Dear Reporter,
Thank you for the great article in your September 26 edition recounting Ray Kurzweil’s recent talk at RIT. As a 5th year Bioinformatics student I found him truly inspiring and have referred to his talk so many times that my friends and instructors are getting tired of hearing me. However, while your article was accurate, it neglected to acknowledge the Caroline Werner Gannett Project’s sponsorship of Mr. Kurzweil’s talk.

I am currently taking a course based on their speaker series, which allowed myself and a few other students to sit down over lunch for an interview with him. I got to see there is actually remarkable amount of consideration and work behind the scenes that goes into making the annual speaker series happen. Their goals are consistent with RIT’s whole “innovation university” kick and it comes together so well that I thought it would be nice to give them a little credit. Nice job guys!

Thanks,
Aubrey Bailey, Fifth year
Bioinformatics

Dear Reporter,
My name is Brian Peterson. I was a photographer for Reporter my first year at RIT in 1973, and the photography editor for Reporter for 3 years, 1974-1977.

I want to say that it is nice to see that the Reporter is still alive and kicking. I have been checking in from time to time to see what is being published. I can tell you that you are putting out an interesting, colorful, and informative issue every week. The online version is what I see, and it is great.

My work at Reporter taught me a lot — the weekly deadlines forced me to think, produce, and get the job done. It was about 60 hours a week, but I loved it. Got paid $25 a week, and that is pretty much what I lived off of for three years.

Scholastically, I was either on probation (didn’t give a crap about homework) or the Dean’s List (did the homework), but I realized that the hands-on experience I got at Reporter was worth more than the “education” I was getting. I graduated with a C, but after four years had a portfolio that the AP and Black Star said was very good for a college graduate. It wasn’t just homework — it was published.

1977 was the year we went to full color every week, which was quite the thing at the time. Actually, it was fall quarter 1977, and the editor at the time fired the Photo Editor so I could get the issue out. He didn’t trust the guy in charge at the time to do the job, so he begged me to do it. I HAD to get out of school that fall — I was running out of money. I told him I would, but I couldn’t make meetings and would work weird hours, (we were required to make editorial meetings and had to be in the office at certain hours) — I HAD to get out of there. He said “OK” and we did it.

I left Reporter for the Associated Press in New York, again as a photography editor. I was the first RIT hire they ever had, and somehow as a result an internship was set up for students, if I remember correctly. James Gleason (Photo Journalism instructor ) was a friend of Eddie Adams at the time, and that might have had something to do with it. I don’t know if that internship is still extant.

I CAN tell you that the current supervisor of photography at the AP is Susan Plageman, who was a fellow Photo I student. She left after second year to go to the Columbia School of Journalism for Photo J, thence to the Indianapolis Star, where she was a photographer. (I got accepted also, but they would not accept credits from RIT for some reason, so I said “screw that!” — it was weird... She wound up teaching the basic photo course there after taking it!)

I spent 3 years at the AP, and then moved to Portland, Maine, where I am now. I freelance as an editorial location photographer for a variety of businesses. It’s fun.

You probably know that Anthony Suau was a Reporter photographer. He got the Pulitzer in 1984 for the work he did in Ethiopia about the famine there. Also covered the Russian revolution, in Moscow at the White Houe the night it happened. He was a great guy, and I wish I’d seen him since. Thomas Temin, Diane Snow, Mitch Klaif, and a lot of others are at the Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, and places like that — they all got the “bug” at Reporter.

This is getting long. Anyway, keep up the good work. And good luck to you follow your dream — it will take you to it!

Brian Peterson
Reporter Photo Editor 1974-1977

Dear Reporter,
We were very offended by last week’s Word on the Street question, “What’s the easiest major at RIT?” First and foremost, by simply asking this question, you’re looking to start problems. How can a student answer this question without offending someone else? And perhaps more importantly, how can a student definitively answer this question when they have not been a part of each and every major? The answer is they cannot, or at least they cannot do so accurately. The student can only guess based on their own stereotypes and perceptions as an outsider. Asking a question that forces an individual to rely on stereotypes is disgraceful.

As photo students, we are personally quite tired of the stereotypes that “photo students don’t do work” or “photo students have it easy.” In our major, Biomedical Photographic Communications, a lot is expected of us. In addition to microphotography and/or ophthalmic photography courses, we take numerous art, science and mathematics courses (including classes in digital media, calculus, medical terminology, human biology, web design, and audio visual production, to name a few). We learn to use variety of different programs, such as Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, and Final Cut Pro. After graduating, Biomed students work at institutions such as the National Retina Institute, Colombia University, Fuji, IBM, Canon, Zeiss MiceoImaging and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.

Our professors expect a lot from us in Biomed Photo. To be successful in this major, we have to work very hard. It’s difficult to hear people say otherwise, especially when the majority of the time, they do not even know who we are or what we do.

So before you make judgments on photo majors, packaging science majors, hotel management majors, or any other majors, for that matter, step back and ask yourself what you are basing your judgments on.

As Benjamin Jilson said in last week’s letter to the editor, “Don’t be stupid enough to judge an activity without actually trying it first.”

Kate Palitsch, 3rd year
Biomedical Photographic Communications
Lynette Serbinski, 4th year
Biomedical Photographic Communications

To Send Letters

Letters can be sent quickly and painlessly by online form. Reporter will not print anonymous letters.

Note: Opinions expressed in Letters to the Editor are solely those of the author. Reporter reserves the right to edit submissions on the basis of content, length, grammar, spelling, and style. Letters are not guaranteed publication. Submissions may be printed and reprinted in any medium. Reporter will not run responses to letters that are responding to a letter.