Shallow Waters

If you have ever gone to any RIT Hockey Game, or participated in the RIT Corner Crew or Pep Band, then you would have no doubt heard of RIT’s #1 hockey name, David Faas. Faas has been involved in the Corner Crew since 1989. According to an interview with Hey Corner Crew, he got the nickname of Big Goon when he was working at Gracies as a Student Manager and kicked out a customer who sneaked in through an exit. The customer later wrote a letter to the school newspaper and signed off as “The Big Goon Hater,” which Faas adopted as his nickname. Big Goon often is the one to lead the Corner Crew’s chants during Hockey Games. 

Campus Safety refers to Public Safety’s old name. This is also where their nickname of Campo comes from. Supposedly in 2007 or so the new director of Campus Safety spent hundreds of thousands of dollars rebranding all of the logos to Public Safety because RIT was hosting more public events with the completion of the Gordon Field House. I asked Chris Denninger, the interim director of then Campus Safety in 2006, and he said that “The rationale was most likely a result of our patrol staff at the time requesting the name change, which I supported.” This change also spawned the r/rit post called “The Tale Of The 2 AM Campo Crusade” by u/l3oat on November 11th, 2016 that also popularized the phrase “Not Campo. Public Safety.”

Fighting Science With Wood is among the oldest jokes on this iceberg. Originating sometime from 2000-2002, with the earliest online reference that I could find being a blog post from 2004, Fight Science With Wood is a phrase whose origin is mysterious and old. The story goes that a Sharpie was hidden in the light fixtures on the tunnel under Ellingson dorm. Students would take out the Sharpie and write the phrase anytime it was painted over by RIT. This led me down a huge rabbit hole, until I finally managed to contact Matt Chan on Flickr (@nahcttam on Instagram), who managed to provide me with the only picture of the phrase that I have from that time period. What the phrase is referencing is lost to time, but you may even still find it written on the walls somewhere tucked away in a forgotten corner of the tunnel system.

First Year Enrichment was the predecessor to RIT 365. First Year Enrichment was a class that all freshmen had to take in their first semester at RIT. It was split into two parts: a Discovery class, where you attended a class with fellow students of your major, and a choice of one of three Pathway classes, with students from different majors. Your Pathway choices were Leadership, where you would make presentations, essays, etc, Service, where you did community service at local Rochester charities, and Innovation, where you got to create things. Before First Year Enrichment there was the Student Orientation Services in the 1970s and 1980s, and before even that was the Freshman Daze in 1955.

Good Food Is Waiting refers to the catchphrase that the main visiting chef Yasin from Pakistan House Express always says wherever he is stationed. Widely considered to be one of the best and most popular visiting chefs because of the good food and friendly attitude, this guy will always put a smile on your face. You can find him hopping around various dining places, including the Ritz Sports Bar and Crossroads.

The Gosnell Boathouse is the first semi-obscure place on this Iceberg, unless you are a member of the RIT Crew Team. Built in 1999 on the Genesee River a couple miles from the main RIT campus, this building stores equipment, and has a shower, conference rooms, and a kitchen for the RIT Crew Team. As the name implies, this building was largely funded by the Gosnell family.

How To Make A Quesadilla refers to a video of Public Safety Lieutenant Jake Griffin teaching how to make a quesadilla without setting off the fire alarm. The original source or time of the video is unknown since it was taken down, but it was reuploaded to r/rit by u/carlye1500 on July 13th, 2019. 

Where to start with Kengar? If you are involved in any capacity in any video game or anime club, it’s very likely that you have heard of, or even met Kengar. Known widely for his Kengar cap, and for getting ahegao hoodies banned from RIT, Kengar is definitely infamous. And yes, he did legally change his name to his Steam username. He still lives close to RIT, so you may still meet him at events. Mainly, he can often be found during Human Vs Zombie weeklongs, sporting his iconic B.R.A (Body Ready Armour). He also has a Twitch where he regularly streams.

Make Moves Son is another old inside joke that has persisted over the decades. The most commonly accepted origin story comes from a comment by an unknown redditor, posted on September 1st, 2011, in which they said that the origin comes from the 2007 Freshman Orientation. According to them, during the Orientation, an anti date rape PSA was shown off to freshman, with someone saying the now iconic “Make Moves Son” in the PSA. However, there are disputes on the validity of this origin story, and the PSA has never been released, at least to my knowledge. However, what did persist was the phrase. The phrase would gain even more popularity as it was spray painted on an abandoned house on 4 John Street. The owner of the house was obviously none too pleased, and painted over the graffiti, most likely due to the fact that Henrietta would fine him for leaving it up. In doing so, he unknowingly entered a decade-long war with RIT students. As soon as he was done covering up the graffiti, more students came and graffitied the house with the phrase again and again. There were also other variations such as “Make Movies Son", and later “Wash Hands Son” during Covid. The owner has staked out the house and even tried to press charges against someone making t-shirts of the graffiti. Why the owner has been so protective of this abandoned house is a mystery, though the most common theory is that he is waiting until Henrietta or RIT buys the land and he walks away with a big paycheck. Overall, Make Moves Son is one of RIT’s most popular inside jokes, and will likely stay that way for a long time.

This story was relayed to me by an upperclassman RIT student, who said that they got it from someone on Discord. The story (verbatim) goes like this: “David Munson, our beloved president of RIT, was going to some Pride events around campus. One of the events was people painting the pride flag by dipping their palm in some paint and putting it on a big sheet of paper. Munson picks what must be his favorite color, purple, and gets the paint on his hand. Walks over to the canvas, and slaps it into the orange section of the flag. People there are understandably dismayed and say “What…no…it’s supposed to be the rainbow flag.” Munson, in his infinite glory, Praise Be, says “I understand the rainbow, I think it looks better mixed” and changes the subject.” Definitely an interesting story, but without a date, the name of the event, or any other details, the validity of this story can’t be certified.

The Resident Housing Association was a small advocacy organization that was located in the tunnels. Its primary purpose was “...serving as a voice for residence hall residents within Student Government and within campus leadership,” according to Marc Billow, the last student president of the RHA. It tried to make living in the dorms feel like home, with free candy, DVD rentals, and discounted hockey tickets, as well as events like monthly barbecues and approving murals. In 2017, under the leadership of Student Government President Andrea Shaver, the Student Government went through a “SG Refresh”, and overhauled many parts of the Student Government. One part of this was to take a look at all of the programs the Student Government oversaw, such as The Reporter and the College Activity Board, and restructure them. The Student Government split them into two groups: Service Student Organizations (SSOs) and Representative Student Organizations (RSOs). RHA became an SSO, and was thus not under the control of the Student Government anymore. ResLife then took over the RHA, and on October 16th, 2017, shut down the RHA and absorbed all of their duties, with the reasoning that consolidation would make things easier for students. It’s still a sad loss for students, and many things, such as the free cotton candy, are nowhere to be seen. 

RIT has a lot of quirky people in the RIT Student Hall Of Fame, like Bathrobe Guy, Gandalf Guy, Saxophone Guy, etc. People who nowadays only exist as references on old r/rit posts. And that’s what RIT Batman may initially seem. Just a random RIT student that dresses up in a full Batman costume and walks around campus. But there is a lot more to them. RIT Batman is actually involved heavily in volunteering and charity, particularly with helping homeless people from coast to coast. They started in San Jose, where they became known as the Batman Of San Jose, before coming to RIT and helping the homeless in Rochester. They have raised thousands for supplies for the homeless. They have even been involved in policy making in San Jose. Overall, just a really cool person.

RIT 48 was a 48 hour hackathon that lasted from 2010 to 2014. Founded by students Ian Mikutel and Greg Koberger, and overseen by (then) Associate Professor Dr. Richard DeMartino, the goal of RIT 48 was to have teams of students from different disciplines to pitch, plan, develop, and launch a web startup in just one weekend. RIT 48 was meant to tie in tech, design, and business together. The founders were later joined by student Matt Gardner, and they ran the first three RIT 48 events. After they graduated in 2012, they handed over the reins of RIT 48 to a different set of students, which seemingly ended in disaster in 2014 when the organizers allegedly mismanaged the event, causing the original founders to shut down RIT 48 website and kill RIT 48 once and for all. However, its legacy lives on in its spiritual successor, BrickHack, which would host its first event on April 18th, 2015.

The RIT-Canisius Hockey Brawl happened on February 9th, 2008, about halfway through the third period. The fight lasted only a few minutes, but even the opposing goalies threw hands, sticks, helmets, and whatever else they could get their hands on. I’m not sure of what caused the fight initially, but it ended with six players getting disqualified and 225 minutes of penalties being assigned, with Canisius taking 29 penalties and 119 penalty minutes, and RIT taking 25 penalties and 112 penalty minutes. RIT would go on to win against Canisius with a score of 4 to 1. UPDATE 9/8/23: Additional info was given by hhscadets09. RIT player Ricky Walton and Canisius player Carl Hudson were suspended for the remainder of the season. In addition, the cause of the brawl may have been a late hit of Canisius player Josh Heidinger by an RIT player. 

RITHousing Channel refers to their official Youtube channel, which has nine old videos about the various housing options. This channel, which has not been updated since 2012, is a good capsule into the past, including videos of the RIT Racquet Club Apartments and Colony Manor Apartments, both of which don’t exist now. The Racquet Club was replaced by The Hill, and Colony Manor was torn down and replaced by Apex. 

Soaped Fountain refers to the tradition of pouring a lot of dish soap overnight into the fountain behind Gosnell. This causes a ton of soap foam to spread, often covering much of the surrounding area in a mountain of soap. This is often done by frats.  UPDATE 8/11/23: It should be noted that the process of soaping the fountain is not good for the fountain. It damages the internal workings of the fountain, causing it to be turned off for large periods of time, and is expensive to clean up. Evidence of this can be seen here, but it is unknown just how expensive it is to fix the fountain for FMS.

The Sol Bear refers to when a black bear cub invaded Sol Quad on October 15th, 2010. The black bear shut down a part of campus for a bit while a team of professionals tried to capture it. Eventually, they would tranquilize the bear, and the Bear Apocalypse Of 2010 was averted. According to a later RIT post, the bear was nicknamed Gibson (Gibbs for short) and released in a wildlife management area near Naples, New York. 

Going back to the Sentinel, another popular urban myth that actually is true is the fact that the Sentinel is supposed to be a knight riding a horse. And the best place to view this properly, according to the urban myth, is directly from the President’s Office. The artist of the sculpture, Albert Paley, has actually made a lot of different variations on this concept of “random giant pieces of metal glued together,” and you can find them all across America.