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

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ably only a few wanted. The changed was worked in many ways. Most of the ways were invisible at the time, yet recog- nizable later on as significant and important, while a few others were dramatic enough to be immediately recognizable as im- portant variations in the life of the Institute. First among these was the actual move from the city to the suburbs. Probably only a few far-sighted persons realized what a significant experience that shift was to bring to the mood and make up of the RIT community. Even now, years after the move began, the effects are still tangible, and one suspects that the impact of the changeover will continue to be a factor in the personality of the Institute for some more years. The dust of moving has hardly settled. Released from the confines of the city and the cramped style of life students had to adopt to successfully work and play there, the student is now faced with a new set of what admini- strators like to term “challenges” but what are often closer to dilemmas. More than before they talk about the “quality of life” in the huge residential and educational complexes, itself a word that should make the more perceptive stop and think a moment. While the physical plant is quadruple the size of the old campus, the emptiness has also expanded. At the old cam- pus people were forced, by sheer necessity, to come in contact with one another, to come to grips with other people. In the wide-open spaces of Henrietta, the necessity is diminished and 7

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gines would go wailing by. The cops cruised the dark streets, and every so often there was the sharp crack of a gunshot off in the distance. Once in a while students got mugged. Once in a while there was a riot. It was a demanding experience. Now that all of that is safely in the past, buried back in time, under concrete freeways and aluminum facings, some may wonder why this attention has been paid to the old campus. Clearly it was an odd, grimy way of life, not at all like the new campus. And they are correct, the experiences are distinctly different. But both are important because the changeover from city life to suburban life, from a cramped five-block slice of the middle of Rochester to an immense 1,300 acre tract in Henri- etta, is still the central issue at RIT today. That move three years ago pulled up all the carefully-established roots in one motion and tried to transplant them a dozen miles away. Some took well, others are now only marginally healthy, and a few roots once considered important didn't take at all. Life on the new campus is different from life on the city campus, that no one will debate. It is a synthesis of the trans- planted way of life from the city and wholly new patterns of thought and action suited to the new environment. How that affects the average student at RIT is the subject of the rest of this essay, and of the TECH MILA 70. The theme is change, constant and encompassing change. The past year has brought on more change than anyone expected, and prob- 6

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