender is or anything LGBT friendly. A lot of the people I went to school with were also never taught this. And while we grew up in the 21st century so a lot of information was available to us through the internet at a very young age, it was still a struggle to learn about these other humans, these PEOPLE...

I am very saddened that the issue will be barred from complete public disbursement. A topic that is solely about humans and human processes and interactions should not be considered profane or obscene. Humans all have some gender, somehow everyone identifies with something at least. So it would be for the public good that we have a forum to learn more about it, or a platform for discussion to be brought up. I hope that this is reconsidered. I also do not want this sort of censorship to become common place on campus...

I'm a 20 year old female student here at RIT. When I was a junior in high school, I was raped. My body was violated by my then boyfriend. I don't think he understood what he did to me. He spoke to me the next day as if nothing happened. Even to this day, I still have nightmares and have trouble overcoming this awful situation. I don't know what could have changed to prevent my rape from happening. Maybe if he was even a little educated on how a female's body and mind works, he wouldn't have chosen to violate me. Maybe if he even had the slightest clue about what is okay and not okay and how to ask for permission...

There is a difference between being bombarded with images of sex and images of sexual health. While our generation has gained a reputation of being liberal and open about about sex, gender expression, and sexuality, much is still swept under the rug of shame and embarrassment. 

Many of us are victims of high school "health" classes where sex is discussed for maybe a total of a week and come from homes where gender and sexuality are not dinner table conversations.  The sad reality is a lot of those "informative" discussions are lectures not far from that of Coach Carr in Mean Girls.  To quote the character in the movie, "Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die...

I have no problem with Reporter Magazine. During my time at RIT I found it a refreshing source of information about RIT and an alternative viewpoint as to what's going on around campus and in the Rochester area.

I do, however, feel that the administration is justified in preventing the normal distribution of this issue during Imagine RIT, no matter the importance of the content. I also feel that this situation could have been handled better.

From what I've seen thus far, the points that this issue brings up are extremely relevant, and I applaud the magazine for choosing to write a piece on this...

I'm very interested in getting a copy of this issue, and I understand that we need to spread information about this topic to everyone. So, that makes it reasonable to assume that Imagine RIT is a great place to do this.

However, there are factors we need to consider. Open-minded parents will have no problem with the issue, and might grab a few copies for their children. Open discussion about these types of topics are generally welcome in those households.

Closed-minded parents, on the other hand, are a completely different story...

I am a proud parent of an RIT student.  We spent many years teaching our children moral, religious and ethical values we believed were important for them to learn. By the time our children leave for college they have had a lifetime of living by our rules and examples. We have taught them as much as we can and we hope that when they arrive on campus, they have not forgotten the years of values we help to instill. Sexuality is a difficult topic for many people, young and old. Not allowing students to read about a topic that many of them are grappling with, and associating the topic with words such as vulgar, inappropriate, or obscene, seems counter productive and controlling...

I'm a student at RIT but unlike a lot of other students I'm a trans woman. What that means is that I was assigned male at birth but later recognized that I am not male, and I am not a man. This took 21 years for me to assert and I have suffered for many years while trying to figure why I felt so badly. Today I often dream about how much better my life would be if someone had just told me about trans women when I was younger. Restricting the distribution of the May issue is an act of bigotry which seeks to deny young people the knowledge they need to seek happiness. On top of this it violates the accepted bylaws of the Reporter and is in clear opposition to the will of the students.