Mar 28, 2024  
2010-2012 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2010-2012 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

The Campus and Facilities


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The 105-acre campus of Providence College, situated in Rhode Island’s capital city, is removed from the traffic and noise of the metropolitan area but remains close to the many cultural and educational offerings of Providence, a city that is enjoying a lively urban renaissance. The city is located only an hour’s drive from Boston and just a few hours’ drive from New York City. Interstate bus, train, and air transportation are conveniently available.

The Providence College campus provides a variety of living, learning, and recreational facilities in an environment that promotes students’ academic and personal growth, as well as their safety and security. A campus shuttle bus provides transportation from campus to adjacent neighborhoods and locations in downtown Providence. Students may access the city of Providence and the entire state by utilizing the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority (RIPTA) free of charge by showing their student identification card. For more information, please visit www.providence.edu and click on Student+Life > Living+at+PC >Transportation Services.

For a virtual tour of the campus, please go to www.providence.edu and click on “virtual tour.”

Academic Facilities

Classroom and laboratory facilities are found in Accinno Hall, Albertus Magnus Hall, the Ceramics Building, the Feinstein Academic Center, Harkins Hall (also the main administration building), Hickey Hall, Howley Hall, Hunt-Cavanagh Hall, Koffler Hall, Moore Hall (which serves as the center for the Development of Western Civilization Program), Phillips Memorial Library, St. Catherine of Siena Hall, Smith Center for the Arts, Sowa Hall, and Sullivan Hall. To view PC’s academic buildings, go to www.providence.edu and click on About PC > Campus Buildings > Academic.

Smith Center for the Arts

This 2 1/2-story building serves as the premier teaching and performance facility for undergraduates enrolled in performing arts courses or participating in extracurricular activities involving music, theatre, and dance. The primary performance venues are the 283-seat Angell Blackfriars Theatre and the 272-seat Ryan Concert Hall. Teaching spaces include a “black box” studio theatre, the Bowab Studio Theatre; the Higgins Clark Dance Studio; a 20-keyboard piano lab; a film-screening classroom; a music library; and choral and instrumental practice rooms. The building also contains the Reilly Art Gallery, as well as offices, conference rooms, and storage areas for the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Film and the Department of Music. For more information, go to www.providence.edu and click on About PC > Campus Buildings > Academic on the PC Web site.

Technology Classrooms/Facilities

Nearly all of the College’s general use classrooms are equipped with multimedia technologies. These classrooms have the latest in audio, visual, computer, and Web connectivity to enhance the instructional environment.  Most classrooms have wireless network access as well.

Technology facilities are located in buildings across the campus. Accinno Hall houses the College’s Department of Information Technology and four computer laboratories. Additional computer labs for PC faculty, staff, and students are found in Albertus Magnus Hall, Howley Hall, and Koffler Hall. For more information about computer technology at PC, go to www.providence.edu and click on Academics > Technology Resources > Computer Labs.

Desktop Technology

Providence College is focused on providing anytime-anywhere access to information. With CyberFriar, the main Web interface with the College’s administrative database, students can manage their personal and academic records from their desktops or laptops. They can register for courses, view address and personal information, view mid-term and final grades, view all financial aid and billing information on their accounts, view and request academic transcripts, and monitor their progress toward completion of their degree requirements.

With ANGEL (A New Global Environment for Learning), a learning management system used in nearly all undergraduate courses, students have another way to communicate with faculty members, participate in online discussion groups, check course syllabi, submit papers, and efficiently manage their class work.

For more information about CyberFriar and ANGEL (A New Global Environment for Learning), go to www.providence.edu and click on Academics > Technology Resources.

Athletics & Recreational Facilities

Joe Mullaney Gymnasium in Alumni Hall, Schneider Arena, Peterson Recreation Center, the Marjorie D. Lennon and Rev. Joseph L. Lennon, O.P. Field, (an artificial-turf field) and various other outdoor playing fields provide the focus for both intercollegiate and intramural athletics on campus. The Dunkin’ Donuts Center, with a seating capacity of just under 12,000, serves as the home court for the men’s basketball team. For more information about athletics facilities at Providence College, go to www.providence.edu and click on About PC > Campus Buildings > Athletic/Recreational.

Recreational facilities are also found in Slavin Center, PC’s student union, which houses McPhail’s Entertainment Facility, PC Perk, and the entrance to the Alumni Hall Food Court. Those facilities, plus various lounges and club offices, offer students places to relax between classes or to study with friends. For more information about Slavin Center, go to www.providence.edu and click on About PC > Campus Buildings > Administrative.

Concannon Fitness Center

The Concannon Fitness Center is a 23,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that serves the fitness needs and well-being of students, student-athletes, faculty, and staff. Opened and dedicated in fall 2007, the center specializes in cardiovascular and strength training. The center offers 13,850 square feet of dedicated fitness space on two levels for use by the general College community and a 3,600-square-foot varsity weight room for student-athletes.

Balfour Center for Multicultural Affairs

Originally designated as the Office for Minority Student Affairs in 1988, the Balfour Center for Multicultural Affairs provides multicultural education resources and intercultural programs. The center is a support service on diversity issues for students, staff, administrators, faculty, and neighboring communities. It maintains a clippings library, ethnocentric and race-centric periodicals, as well as texts, video, and audio tapes on various aspects of multicultural life. These resources are available on loan for research as part of the center’s mission to educate. Throughout the year the Balfour Center plans and co-sponsors several campuswide events, speakers, training workshops, and seminars.

In December 1993, the L.G. Balfour Foundation granted funding to Providence College for the continuation and enhancement of its existing minority education programs. The center was subsequently rededicated and renamed on February 2, 1994, and is the site of the Multicultural Scholarship Program office. Several scholarships are part of the program. The Martin Luther King Scholarship Program and The Cunningham are the two oldest scholarship programs serving this population.

The Balfour Center is an intercultural department that works to serve all of the College community. Inquiries may be directed to the office by calling 401.865.2738.

Campus Chapels

Providence College encourages the spiritual and intellectual growth of each student. St. Dominic Chapel and the Campus Ministry Center are the center of spiritual life on campus. Additional places of prayer are the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary in the St. Thomas Aquinas Priory-Gragnani Dominican Center, the principal Dominican residence on campus, and the oratories in Harkins and Siena halls.

Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies

The Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies is located in the former Aquinas Chapel. Administratively, the center is part of the Office of Mission and Ministry and, in collaboration with the Office of the Chaplain/Campus Ministry, it assists in coordinating the collegewide process of maintaining, enhancing, and promoting the distinctive mission of Providence College as a Catholic and Dominican college.

Believing that we are called to be transformed so that we may transform society, the center serves as a place of intellectual exploration and dialogue where students, faculty, staff, administration, and alumni can gather for study, discussion, reflection, and service.

Through a variety of events and educational opportunities for the College community, the center strives to share the richness and diversity of the Catholic and Dominican intellectual and spiritual traditions, which offer crucial perspectives for today’s challenges and concerns and invite us together to partake of and benefit from a common mission inspired by faith and enabled by grace.

Phillips Memorial Library

The Phillips Memorial Library is at the heart of the College’s intellectual life, and the main area of the library is architecturally impressive.

The library maintains a collection of approximately 80,000 print volumes and 340,000 electronic books. Our electronic collections are accessible by PC patrons from anywhere in the world.  Patrons have access to approximately 825 current print periodical subscriptions and more than 38,000 full-text electronic journals. The library also offers an extensive collection of print and electronic reference materials, including more than 120 bibliographic and full-text electronic databases, the second-largest collection of electronic databases in Rhode Island (after Brown University). In addition, the library houses the Providence College Special and Archival Collections, several academic departments, and the Office of Academic Services.

The library is also a member of the HELIN (Higher Education Library Information Network) consortium, which gives students and faculty one-day access to nearly 6 million volumes from any of 10 collegiate libraries in Rhode Island. In addition, the library’s interlibrary loan service connects students to worldwide resources free of charge.

The Phillips Memorial Library provides robust access to the College’s wireless network. In the Library Commons tradition, the library offers 85 public access desktop computers, sophisticated digitization resources in Digital Services and Macintosh labs throughout the library, 32 PC and Macintosh laptops with Web access (for student check-out), collaboration facilities in the TecHub, technology support in the TechStation, a presentation rehearsal/recording room, and an extensive array of productivity software, as well as an electronic classroom. The library accommodates approximately 600 students in quiet and group-study areas.

For more information, including library hours, call 401.865.2242 or visit their web page.

Residential Facilities

Campus residential facilities include traditional dormitory housing as well as suite and apartment-style units. These facilities accommodate approximately 3,100 students. For further information about residential life, go to www.providence.edu and click on Student Life > Living at PC > On-Campus Residence Living.

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