Robert Soost

Transcription

♪ Music ♪ >>Frisina: The thing about NTID was that there was no model to follow... in other words, there were no large numbers of deaf students enrolled in traditional existing higher educational institutions. So this was a new idea and it required some creative thinking in terms of how to organize such a program to increase the probability that there would be success. The essence of the program was that if we could do a decent educational program, we would create and help build graduates who were truly competitive in the open marketplace. So this was a rare opportunity in the education of deaf people and it was a great opportunity for RIT to become involved because innovation is the nickname for NTID. Prior to NTID, 85% of deaf adults were in unskilled or semiskilled positions, very few were in professional or technical positions. So our target was the private sector, economic parity and successful changes in educational practices. So we expected NTID to innovate; to be an innovative institution so as to impact the education of younger students and at the same time open doors in industry that industry hadn't appreciated prior to the graduates coming out of NTID. The probability of another opportunity for something like this was very remote. The federal involvement was essential to fund this kind of a program. We expected to innovate, but we expected to fail along the way, but we also could not fail as a total project. So "The Grand Experiment" was, this was a rare opportunity in the general welfare of deaf people. it had implications for other people, other educational institutions, employment particularly. The end-game here was employment on par with their hearing peers and the immediate to means part was having our students here who could compete educationally on a par again, with the hearing students. There were several reasons RIT was chosen from among those universities vying for sponsorship of NTID. The first was its long history in technical education, plus the fact that co-op education was part of that curriculum and that was very appealing from the standpoint of getting hands on experience for deaf youngsters. The second point was that the point where the decision for the site of NTID was made, RIT was just completing this campus, so RIT was able to offer plenty of space and could incorporate NTID into its environment and provided a visible space for a national institution. And then finally, it was a nice setting, a receptive climate for such an enterprise. As part of the planning process for NTID, I dealt with the architects in rather a unique way, I think. Got them out of their offices for two weeks... this preceded the days of cell phones... so it was easy to get them out of the office and get their undivided attention. So I impressed upon them the fact that deaf people depend so highly on vision as their primary input system. We needed to build something that had both beauty... we wanted natural light as much as possible, we wanted color. if you examine this beautiful building, there's wood, there's brick, there's skylights, there's natural light. These are all... these didn't happen by chance. These were built into the discussions and conceptual development of the drawings for the buildings and in the final application of the innovative construction materials that were used. I chose education as my work environment, and a lot of my work was done with staff and faculty in mentoring. So from that standpoint, if I were to be successful as a person, I had to feel that I was accomplishing something worthwhile. What inspires me about students is when I meet a student who has a passion for learning, then that is what makes my circumstances positive. The situation as it is today is one that we can all be proud of. it's a successful venture. if you look at instructional methodology, incorporation of technology into instruction and learning, these are all well done and continue to be explored very creatively. Now I know that in terms of being Innovative you have to have the initial concept, the idea, and the idea here was that this could happen. So that's what drove us for the most part. But we did our homework. We understood what these youngsters were bringing by way of a challenge and we had to build a climate that was receptive and supportive and encouraging. And as a result of that, when I come back and see... the buildings that were built in 1974 are still beautiful, well maintained, there's a good spirit among the people and the faculty and the staff... so it's great, it's great. And so the innovation institution continues and I'm very pleased to see that.