The RIT Anime Club (est. 1994) and Tora-Con (est. 2004) have been given notice that we will need to get rid of 50% of our materials by December 17th and be completely removed from our club room by March 6th. The Center for Campus Life has given this notice to us at the same time as the Model Railroad Club and others in the SAU basement. A viable replacement has not been provided.

The materials that would need to be discarded include out-of-print magazines, DVDs, books, and VHS tapes as well as posters, awards, and other historical items that have already been removed from public view. The items we must keep would be related to our necessary daily functions such as stationery, certain electronics, and craft supplies.

Our club space is especially important to our library collection. For the past few years, we’ve been receiving notice after notice that we are not allowed to hold our traditional library within the room due to safety concerns. We feel insufficient action, other than our own, has been taken to resolve issues such as the lack of fire alarms, black mold growth that was just recently removed, mice, and even a brick falling and almost hitting a previous librarian in the head. While our materials are still stored there for now, our weekly library hour is held a few buildings over as we truly believe that what we have is a benefit to the community and best distributed under our possession and guidance.

Our annual anime convention, Tora-Con, is the largest student-run event at RIT with the support of over 3,500 student and non-student attendees, artists, volunteers, and more. The RIT Anime Club is financially independent and does not receive any monetary backing from the Center for Campus Life because of Tora-Con’s supporters. While proceeds from previous Tora-Cons go into putting on the next one by paying for RIT services, profits go towards supporting events for our members and the community. Last year, over half of the $9,000 donated to GRASP (Greece Residents Assisting Stray Pets) during our Winter Charity Auction came from Tora-Con proceeds. Hundreds have also been donated to RIT departments and organizations for their own events. We don't put on Tora-Con to simply fund Anime Club anymore, we run it because of the community that we’ve been able to build and keep. Discarding 50% of our materials and losing precious storage space would mean getting rid of materials necessary to keep Tora-Con running in the future. We would like to keep true to our commitment to hold Tora-Con 2026 but are unable to guarantee future years because of the changes being brought on.

What the members of the RIT Anime Club and Tora-Con want is not additional funding nor any sort of hate towards the faculty of RIT. While we’d love to be able to properly hold our library again and get better treatment for both our club and Tora-Con, what we truly want is any letters of support, the spreading of our message, and, most importantly, your support shown through our petitions. Help us save the space we’ve been in for over a decade and a half.

We encourage you to visit the link below for any questions, comments, full information, and updates.

https://toracon.org/save-tora-and-club

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