2025-2026 Catalog

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Core Requirement

Courses

First Year Writing (FYW)

FYW 100 (or FYW 100P or FYW 100H or FYW 100M) is required in freshman year. Each course introduces students to college-level writing and helps them develop the writing skills needed for success in college courses. Successful completion of the course (a final grade of C or better) will also meet the College Writing Requirement. Courses are limited to twenty students for FYW 100 (four credit hours); courses are limited to fifteen students for FYW 100P (six credit hours), FYW 100M (four credit hours), and FYW 100H (four credit hours).

CourseTitleCreditsOffered
FYW 100Introduction to Academic Writing

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
FYW 100HIntroduction to Academic Writing

4

Fall, Spring.
First Year Writing 100MIntroduction to Academic Writing Multilingual

4

Annually
FYW 100PIntroduction to Academic Writing PLUS

6

Fall, Spring

First Year Seminar (FYS)

FYS 100, with sections on a wide variety of topics taught by professors from departments across the college, is required in the first year. Students are encouraged to choose a topic that interests them. Each section is discussion-based, and focused on developing skills in criti- cal thinking, oral communication, research fluency, and written communication. FYS 100 is offered only in the fall and spring semesters. Students who enter the College with 24 or more transfer credits are not considered first-year students and are exempt from this re- quirement. Courses are limited to twenty students. 

CourseTitleCreditsOffered
FYS 100First Year Seminar

4

 Fall, Spring.
HONR 100First Year Seminar

4

 Fall, Spring.

* HONR 100 is open only to students in the College Honors Program.

Representative First-Year Seminars

Music and the Social World

Mountains of Power and Culture

Raid the Collections: Making Discoveries in RIC Collections

You, Inc.: The Business of You

Shock Therapy: Drama as Action

Global Imagination of Korean Media: Meanings and Significance

Global Perspectives on Health

Languages in U.S. Education: Whose Matter?

Cultures Collide: Indians and Europeans in Early North America

Self, Mind, Heart in Eastern Philosophies

Language and Gender

‘Tattoos aren't just for sailors anymore’: Men, women, & bodies

Performance in the First Person: This is ME!

Talkies and more: The sociology of cinema through Hollywood

Food and Medicine of East Asia

From Europe to the States: humor, friendship, and love through film remakes

Sex Rights, Sex Wrongs

Leadership Study Through the Biography

Native American Arts

Connections (C)

Courses in the Connections category are on topics that emphasize comparative perspectives, such as across disciplines, across time, and across cultures. Students must complete the FYS 100/HONR 100 and FYW 100/FYW 100P/FYW 100H/FYW 100M courses before taking a Connections course. Connections courses may be included in any major or minor program.

CourseTitleCreditsOffered
AFRI 262Cultural Issues in Africana Studies

4

Fall, Spring, Summer.
ANTH 261The Complexities of Global Health

4

Fall, Spring.
ANTH 262Indigenous Rights and the Global Environment

4

Fall, Spring.
ANTH 265Anthropological Perspectives on Childhood

4

 Fall, Spring.
ANTH 266Anthropological and Indigenous Perspectives on Place

4

Fall, Spring.
ART 261Art and Money

4

Spring.
ART 262Encounters with Global Arts

4

Fall.
COMM 261Issues in Free Speech

4

Fall, Spring.
COMM 262Dialect: What We Speak

4

 As needed.
COMM 263East Asian Media and Popular Culture

4

 Spring, Summer.
ENGL 261Arctic Encounters

4

As needed.
ENGL 263Zen East and West

4

 Spring (alternate years).
ENGL 264American Persuaders

4

As needed.
ENGL 265Women's Stories across Cultures

4

 As needed.
ENGL 267Books that Changed American Culture

4

As needed.
ENST 261Climate change and YOU

4

Fall, Summer.
FILM 262Cross-Cultural Projections: Exploring Cinematic Representation

4

 As needed.
GEND 261Resisting Authority: Girls of Fictional Futures

4

As needed.
GEND 262Lights, Camera, Gender!: Gender in Film

4

Fall.
GED 262Native American Narratives

4

 Fall, Spring.
GLOB 260Global Studies and the World

4

Annually.
HIST 267Personal Memories of the World Wars

4

 Annually.
HIST 268Civil Rights and National Liberation Movements

4

 Annually.
HIST 269Jazz and Civil Rights: Freedom Sounds

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
HIST 272Globalization, 15th Century to the Present

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
HIST 274The History of the Dominican Republic

4

Annually.
HIST 275Russia from Beginning to End

4

 Fall, Spring.
MUS 261Music and Multimedia

4

 As needed.
NURS 262Substance Abuse as a Global Issue

4

 Fall.
NURS 264Status of the World's Children

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
NURS 266Health and Cultural Diversity

4

Fall, Spring.
PHIL 261Philosophy of Health and Well-Being

4

Annually.
PHIL 262Freedom and Responsibility

4

 Fall, Spring.
PHIL 263The Idea of God

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
PHIL 265Philosophical Issues of Gender and Sex

4

 Fall, Spring.
PSCI 262Space: The Final Frontier

4

Fall, Spring, Summer.
POL 262Power and Community

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
POL 267Immigration, Citizenship, and National Identity

4

Annually.
POL 269International LGBTIQ+ Rights

4

Fall (odd years).
PORT 261Island Cultures of the Portuguese-Speaking World

4

Fall, Spring.
SOC 262Sociology of Money

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
SOC 264Sex and Power: Global Gender Inequality

4

 Fall, Spring
SOC 267Comparative Perspectives on Higher Education

4

Even years.
SOC 268Genocide, Atrocity and Prevention

4

Annually.
SUST 261Exploring Nature Through Art, Science, Technology

4

 Fall, Spring.
THTR 261Contemporary Black Theatre: Cultural Perspectives

4

Annually.

Mathematics (M)

Math is suggested in the freshman year. Students are encouraged to choose one course from the following options early to help them develop quantitative skills required for success in college-level courses and beyond.
CourseTitleCreditsOffered
MATH 139Math, Data, and the Contemporary Citizen

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
MATH 117Calculus: A Short Course

3

As needed.
MATH 209Precalculus Mathematics

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
MATH 212Calculus I

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
MATH 240Statistical Methods I

4

 Fall, Spring, Summer.
Completion of the Mathematics category of General Education does not satisfy the College Mathematics Competency. In addition, students in the elementary education curriculum who complete MATH 144 (and its prerequisite, MATH 143) shall be considered to have fulfilled the Mathematics category of General Education.