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Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree have the option of completing a minor, which can complement a student’s major, help them develop another area of professional expertise, or enable them to pursue an area of personal interest. Completion of a minor is formally designated on the baccalaureate transcript, which serves to highlight this accomplishment to employers and graduate schools. In contrast to the optional minor, as part of their bachelor's degree requirements, students must complete an immersion—a concentration of three courses in a particular area. View full list of RIT minors and immersions.

Please note: A minor is a related set of academic courses consisting of no fewer than 15 credit hours. The following parameters must be met in order to earn a minor:

• At least nine credit hours of the minor must consist of courses not required by the student’s home major.
• Students may pursue multiple minors. A minimum of nine credit hours must be designated towards each minor; these courses may not be counted towards other minors.
• The residency requirement for a minor is a minimum of nine credit hours consisting of RIT courses (excluding “X” graded courses).

Not all minors are approved to fulfill general education requirements. Please check with an adviser in regards to minors approved to fulfill these requirements.

Tesla. Edison. Einstein. Shakespeare. These singular names evoke instant recognition and prominence. But why is it that we rarely see accomplished women addressed in the same way, with just a last name?

New research conducted by Cornell University psychologists has shed some light on this mismatch. The paper, “How Gender Determines the Way We Speak About Professionals,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that on average, male and female participants are more than twice as likely to call male professionals – even fictional ones – by their last name only, compared to equivalent female professionals.

"So what," you might wonder. Couldn’t it be that addressing someone by a last name is just a casual, harmless shortcut?

In fact, the study’s researchers cite that this difference in naming habits is actually an example of gender bias, and may be contributing to gender inequality more broadly. The eight studies that comprised the research, spearheaded by doctoral student Stav Atir, and Melissa Ferguson, professor and chair of psychology at Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences, shows how the difference in naming affects participants’ judgments of professionals. When men were referred to only by surname, they were perceived as more important and eminent than the women, who were more often referred to by their first and last names in domains such as science, literature, and politics.

Another study that was part of the research assessed the language of political pundits on the radio, including NPR’s Terry Gross and Rush Limbaugh. These announcers were more than twice as likely to refer to well-known men (versus women) by their last names alone. By selectively calling people by their last names, broadcasters reinforce perceptions that men are more significant and memorable.

University students exhibit similar behaviors. One study within the research looked at archival data in online domains like Rate My Professors. In an analysis of nearly 4,500 comments on that website, Atir and Ferguson found that students were 56 percent more likely to refer to a male professor by only his surname.

Most ghastly, this naming difference actually affects judgments of worthiness. Participants in the first study rated professionals described by a surname as 14% more deserving of a career award. This evaluative gender bias may partially explain the stubborn gender gap in fields like science, technology, engineering, and math where women are poorly represented.

So what can we glean from this research, practically speaking? And how we can expand our thinking beyond name recognition alone, to other areas of the workplace? Below are 4 ways employers can evolve their practices:

1. Bring diversity expertise into Marketing: Make it the job of your marketing team to study evolving research like the study mentioned here, identify modern parlance, and use it consistently. Corporate diversity and inclusion teams should be connected to Marketing and PR efforts as both a partner and thought leader.
2. Demystify recognition criteria: Be crystal clear about your criteria for rewarding employees and giving recognition. There’s nothing worse than having an unevenly applied set of recognition criteria or worse, no criteria at all. Ask yourself what behaviors you want to reward most and then test how fair your criteria are. Determine how “eligible” workers really are to receive this recognition, regardless of where they sit in the organization or their personal characteristics.
3. Inventory your company’s visible representatives: Do an audit of the images, endorsements, employee spotlights or other “informal shrines” on your websites and promotional material. Identify, from a diversity perspective, who is being celebrated and showcased, internally and externally, and equitably spread out your coverage.
4. Be honest about what you celebrate: While you’re at it, assess the hero stories around your organization. In my cultural assessments of workplaces (through focus groups and surveys), I ask employees to share stories of heroism told around the organization. These casual, word of mouth stories might focus on the turnaround of a bleeding business unit or a bold move that won a major new client. Whatever the subject, whenever I ask, nine times out of ten, men are the protagonists. Employers need to uncover the narratives around their organizations, surface untold ones that tie to key values and then supply under-recognized heroes a pedestal.

What are other ways this research can help us re-imagine the workplace? Let me know in the comments.

Smoking is notorious for causing damage to the lungs — but a latest study confirmed that it’s also harmful to the brain.

Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine (WashUMed) in St. Louis, Missouri, analyzed the brain scans, smoking history and genetic risk of 32,094 participants of European descent from the UK Biobank database.

Those who smoked one pack daily were found to have decreased brain volume compared to those who never smoked or had smoked fewer than 100 total cigarettes. 

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With each additional year of smoking, the shrinkage was greater.

The study, published in the January 2024 issue of Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, helps to explain why older people who smoke are at a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, according to the researchers.

"People who smoke are more likely to have deterioration in gray and white matter, which provides a possible explanation as to why 14% of global Alzheimer’s disease cases could be attributable to cigarette smoking," they wrote in the study findings.

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"Up until recently, scientists overlooked the effects of smoking on the brain, in part because we were focused on all the terrible effects of smoking on the lungs and the heart," said senior author Laura J. Bierut, M.D., the Alumni Endowed Professor of Psychiatry, in a press release from WashUMed.

"But as we’ve started looking at the brain more closely, it’s become apparent that smoking is also really bad for your brain."

It has long been known that aging is linked to a gradual reduction in brain volume, and this study shows that smoking speeds up that process, the researchers noted.

"This is important as our population gets older, because aging and smoking are both risk factors for dementia," noted Bierut.

"There’s one thing you can change to stop aging your brain and putting yourself at increased risk of dementia, and that’s to quit smoking."

One positive finding was that kicking the habit can prevent the loss of additional brain tissue — but the shrinkage can’t be reversed.

"You can’t undo the damage that has already been done, but you can avoid causing further damage," said first author Yoonhoo Chang, a graduate student at WashUMed.

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"Smoking is a modifiable risk factor. There’s one thing you can change to stop aging your brain and putting yourself at increased risk of dementia, and that’s to quit smoking."

Fox News Digital reached out to the study authors for additional comment.

Impact of toxins on aging

Dr. Brett Osborn, neurosurgery section chief at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, was not involved in the WashUMed study but shared his reaction to the findings.

While aging — and some age-related diseases — can’t be prevented, Osborn noted that our lifestyle choices can accelerate or decelerate the process.

"We can age gracefully in part by choosing to avoid toxins such as alcohol and smoking, both of which increase the production of toxic free radicals, also known as oxidative stress," he told Fox News Digital.

When someone smokes, the doctor explained, the person's blood vessel linings are "bombarded" by free radicals, which are electrons that cause cell damage. That impacts not only the heart and lungs, but also the brain.

"When you smoke, the brain takes a hit due to the induced vascular damage," Osborn said. "Over time, the brain shrinks, and this is evident on MRI."

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The new study confirms not only the correlation between reduced global brain volume, but also causation, said Osborn. 

"It is not that those with reduced global brain volume tend to smoke from a genetic standpoint, but it is that those who smoke cause their brains to atrophy," he said. 

"Smoking does terrible things not only to the body but also to the brain, and in some parts, disproportionately more than others."

The regions most affected by smoking are the frontal cortex (involved in executive function, memory input and mood), cerebellum (coordination), corpus callosum (information bridge between the two hemispheres), and amygdala (emotional response and memory), Osborn pointed out. 

"It is also well-established that hippocampal volume, or the volume of our primary center, is reduced in daily smokers," he said. "It should be no surprise, therefore, that there is an increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in smokers."

"Smoking does terrible things not only to the body but also to the brain."

While other organs, such as the lungs, can recover after a person quits smoking, there are no subsequent increases in brain volume, said Osborn.

"The brain demonstrates a lower capacity for recovery, so the best you can hope for is a deceleration in induced damage when you stop," he said. "So, the sooner you quit, the better."

"Remember, staying healthy lifelong is about making the right choices to mitigate the cellular damage that is the hallmark of the disease we call aging, to which no one is immune," Osborn added. 

"Do everything in your power to slow it down, rather than accelerating the process by smoking."

One out of every five U.S. deaths can be attributed to smoking, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Tips for kicking the habit

Dr. David Seitz, a New York-based physician with a specialty in addiction medicine, previously shared with Fox News Digital some tips for kicking the habit.

The first step is to remove all traces of cigarettes and other forms of smoking.

It’s also important to have a strong support system in place, the doctor said.

He also suggested seeking out healthier activities to fill the gap, such as walking or jogging, listening to a relaxing playlist, meditating or going to a yoga class.

Some people find that it’s easier to gradually wean themselves off smoking instead of quitting cold turkey.

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"This could involve gradually reducing the number of cigarettes smoked each day until eventually giving up completely, cutting back to a certain number of cigarettes per week or focusing on specific dates when you need to be completely smoke-free," Seitz said.

For those who are unable to stop smoking on their own, Seitz recommended seeing a doctor for assistance.

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"Your doctor can provide helpful information about how to quit smoking, prescribe medications that may help, and also monitor your progress along the way."

For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.

A single night of binge-drinking is more likely to cause liver disease than a few drinks spread across the week, a study revealed.

According to a study done by the University College London, first reported by the London Standard, measuring the pattern of alcohol intake was more accurate than volume for predicting the risk of developing alcohol-related cirrhosis (ARC).

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, ARC is a stage of liver disease where the liver has become significantly scarred and may cause the liver to stop working correctly.

The scientists analyzed data from 312,599 active alcoholic drinkers in the United Kingdom to assess the impact of the pattern of drinking, genetic predisposition and type-2 diabetes on the likelihood of developing ARC.

Dr Linda Ng Fat, a first author of the study from UCL Epidemiology and Public Health, said that the study’s approach was a “better indicator of liver disease risk than volume alone.”

“We took a different approach by focusing on the pattern of drinking and found that this was a better indicator of liver disease risk than volume alone,” Dr. Fat told the London newspaper. “The other key finding was that the more risk factors involved, the higher the ‘excess risk’ due to the interaction of these factors.”

Dr. Fat said the study revealed that those who engaged in heavy binge-drinking, which is defined as having 12 units of alcohol in a day, were three times as likely to develop ARC.

The risk for those with a high genetic predisposition was four times higher and the risk for type-2 diabetics was two times higher.

People who engaged in binge-drinking while also having a genetic predisposition were six times more likely to develop ARC, the study found.

Pamela Healy, Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust told the London Standard that this study revealed that the way people drink alcohol is important and that excessively drinking can have “servious consequences.”

“This research is important because it reveals that it’s not just how much you drink overall but the way that you drink matters,” Healy said. “Drinking a lot, quickly, or drinking to get drunk can have serious consequences for your liver health.”

International study has become more and more popular among Boston College students and Communication department majors as students realize the increasing importance of broadening their intercultural perspectives. We are communicating in a global marketplace and it is ever so important to be able to help cross cultural lines with our spoken and written words. Students participate in programs of study in more than 30 countries worldwide, sponsored either by BC or other institutions of higher learning.

Students who are interested in studying abroad should contact the Office of Global Education for more information on specific programs and application procedures. Typically, juniors study abroad during the spring semester; however, there are certain exceptions that can be made for placement during the fall semester of junior year.

Semester Abroad Requirements

The Communication department requires their majors to have completed seven courses in Communication by the end of their junior year. This leaves no more than four courses to be completed during senior year. Among those courses required prior to travel are the four Core courses: Rhetorical Tradition, Survey of Mass Communication, Public Speaking, and Communication Methods. In addition, we strongly suggest juniors take one of their two required writing intensive seminars in the fall of their junior year, before travel. This is to allow for the second to be completed senior year. A student may transfer up to two courses in Communication as ELECTIVES from the Study Abroad placement, which counts toward the seven total courses needed by the end of junior year. These courses must be pre-approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Lindsay Hogan.

For additional Study Abroad program information see Prof. Lindsay Hogan, St. Mary's Hall S453.

In the gender, art, and media minor students explore how gender issues and identities, in their intersections with culture, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, age, and (dis)abilities, are represented and portrayed in various artistic, literary, and media forms. By engaging with cultural texts and productions from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the minor introduces students to critical analysis and knowledge-building methods drawn from fields such as women's and gender studies, feminist theories, critical race studies, queer studies, social justice work, and activism. The minor teaches students to analyze gendered images as they appear in arts and media, recognize power inequalities and stereotypes in gender representations, and acquire the conceptual skills to critique and Improve current conditions of artistic, literary, and media production and consumption in view of increased gender equity and fairness. The minor complements any course of studies in a number of art and media-related fields such as art and literary criticism, art curation and exhibition, journalism and photojournalism, media studies, filmmaking, literature, photography, advertising and marketing, public relations, social services, and more.