The 108-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.
Academic Facilities
Classroom and laboratory facilities are found in Accinno Hall, Albertus Magnus Hall, the Ceramics Building, the Feinstein Academic Center, Guzman Hall, Harkins Hall (also the main administration building), Hickey Hall, Howley Hall, Hunt-Cavanagh Hall, Phillips Memorial Library, the Ruane Center for the Humanities, the Ryan Center for Business Studies, St. Catherine of Siena Hall, Smith Center for the Arts, Sowa Hall, Sullivan Hall, as well as the newly constructed Science Complex addition.
Ryan Center for Business Studies
The Arthur F. and Patricia Ryan Center for Business Studies, opened in Spring 2017, is home to the Providence College School of Business and its four academic departments - accountancy, finance, management, and marketing. It also houses the MBA Program.
The 64,000-square-foot structure features a two-story glass atrium, a 125-seat conference room, a finance learning laboratory with Bloomberg terminals to allow student investors to track the markets in real-time, computer labs, and classrooms designed to encourage hands-on learning, mentoring, and innovation. The building also includes interview suites and a café.
The Ruane Center for the Humanities
The Ruane Center for the Humanities, opened in Fall 2013, is the College’s signature academic building, symbolizing PC’s commitment to the liberal arts, the humanities, and undergraduate education. The 63,000 square foot building is located between the Albertus Magnus-Sowa-Hickey Science Complex and the Phillips Memorial Library, which connects to the Ruane Center by an enclosed walkway.
Key components in the design of the Ruane Center were the need for flexibility in the use of space, particularly instructional space, as well as technology designed to engage students. The Ruane Center includes 12 seminar-style classrooms to accommodate up to 18 students and four larger classrooms, primarily to support the Development of Western Civilization Program and its new colloquia, as well as the Liberal Arts Honors Program.
Other features in the building include the large Fiondella Great Room and adjacent terrace, which is used as an informal student and faculty gathering space and serves as a flexible presentation and event facility. The Ruane Center also includes group study spaces, a café, and an outdoor classroom. The building is home to the Departments of English and History, the Development of Western Civilization and Liberal Arts Honors Programs, and the School of Arts & Sciences.
Science Complex
The Science Complex includes a new 37,000-square-foot, four-level addition that was opened in Fall 2018. The new space includes chemistry laboratories, active learning classrooms, a 48-seat lecture hall, a computer lab, a student commons area, and an administrative office suite for the departments of biology, chemistry and biochemistry, engineering-physics-systems, and psychology, as well as the director of health professions advising.
Renovations to Sowa Hall, which includes the newly designed Lucille and Leo Caiafa, Jr. Center for Psychological Sciences, were completed in Summer 2019. The complex also includes an observatory and specialized science laboratories in Hickey Hall. Renovations are underway in Albertus Magnus Hall and will continue until the entire complex is finished.
Slavin Center
Slavin Center, the student union, is one of the main hubs of the Providence College campus. It is open 24 hours a day during the academic year and is home to the College’s many student clubs and organizations. It also houses a variety of offices and facilities that provide services to students, including the Offices of Residence Life & Housing, the Dean of Students Office, Student Activities & Cultural Programming, the Center for Career Education & Professional Development, the Center for Orientation, Transitions & Leadership, the Providence College Bookstore managed by Barnes and Noble, a branch of Santander Bank, an ATM machine, and Dunkin’ Donuts. Additionally, it offers numerous meeting rooms and comfortable lounge spaces. The Alumni Hall Food Court and McPhail’s Entertainment Facility, which is open seven days a week and hosts events throughout the academic year, are accessed through the lower level of Slavin Center.
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 technology lab; and choral and instrumental practice rooms. The building also contains the Reilly Art Gallery, as well as offices for the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Film and the Department of Music.
Technology Classrooms/Facilities
Nearly all of the College’s general use classrooms are equipped with multimedia technologies. Our classrooms have the latest in audio, visual, computer, and Web connectivity to enhance the instructional environment. Accinno Hall houses four computer laboratories. Additional computer labs are found in Albertus Magnus Hall, Howley Hall, the Ryan Center for Business Studies, and the new Science Complex addition.
Technology Resources
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, laptops, or mobile devices. They can register for courses, view address and personal information, access 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 Sakai, 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 assignments, and efficiently manage their classwork.
Providence College’s mobile app includes information on courses (login required), directory information, campus events, library resources, interactive campus maps, athletics, dining, transportation, and laundry facilities, among others.
Students have access, at no additional cost, to Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, and collaborative applications such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. A Windows Virtual Desktop environment has been provisioned, to provide students with access to curricular software. No matter what type of computer the student uses, they have access to a virtual computer from off-campus or on-campus in order to work with college-provided software and resources.
Athletics, Recreational, and Leisure Facilities
Please see the Student Life and Development section of this catalog for information on athletics, facilities, intramurals, club, and recreational sports.
Recreational leisure facilities are found in Slavin Center, PC’s student union, which houses McPhail’s Entertainment Facility, Dunkin’ Donuts, 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.
Campus Chapels
Providence College encourages the spiritual and intellectual growth of each student. St. Dominic Chapel, open 24 hours a day, 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 college-wide 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 provides resources, services, technology, and spaces in support of the College’s intellectual mission. With more than 100,000 square feet of space, the library can accommodate approximately 1,015 patrons. There are nearly 900 seats for individual and small and large-group work in collaborative, quiet-zone and deep-quiet-zone spaces; 119 Windows and Apple desktops, printers, and scanners; classroom space for research and primary source education sessions; and two flexible, technology-enhanced classrooms.
The library provides access to extensive research resources in print and digital formats, including journals, books, databases, and multimedia. There are over 160 print periodical subscriptions and access to more than 82,000 full-text electronic periodicals; nearly 356,000 print book volumes and access to more than 1,000,000 electronic books; over 300 subscribed databases; nearly 3,000 media items (audio, video) and streaming access to more than 15,000 multimedia items. Services include support for access and research, technology and print issues, multimedia processing and production, circulation of course-reserve items, and more. In addition, students have quick access to millions of items through our local academic consortium (HELIN/Higher Education Library Information Network), and the library’s interlibrary loan service connects students to worldwide resources free of charge.
The library building is open more than 100 hours per week, with extended hours during mid-term and final exam periods. For more information, including library hours, call 401-865-1993 or visit the website.
Residential Facilities
Campus residential facilities include traditional dormitory housing as well as suite and apartment-style units. These facilities accommodate approximately 3,000 students.
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