Rochester Institute of Technology - Techmila / Ramikin Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

Page 25 text:

Howard B, Stauffer Elizabeth H, Klett Dorothy L, Brooks Rose K. Fewster Alice E. Hazelton George E. Engert M, Louise Galligan Joseph Stauffer The Commerce Department is the newest addition to the Institute. We came here as the old McKechnie- Lunger School of Commerce in March, 1952. Eager but very nervous, we walked in the front entrance our first morning at R.I.T. Many of us had never seen the school before. After looking forward to this day for quite a while, we were struck by the modern front offices and business-like library. There was to be a special assembly for the new Commerce students in E-125, which we found without too much trouble. Fellow R.I.T. students made us feel at home, and Dr. Ellingson made a welcoming speech to us, which summed up meant, ”Be friendly—you’ll be well rewarded.” Students passed out handbooks to us and explained the different dubs and activities that The secretaries of tomorrow preparing to take a dictation in shorthand Practicing typing to obtain (he necessary speed and accuracy of a good typist T wenty-three

Page 24 text:

Commerce

Page 26 text:

Students studying the details of various filing systems The complicated keyboard of the comptometer is made simple by one who knows the Institute offered. A map of the layout of the build- ings was used to explain where our classes would be held. It was all so entirely different that we were sure that we would never find those classrooms. A tour of the school to view its different departments surprised us further with the complexity of the Institute, But some- how, by memory, by asking, and by just plain explor- ing, we did find our classrooms. Furthermore, we im- mediately liked the atmosphere and somehow knew we would be happy here. Then they had another surprise for us! Rooms in what had been the machine labs in the Eastman Annex Building had been transformed for us. Mechanical department graduates of a few years ago wouldn't recognize their oil and steel-tilled rooms, with their new green, yellow, and pink walls and ceilings. We went home at the end of our first day at R.l.T. ex- hausted and happy with the feeling of being at home at school. In those early weeks, as we settled down to work, we discovered more about school each day: that the gar- bage truck comes every morning about 8:30. the sun shines in the windows facing the boys’ dorm, the scen- ery is very nice, and that we are living in a fish bowl. It seemed that every time we looked out the window we found a group of boys, sometimes laughing, staring in the window at us. We'll never forget those first few ex- citing and happy days, because they've led to so many more. Then we were swept into the R.I.T.-tide of social events: Spring Weekend, with its big carnival and Tony Pastor’s band; sorority and fraternity dances; meetings of choir, play and athletic clubs, and social and religious clubs; and the thousand other activities that come and go. We joined several of the organiza- tions and proceeded to make ourselves useful, and in return through this medium we all made more and more friends. Of course wre all have memories, too, of working from eight in the morning until five at night and then going home to finish some more work, of sometimes not understanding accounting, of the rush of work in our secretarial course, of learning to divide and multi- ply on the comptometers, and of many other activities that would fit us for the serious business of Business. But we wouldn't trade any of these activities—work or play! Only the steady click-click of the keys breaks the silence of an early morning typing class T wenty-four