Campus Life

Groundhogs, also known as woodchucks, have entrenched themselves in the environment and culture of the University. To mark Groundhog Day this year, here are three things you might not know about our furry cohabitants at Rochester.

Students in professor Thomas Fleischman's class didn't write a research paper at the end of their class about the environmental history of the Erie Canal. Instead, they produced a podcast series, and Fleischman is already planning for a second season.

Juliana Conley '21 is using her experiences from a series of life detours to guide her academic goal: modeling wildfires and other environmental phenomena associated with climate change, via an interdisciplinary degree in geomechanics.

Toys that beep. Toys that light up and sing. All adapted by engineering students for children with special needs. For parents visiting the University of Rochester Medical Center, taking home a toy their child can play with themselves is "really awesome."

The Toys for All Tots student organization hosts workshops to teach other students and community members how to adapt battery-powered toys so that children with limited mobility can activate them on their own.

Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honor society for liberal arts and sciences, celebrates its birthday this month, and we honor the 17 students who were elected last spring as juniors.

The four-time Emmy winner and host of National Public Radio’s Latino USA and PBS’s America By The Numbers will deliver the University’s 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address on Friday, January 19.

Rochester will be welcoming students affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria so they may continue their studies while their home colleges are temporarily shut down.

“I think my studies at Rochester in theater and sociology and in the humanities—I took a lot of English, history, and philosophy—really were the best kind of preparation for work in communication and journalism,” says Charles Kravetz '74.

The University’s Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa recognizes students who excelled both academically and in leadership roles during their first year at Rochester.

The Inter-Class Living Community, a special interest housing group that promotes community engagement, turned their sights to the Genesee River this fall, removing more than 300 pounds of waste from the shore

Naoki Toyomura ’17, ’18E (T5) and Seiji Yamashita ’20, ’20E, both dual-degree students at the Eastman School and on River Campus, will serve as president and vice president of the Eastman Students’ Association through 2018.