Caroline M. Solomon, dean of faculty at Gallaudet University, has been named president of Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf and vice president of RIT. She will begin her tenure at RIT/NTID on Aug. 18. View the announcement in ASL An ASL version of the announcement is available. “NTID has revolutionized education for nearly 60 years,” said RIT President Bill Sanders, who began leading the university July 1. “Dr. Solomon brings a deep understanding and appreciation for NTID’s distinctive culture. She has the vision to champion NTID’s legacy while moving it forward for the next generation of students. I look forward to partnering with Dr. Solomon as we continue to advance NTID’s mission and ensure that the college remains a leader for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, both nationally and globally.” Established by the U.S. Congress in 1965, NTID is the first and largest technological college in the world for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Solomon, who will become the first woman to lead the college in its nearly 60-year history, was raised in Delaware and is the daughter of a former professor at the University of Delaware. She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University and a master’s degree in biological oceanography from University of Washington’s School of Oceanography. She earned a doctorate in marine, environmental and estuarine sciences from University of Maryland. She joined the faculty of Gallaudet University as a biology instructor in 2000 and rose to the rank of professor in 2011. She received Gallaudet’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 2013 and was recognized by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography with their Ramon Margalef Award for Excellence in Education in 2017. She was appointed the dean of faculty in 2024. A renowned scientist and researcher, Solomon has devoted herself to encouraging and nurturing deaf and hard-of-hearing students in STEM fields, and has presented on her research at national and international conferences as well as to RIT/NTID students and faculty. She has developed a database of science-based technical signs in American Sign Language. Solomon, a past participant in the Deaflympics as a swimmer was inducted into the Deaflympics Hall of Fame in 2020. In her new role, Solomon will serve as chief executive of NTID, providing leadership in developing and executing the college’s vision and strategic plan, and is responsible for NTID’s financial operations and budget, enrollment management, academic programs, external and federal relations, and fundraising. “As a Deaf scientist, I’m deeply honored to join the vibrant NTID and RIT community—longstanding national leaders in advancing STEM education for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students,” Solomon said. “I look forward to working with President Sanders and collaborating with students, faculty, and staff to expand pathways in education, employment, and leadership. Together, we will ensure that every student has the opportunity to thrive, lead, and drive innovation across every sector of society.” RIT President Emeritus David Munson initiated the search before retiring June 30. “We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Caroline Solomon to the RIT community as the next leader of NTID,” said Munson. “Caroline brings an extraordinary blend of academic leadership, scientific and technical expertise, and a lifelong commitment to advancing access and equity in education. Her distinguished career at Gallaudet University and her well recognized work in STEM education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students make her superbly qualified to guide NTID into its next chapter.” Solomon succeeds Gerry Buckley, who has served as president of NTID and vice president and dean of RIT for 15 years and will retire Aug. 17. “Dr. Solomon brings with her an outstanding academic and STEM research record and wealth of higher education knowledge and experience,” added Buckley. “I’m so pleased that she will lead NTID into the future, and know NTID is in highly capable hands. I look forward to welcoming Dr. Solomon and her family to Rochester and the NTID community in the months ahead.” NTID offers associate degree programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and provides support and access services for deaf and hard-of-hearing students who study in the other eight colleges of RIT. NTID also offers certificates in healthcare interpretation and sign language specialties, bachelor’s degree programs in sign language interpreting and community development and inclusive leadership, as well as master’s degrees in secondary education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and in healthcare interpretation.

After three decades of teaching, mentoring, and pioneering academic and research programs at RIT, Professor Stephen Jacobs is retiring. Jacobs worked as an adjunct faculty member in English and computing before becoming a full-time professor in 1995. As a video game expert, he taught courses in game programming and game design/narrative. Together with former faculty members Andy Phelps and Jeff Lasky, Jacobs wrote the proposal for RIT’s master’s degree in game design and development. Today, RIT’s games degrees are regularly ranked among the top 10 in the country. With RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios, Jacobs served as one of the original associate directors—focusing on industry relations. He collaborated to produce MAGIC’s first game on the Nintendo Switch platform, called The Original Mobile Games—a partnership with The Strong National Museum of Play and Second Avenue Learning. Jacobs has also served as a steward for all things FOSS (free and open source software) at RIT. He helped create courses and programs on the subject and served as director of the Open@RIT research center. “I’m not a traditional academic,” said Jacobs. “It’s been a pleasure to spend the last 30 years as an RIT professor.” Below, Jacobs shares reflections from his time at RIT. What has your long-term partnership with The Strong National Museum of Play meant to you? I’ve been a Scholar-in-Residence since 2007. In that role, I’ve been able to serve as a member of exhibit design teams, co-create an online course in game design history that was nominated by students for an edX award as a best course, and help bring conferences to Rochester—like the upcoming 2025 Conference on BIPOC Games Studies. That kind of work, over the years, led to a Tourism Achievement Award from Visit Rochester. We also enjoy bringing classes to The Strong every year. This year the “final exam” for my History and Design of Pinball class was to demo their analog and digital games at The Strong as part of a museum-wide pinball day we co-organized. I’ve also been working with them around my research on the Jewish History of the Toy and Games Industries in Germany and the U.S, which we’re developing into an exhibit for 2026. Why do you champion open source for social good? I was attracted to this world through the One Laptop Per Child initiative. They were providing low-cost laptops to children in developing countries. In 2009, I created an honors seminar for our students to make educational games for the One Laptop Per Child community. Over 16 years that initial course grew into an immersion focusing on humanitarian open software development and an interdisciplinary minor—the only one of its kind in the world. It also led to our Open@RIT center to support faculty, staff, and students’ Open research and work. That center had us lead several workshops, join the Linux Foundation, and receive more than $1 million in awards to support its work over four years.  I received the Provost’s Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award in 2019-2020 (in part for this work) and the PI Millionaire award in 2023 for grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. ‌ Alberto Bobadilla Jacobs enjoys joining students on the travel-enhanced courses. This year in Japan, students immersed themselves in the culture and visited a Japanese game studio. How have you encouraged students to make lifelong connections outside the classroom? Video games are an international industry, and it’s important to have international experiences on your résumé. I began teaching travel-enhanced courses—ones that meet on-campus for a semester with international travel before or after the on-campus work—in 2014.  These courses established a model of spending a week in one town (in Paderborn, Germany for this one), holding a game jam over the weekend with the German students (a weekend-long, video game creating marathon), and then traveling elsewhere in country for a week to visit cultural sites and game studios. I taught this again in 2017 and 2019. In 2018, I replicated the Germany model in Japan. We worked with Ritsumeikan University and the Kyoto Computer Gakuin, a long-time partner with RIT in international education. This year, in addition to the course’s regular visits to the CyberConnect2 video game studio and Hiroshima, we were able to attend World Expo in Osaka. As a result of this course, the vice president of CyberConnect2 and the global section chief of human resources for the company will be visiting RIT and The Strong to recruit our upcoming graduates to work in Japan and to explore the exhibits and research assets at The Strong.