RIT College of Liberal Arts

COLA's School of Communication adjunct professor, Frank Marra, received an Educator of the Year award from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Rochester Chapter at the 2026 PRSA PRism awards ceremony.

Additionally, students in Marra’s Communication 253 course received a PRSA Award of Excellence for their class project, “West Virginia University Online Classes Engagement,” and students in Marra’s Communication 212 (Public Relations) course received a PRSA Award of Excellence for their class project, “CPR You Ready,” at the ceremony.

COLA Tiger in the spotlight!

Jonathan Bateman '27 (Applied Math & Computing Security / Sociology & Anthropology) was named a student finalist for the 2026 Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award.

As founder of Real Recognizes Real AI, Jonathan is using cryptography and biometrics to help people verify who they're really talking to online — proof that our liberal arts students are solving real-world problems at the intersection of tech and society. Congrats, Jonathan!

Photos by Julia Pham

Yessss! One of our newest alums, Ava Agusta, took her RIT COLA mug with her to Charleston, SC this summer — thanks for sharing the pic, Ava!

Led by A. Eleanor Chand-Matzke, Ph.D., and Tina Sutton, Ph.D., the 2026 spring semester course introduced students to cultural psychology through classroom instruction, research, reflection, and a travel-abroad experience in Japan following the end of the semester.

Cultural Psychology course brings classroom learning to life in Japan RIT students explored culture, identity, and psychology through an immersive study abroad experience

Society of America (PRSA) Rochester Chapter at the 2026 PRSA PRism awards ceremony last month.

Class projects for two separate courses earned the accolades. Students in COMM 253 Communication received an Element Award for their project, “West Virginia University Online Classes Engagement,” while students in COMM 212 Public Relations earned a Program Award for their project, “CPR You Ready.”

Communication Students Win 2026 PRSA Awards Two student groups and an adjunct professor earned accolades at the society's annual awards ceremony. 

Congratulations to Eugene Jang, assistant professor in RIT’s School of Communication, on receiving the 2026 Herbert S. Dordick Dissertation Award from the International Communication Association’s Communication & Technology Division.

The award recognizes the most outstanding doctoral dissertation in the field of communication and technology, highlighting work that makes a significant contribution to the study of how digital tools shape human communication.

Jang’s dissertation, *Online Social Support Discourse Structure and Social Media Affordances: A Comparative Analysis of Twitter and Reddit’s Long COVID Communities*, explores how people use social media platforms to seek, share, and structure support around health experiences.

Her work reflects the kind of interdisciplinary research happening across RIT’s College of Liberal Arts — connecting communication, technology, health, data, and society to better understand the digital world we live in.

The College of Liberal Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology recently named Andy Head as interim director of its School of Performing Arts. Head, who has served the university for a decade, steps into the leadership role following a period of rapid growth for the performing arts at RIT and the opening of its new Performing Arts Center.

Andy Head to Direct School of Performing Arts at RIT Creating opportunities for RIT's performing arts community to flourish as the new Performing Arts Center opens a bold new chapter for creativity, performance, and artistic expression is a high priority for the year ahead.

How do cities know whether public safety technology is actually making communities safer?

As Detroit weighs the future of gunshot detection systems like ShotSpotter, research co-authored by RIT Criminal Justice faculty member Divya Ramjee is helping bring data and evidence into the conversation.

The study found that ShotSpotter may deter gunshot reporting, but showed no measurable impact on average officer response time, non-fatal shootings, or homicide arrests in Detroit.

For RIT Criminal Justice students, it’s a real-world example of how data, technology, policy, and community impact intersect — and why evidence-based decision-making matters in the future of public safety.

Detroit takes aim at ShotSpotter, may take a shot with a different gunshot detection system The City of Detroit is weighing proposals that could replace ShotSpotter, the controversial gunshot detection program.

RG Striffler, a Political Science graduate, left RIT as a compassionate, driven student leader whose impact reached across academics, residential life, and campus community.

Striffler chose to study Political Science because they cared deeply about people and the systems that shape daily life.

“Politics is intertwined with everyday life,” Striffler said. “When you pay for gas, your gas prices are tied to current policy. Media is tied to political agendas. Education — what people are or can’t learn about — is tied to politics. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”

In addition to majoring in Political Science, Striffler minored in Journalism and Environmental Science, two fields they saw as closely connected to their academic focus.

“It’s like a cycle,” Striffler said. “Everything goes into each other — major and minor. How we consider environmental problems, how we solve them, or how things happen goes along with politics. Journalism historically is a symbiotic pairing with politics — presidential scandals, how the media influences who people vote for, core issues.”

While studying liberal arts at a technical university, Striffler embraced the diverse perspectives, close faculty relationships, and individualized attention that came with being part of a smaller academic community.

“There’s an advantage,” Striffler said. “Not many people are focused on what you’re focused on, so you get the opportunity to have more individualized attention from professors.”

RG Striffler, a Political Science graduate, left RIT as a compassionate, driven student leader whose impact reached across academics, residential life, and campus community. June 11, 2026 RG Striffler, a Political Science graduate, left RIT as a compassionate, driven student leader whose impact reached across academics, residential life, and campus community. Striffler chose to study Political Science because they cared deeply about people and the systems that shape dai...