Office of Academic Advising
The Office of Academic Advising is located in the Lower Level of the Adams Library, in the area formerly known as OASIS, and supports all Exploring Majors, First-Year Intended Nursing Majors, and any student looking for additional support. Our office assists students with course registration, adding/dropping courses, short and long-term planning, exploring majors, and academic coaching. We also guide students as they navigate their major/career options and connect them to the proper resources, including faculty. We are here to help students create and assess academic, personal and career orientated goals, encourage you to get involved on campus, and focus in on items that can enhance your RIC experience academically, and holistically. Additionally, our office utilizes Starfish in order to schedule appointments, create engagement within the campus community, and to connect students to the proper resources.
Academic Support, Office of
Rhode Island College provides a number of academic support and advising services in the Office of Academic Support (formerly known on campus as OASIS.) These offices include: The Office of Advising and the Academic Success Centers while holds The Writing Center, The Math Learning Center, and Tutorial Services. The Office of Academic Support was established to assist students with questions concerning academic policies and procedures at Rhode Island College and to serve as the official advisor to students in the Exploring major categories (undeclared) and First-Year, Intended-Nursing Students. They also provide academic coaching to students who have not met “Good Academic Standing."
Students interested in becoming more effective learners will find assistance in Tutorial Services within The Academic Success Center. Services include instruction and tutorial help for reading comprehension, note taking, and test preparation for admission and certification testing for the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development. Assistance with tests required by the School of Nursing is also available. Tutorial Services works closely with Disability Services to offer academic counseling and learning strategies to students who have or think they may have a learning disability. For more information on tutorial help, refer to the Academic Success Center, which includes: Mathematics Learning Center, Tutorial Services and Writing Center.
Adams Library
The Library (https://library.ric.edu) offers a welcoming environment to support the intellectual and cultural diversity of our campus. Library faculty and staff assist users at the reference and borrowing services desks and by phone, email, text and chat (https://ric.libanswers.com). Library faculty collaborate with college faculty to create library instruction for specific courses focused on the discovery, use and evaluation of library resources and information on the web.
The Library is located at the heart of campus, and is open 80 hours per week during the academic year. Students will find a variety of spaces to meet their needs including collaborative study spaces, individual carrels and tables for independent study. A floor dedicated to silent study is located on level 2. The Curriculum Corner is housed on level 4 and provides instructional material and curriculum development resources for teachers and teacher education programs.
Print collections include more than 203,000 books and 503 journals. The library also has a collection of government publications, a DVD collection of films and documentaries, and a variety of music CDs. Electronic collections include over 439,000 e-books, 117,000 e-journals, and a diversified selection of 111 databases. Remote access is available to all electronic resources. In addition to our collections, students can borrow laptops, iPads, external hard drives, graphing and business calculators.
The College Archives, a rich depository of the history and records of Rhode Island College, as well as faculty and alumni publications and student theses, are located in the Special Collections Department. Special Collections includes a number of subject collections consisting of papers, books, manuscripts and other resources that document the state’s education, ethnic and socio-political history. A growing number of student theses and honors projects, faculty publications and Special Collections materials are also accessible electronically in the RIC Digital Commons.
The Library is a member of the HELIN (Higher Education Library Information Network) consortium, which consists of 7 academic libraries, where the RIC community has on-site access to collections and reciprocal borrowing privileges with their RIC ID. Library users may request items from other libraries via interlibrary loan using our online catalog.
Career Development Center
The Career Development Center serves students and alumni in the career planning and job and internship search process. The Center also offers assistance with applying to graduate school, including help with writing the personal statement.
Individual counseling sessions are offered at the Center, along with TypeFocus, an online system that helps students examine their values, skills and interests to reach informed decisions about a major and career. Workshops and programs are offered to help students develop competitive job search skills and strategies (e.g., résumé and cover letter writing, effective interviewing, LinkedIn accounts and networking).
Many resources are available 24/7 online, such as job and internship postings and information about career fields. Employers seeking full-time, permanent and part-time employees and interns connect with students through the Center’s career management tool, Handshake. Student employment (work-study and non-work-study) jobs available both on- and off-campus are also managed through the Center.
Current students and alumni may post résumés, view jobs/internships and access the center’s online library with RIC's career management tool, Handshake (https://www.ric.edu/alumni-online-job-portal-handshake and https://ric.joinhandshake.com/login). Additional tools available to students include Portfolium, an e-folio platform that translates classroom and experiential learning into workplace skills and highlights them for employers to view and Big Interview, an online system for job interview preparation. Please visit our website at https://www.ric.edu/department-directory/career-development-center for additional details and resources. The Career Development Center is located in Adams Library.
Disability Services Center
The Disability Services Center (DSC) is the central location on campus for disability-related services for undergraduate and graduate students and is committed to providing accommodations for students with disabilities and supporting them in achieving their academic goals. Students who self-identify and provide appropriate documentation of their condition to the DSC may be eligible to receive reasonable accommodations in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and analogous state laws. Support services may include classroom and testing accommodations, advisement, referrals and use of assistive technology.
The DSC serves students with all types of disabilities: mobility, hearing, vision, motor, psychological, learning, attention, speech, medical, developmental and other conditions. In addition, the DSC shall seek to assist students with temporary impairments who are in need of short-term accommodations. The DSC is also available to advise any student who needs information about how to obtain proper documentation of a disability.
The DSC promotes the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in all aspects of college life, and endeavors to make students aware of the many opportunities and resources available to them at Rhode Island College. The DSC recognizes disability as a form of diversity and is the primary resource to educate, train and guide the college community in understanding disability access, rights and responsibilities. The DSC not only serves as an advocate for students with disabilities, but also encourages students toward self-advocacy and self-determination.
Clarification of policies and procedures for disability-related services is available in the Policies and Procedures Manual for Students with Disabilities. Copies of the manual are available at the Disability Services Center or on its Web site at www.ric.edu/disabilityservices. Persons using TTY/TDD devices may contact the Disabilities Services Center via Rhode Island Relay Services by dialing 711.
Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning
The Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) promotes the professional growth and development of faculty as teachers and as scholars of teaching and learning. It cultivates a public dialogue about teaching and learning across disciplinary lines and strives to build a professional community among teachers at Rhode Island College. The FCTL serves faculty at every stage of their professional lives in order to support a campus-wide culture committed to inclusive excellence in teaching and learning. The FCTL is by faculty, for faculty. We offer opportunities for faculty members to talk about what they are doing, share strategies and stories, and learn about various teaching pedagogies including active/engaged learning, online and hybrid teaching teaching, and culturally responsive teaching. In addition, the FCTL offers support for designing courses, syllabi, class discussions, assignments, and assessments of learning outcomes. For more information about the FCTL and our offerings visit our website at https://www.ric.edu/academics/our-faculty/faculty-center-teaching-and-learning.
Help Center
The Help Center provides comprehensive support for computer and printer problems along with a full complement of IT equipment and support for classroom instruction. The Help Center also assists conference planners with presentation media.
Information Technology Services
The Office of Information Technology Services provides Information Technology resources to assist and educate the Rhode Island College Community. Information Technology Services supports the use of technology to promote communication, learning and access by providing services in the following areas:
• Classroom Technology
• MyRIC Portal (Student Information System)
• Office 365
• Blackboard Learning Management System
• Campus Telephones and Networking Systems
Information Technology Services maintains the college’s two large walk-in computing facilities for student use, located in the Horace Mann Technology Center (closing end of 2019 for renovations) and in Whipple Hall, where over 135 Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh desktop computers are available, as well as electronic classrooms in over 15 buildings. In addition, hands-on instructional computing facilities are located in:
• Alger Hall
• Alex and Ani Hall
• Clarke Science Hall
• Craig-Lee Hall
• Gaige Hall
• Guardo Hall (School of Social Work)
• Fogarty Life Sciences
• Henry Barnard School
• Nazarian Center
• Whipple Hall
Our goal is to enhance the student experience. We can assist with all technology services through a single phone call to the Information Technology Services Help Center at (401) 456-8803. This one-stop shop for technology will provide support for desktop computers, laptops, phones, networking, wireless, printing, access to MyRIC, Blackboard and all other college applications, multimedia support, technology training and classroom support.
Learning for Life (L4L)
Learning for Life (L4L) is an office of the Student Success Division that helps retain RIC students by providing them with case management services to overcome obstacles they encounter in their lives while working towards their academic goals.
L4L’s case management support is provided by trained peer mentors and focuses on helping students identify and problem solve barriers to academic and personal success, assess the type of assistance and resources needed, develop or strengthen their support system, navigate and access on- and off-campus resources, stay on track with identified goals, overcome obstacles in accessing help, proactively address problems/stressors to avert more serious difficulties, and explore their personal strengths and self-care strategies. Contact Learning for Life at https://www.ric.edu/department-directory/learning-life or l4linfo@ric.edu.
Mathematics Assessment and Tutoring
The Mathematics Learning Center, located in OASIS, has peer tutors available each day to assist students individually or in small groups with the Mathematics Placement Examination, with mathematics courses or with mathematics topics in another discipline. Students may make appointments in person or by phone.
Adult Education and Workforce Development
Professional Studies and Continuing Education offers adult education and workforce development programs that provide academic enrichment, professional training and employment opportunities for adult students.
Programs are developed with campus, government, community and industry partners to address workforce development needs and to train individuals seeking to enter employment or to increase their employment options. Non-credit and credit based courses are combined in many programs to provide students with expanded opportunities for continuing college study.
PSCE programs include a variety of content and experiential learning components that prepare students for successful employment. Subject content for industry-specific training is combined with applied clinical and laboratory experiences and an internship in an industry setting. .Allied training is provided in job readiness and job search skills, and students prepare a full portfolio of targeted résumés. Industry-specific remedial adult basic education study and English as a Second Language are provided as needed.
Partnerships and Placements, Office of
In cooperation with academic departments within the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development, the Office of Partnerships and Placements is responsible for securing field placements and maintaining partnerships with school districts.
Tutorial Services
Rhode Island College provides tutors to support students in a number of different disciplines across campus. They are available to meet with students in tutorial settings to help them identify learning needs, develop strategies that will result in effective study habits, and build successful techniques for continued progress and excellence in their studies. Tutoring is free to Rhode Island College students in general education courses and available online at https://services.smarthinking.com/login. Services are located in the Lower Level of Adams Library in Student Success Offices/OASIS.
.
Upward Bound Program
Established at RIC in 1966, the Upward Bound Program serves low-income, first-generation college bound scholars in the pursuit of high school graduation and post-secondary completion. Our holistic approach enhances the intellectual, motivational, and character development of each scholar. The program is committed to providing equal access and opportunity to scholars through rigorous academic instruction, advising, support services, and an environment that recognizes individual differences and academic potential.
For more information visit the Upward Bound office, or e-mail upwardbound@ric.edu, or visit the Web site at https://www.ric.edu/department-directory/center-scholar-development/upward-bound.
Writing Center
The RIC Writing Center is staffed by highly qualified student writing specialists. Serving all disciplines, the Writing Center team builds lasting relationships with enrolled students who seek to strengthen their personal writing habits and to learn the genre conventions tied to their respective majors. The writing specialists help to build writer confidence at each phase of the drafting process during brainstorming sessions, by making formatting suggestions, by offering structuring and essay unity support, and by making research integrity recommendations. The Center's mission is to celebrate student writers at their level and to help writers acquire more composition and revision skills over time. The Writing Center maintains a reference library of books, journals and articles on writing theory, writing in the disciplines and other topics, including MLA, APA and Chicago style manuals. These services are free to all Rhode Island College enrolled students.