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Diversity

Rhode Island College Diversity Statement

Rhode Island College recognizes the essential role diversity plays in an educational exchange, informed by cultural inquiry and designed to stimulate critical and creative thinking. The college seeks to reach, attract, and retain students, faculty, and staff from our state, region and beyond by creating an inclusive, respectful environment that dispels stereotypes, discrimination, and intolerance. Differences inspire intellectual debate and innovation. Rhode Island college students enrich our community on and off campus with their varied learning styles, lifestyles, interests, circumstances, and identities. The college's numerous disciplines and support services connect our students with their diverse scholastic, personal, social, and vocational needs. Our faculty, staff, and administration are committed to making students' learning and graduation a priority, confident that RIC graduates make a positive contribution to the world's changing economies and cultures.
Please visit http://www.ric.edu/diversityatric/

Unity Center

The Unity Center is Rhode Island College's multicultural center. It promotes opportunities for exploring human dignity, social identity and cultural equality.

Diversity Week

Held the first week of October, Diversity Week consists of a series of lectures, workshops, a student symposium, videos; fine art exhibits and coordinated classroom activities. The week also includes celebrations of music and dance.

Clubs and Organizations

RIC students participate in a broad range of student organizations focused on diversity and culture including the Latin American Student Association, Harambee, Cape Verdean Student Association, HOPE (Helping Others Promote Equality), Asian Student Association, Women of Color, Feminists United, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.

HOPE (Helping Others Promote Equality)

RIC HOPE (Helping Others Promote Equality) is an organization that provides support and a safe social environment for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning students and their allies. We sponsor events, meetings, and outings throughout the year in an effort to promote awareness, acceptance and fun for our members.

Disability Services

Disability Services serves students with all types of disabilities including mobility, learning (including attention disorders), vision, motor, psychological, speech, chronic diseases and other conditions.

Interfaith Center

RIC's Interfaith Center serves individuals from all religious backgrounds and celebrates this spiritual diversity. The office sponsors a number of programs and activities.

Academic Diversity

You'll find diversity in our academic programs, from department offerings, to courses in our General Education and in a number of majors which specifically focus on diversity. To view our majors list, click here.

Our Africana Studies Program, established in 1972, is one of the oldest Black Studies programs in the New England area. The program offers a trans-disciplinary curriculum in the arts, humanities, and social/behavioral sciences. The program offers a myriad of cross-cultural courses that focus on sociological, historical, political, literary, religious, and artistic themes. Or, explore our Gender and Women's Studies major in which students gain an understanding of and respect for difference in their lives as they encounter issues of gender, age, ability, class, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and national origin in the classroom and in their curriculum.

Page last updated: April 22, 2020