Residential College

Residential College (RESC)

Academic Co-coordinators: Janet Knoedler, Thomas Rich

This program seeks to enrich students’ learning experience by integrating academic life into the residence halls. There are six residential colleges (Arts, Environmental, Global, Humanities, Social Justice, and Society and Technology), each organized around a common theme, and each with common courses for first-year students. All students enrolled in a residential college live on the same residence hall floor and all take a common course. Students organize extensive extracurricular programs related to the college themes. Upperclass students who wish to continue their affiliation with a college may continue to live together and may take additional courses.

All of the courses offered in the Residential Colleges fulfill the Foundation Seminar requirement for Arts and Sciences students; some Residential College courses fulfill English or humanities requirements for engineering students. Residential College Foundation Seminars which have been taught recently include:

Arts College: Discovery of the Expressive Self; You Call That Art?, Wearable Art

Environmental College: Nature and Human Choice; The Sixth Extinction; Islands and Beaches

Global College: Modern World System

Humanities College: Myth, Reason, Faith

Social Justice College: Speaking Out; Struggling for Justice; Rage Against the Machine

Society and Technology College: Designing People; Utopia and Dystopia; Technology, Disease and History: The Apple Paradox; Dream Machines

115. Community Service for Social Justice (II; 1.5, 0) Half course.
Students will design and carry out a community service project under the supervision of a faculty member. There will be one class meeting per week. The project will involve one month of research into local community needs and exploration of alternative service projects, followed by weekly community service activities for the remainder of the semester. Open only to first-year students enrolled in the Social Justice College. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

150. Art, Nature, Knowledge (I or II; 4, 0)
An interdisciplinary study of selected works in art, music, literature, science, and philosophy from the Renaissance through the 19th century. Crosslisted as ENGL 150, HUMN 150, and PHIL 150.

219. Peace Studies (II; 3, 0)
Ideologies and institutions of contemporary war-making societies and of the peace movements within them. Non-violence, feminism, and other ideologies as movements, practices, and concrete contributions to peace. Crosslisted as UNIV 219.