Dean Q&A: Saunders College of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology

“Saunders College is a business school at an institute of technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, and with that comes a mission to really be at the intersection of business and technology.   

“Everything we do is integrated with technology, and our recently opened, brand-new facilities are helping us execute our mission. The new spaces include project team rooms, additional research labs, a digital media and behavioural research lab, an integrated Business Technology Lab, and active learning classrooms.  

“We offer a broad portfolio of programmes, covering accounting, finance, hospitality, marketing, and global business management to name a few. It’s a broad portfolio, but the common theme across all of our programmes is the integration of technology.   

“At undergraduate level, every student is required to take business analytics courses and apply those skills within their respective disciplines. At the graduate level, a majority of our MS and MBA programmes are STEM-designated, meaning at least 50 percent of the content is technical.” 

Take a virtual tour of the Saunders College campus 

“We recently launched a  with three tracks: digital transformation, finance and accounting, and strategy and innovation. This programme was driven by our faculty's desire to engage in high-quality research and work with PhD students. In our first year, we received over 120 applications for five spots.  

“It is a traditional programme where students work on their research with faculty. They are prepared for academia, be where students work on their research with faculty. They are prepared for academia, but they can also work in business and industry."

“We have an overrepresentation of students with strong technical backgrounds, particularly in our graduate programmes. This diversity allows students to look at business problems from different perspectives, enriching classroom discussions and problem-solving.   

“Experiential learning is woven throughout all of our courses. Many of our students do internships or co-ops, which are graduation requirements at the undergraduate level.   

“A co-op typically means a paid experience in your field at a company. We use the terms co-op and internship interchangeably, and these experiences are essential for applying what students have learned, enriching classroom discussions and providing a path toward full-time jobs for our students.   

“Saunders College also has several centres which vary in nature. Some are research-based, others are applied, and some provide training. For example, the Leadership Academy offers non-credit leadership certificates, while the Competitive Sustainability Center focuses on research and helping entrepreneurs and business leaders adopt circular economy principles.   

“For those interested in entrepreneurship, we have two centres: the Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which focuses on student programming, and Venture Creations, the RIT incubator for start-ups. Students from different disciplines work together on business ideas, which sometimes graduate into Venture Creations for additional funding.” 

“We are a small college at a large university. We have about 1,000 students, with a plan to grow the graduate student population. This allows for intimate interactions between students and faculty, project-based teaching, and opportunities to interface with students from other disciplines.  

“These opportunities produce an innovative culture where nothing is impossible. It's a welcoming and diverse community where students and faculty respect and value each other's backgrounds.  

“Finally, I should add that you don’t need to come from an engineering background to attend RIT. We have a diverse student body with strong representation from design, business, liberal arts, and policy students. Our strength lies in this diversity.”