Newly installed Rochester Institute of Technology President William Sanders said Friday that the university was “not only ready for the future, but ready to shape it.”
“This is our moment to imagine boldly, to act with intention, and to lead with heart,” Sanders said during his inaugural address. “I am honored to walk this path with you.
“Thank you,” he added, then signed as he spoke: “And Go Tigers.”
Sanders’ inauguration on Friday afternoon at the Gordon Field House and Activities Center capped two days of festivities. He is the 11th president in RIT’s history and comes to Rochester from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he most recently worked as the College of Engineering's dean. He was named to the RIT post in January. His predecessor, David Munson, concluded his term on June 30.
“I have truly found a home here at RIT,” Sanders said, recounting a busy beginning spent meeting with faculty, staff and students, as well as alumni across the country.
He went on his first day to RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf and will head next month to the university’s campuses in Dubai and Croatia.
In his address, he spoke of an emerging framework to chart the course for the years to come that would expand RIT’s global footprint and strengthen its global reach “while deepening its commitment to Rochester.”
Sanders takes over at a time when higher education is under immense pressure, struggling with international and domestic enrollment, federal research cuts and shifting priorities, while artificial intelligence and global challenges transform the marketplace.
“Our students will learn across cultures, collaborate across borders, and lead across industries,” he said.
While not referencing federal cuts, he pledged to expanded RIT research with an interdisciplinary approach and flexible pathways. He promised also a “commitment to the culture of wellbeing and belonging” with investments in mental health as well as physical plant upgrades that support interactions. And he announced five newly endowed professorships — in engineering technology, multi-disciplinary education, artificial intelligence and science — adding to the 49 that already exist.
“I believe fundamentally that people is what drives RIT,” he said, then acknowledged he was going off script and promised: “We’re just getting started with these kinds of things.”
Longtime friend and colleague Andreas C. Cangellaris, founding president of NEOM University, delivered the keynote address that spoke to Sanders' leadership. Cangellaris praised Sanders' intelligence, character and charisma, while singling him out as someone who “understands deeply the importance of trust.”
“You have chosen a leader who will honor your legacy, and elevate your future,” Cangellaris said.
With others, Cangellaris lauded what they described as Sanders' lasting and transformative achievements in engineering, both in academia and the industry. But both men focused less on legacy and more on the challenges ahead in a rapidly-changing world, and a need to prepare a generation for jobs that don’t exist yet.
“We must rethink how we teach and learn, how we research and discover, how we challenge and innovate,” Cangellaris said. “(And) in these times our responsibilities as educators is truly profound.”
That requires, he continued, “leaders we can trust to bring the university community and all its stakeholders together ... Bill Sanders is that leader for this very moment.”
As he departed the podium, Cangellaris turned to Sanders: "May your presidency be as transformative as your character is inspiring.”
