Skip to content

Providence College

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
1 Cunningham Sq
Providence, Rhode Island 02918
Phone
(401) 865-1000
Email address
pcadmiss@providence.edu
School Information
Providence College is a private, Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island, with a Spring 2021 enrollment of 4,128 undergraduate students and 688 graduate students for a total enrollment of 4,816 students. The college specializes in academic programs in the liberal arts. Founded in 1917, the college offers 49 majors and 34 minors. It requires all its students to complete 16 credits in the Development of Western Civilization, a major part of the college's core curriculum.
General Information
Providence College is committed to implementing the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Its 2018 PC200 Strategic Plan kickstarted many programs and policies, followed by the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. PC’s “Anti-Racism Summer Series” hosts events on systemic racism, policing, implicit bias, white privilege, Black Lives Matter, and Catholicism’s purported commitment to anti-racism. The College also sponsored events in favor of curriculum decolonization and critical race theory. PC has established a vast number of overlapping committees and taskforces to address systemic racism. The College has implemented more diversity-based hiring and admissions processes, emphasizing culturally sensitive training and practices. The Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion provides grants to students and faculty for DEI initiatives. Business school students and faculty are required to undergo DEI training. It is unclear if the rest of the university must do the same. See below for more developments:

Actions Taken

Admissions Policies
  • The "Board of Trustees Committee on DEI" is committed to the "recruitment and retention of diverse students, faculty, staff, and trustees..."
Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • The PC200 Strategic Plan calls for "Developing and implementing specific strategies and programs to promote multicultural understanding and to recognize and challenge implicit bias."
  • The Athletics "Inclusion Committee" seeks "to develop an increased skillset and knowledge-base for DEI education in Athletics."
  • The Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI) will establish the inaugural Advocates of a Beloved Community (ABC). Operating under the umbrella of IDEI, the “Advocates” will be trained in areas related to cross-cultural understanding, micro/macro aggressions, restorative practices, and conflict resolution. This group will serve to provide ongoing education for bias and hate incidents that adversely affect members of the campus community."
  • Sponsored by the IDEI team and Providence Black Study Syllabus, Providence had a three-part workshop titled "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". This is part of the MLK Convocation Celebration: Winter Anti-Racism Series where attendees have the opportunity to "recommit to daily challenging racism in [their] spheres of influence."
  • In response to student demands advocating for more bias and cultural sensitivity education, PC partnered with EVERFI to begin offering a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for Students Learning Module. Starting with the 2024 class, all incoming students will be expected to complete this training experience along with the Sexual Assault and Alcohol EDU courses.
Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • Since fall 2019, "all incoming PCSB (School of Business) undergraduate students...receive implicit bias training focusing on managing diversity within teams."
Faculty/Staff Requirements
  • "Search committees follow culturally-sensitive hiring training and protocols (IDEI)."
  • "In fall 2019, all staff participated in  an implicit bias  training. In 2020, select staff were trained to facilitate DEI workshops for PCSB first-year students. In addition, all staff participated in the College’s “Diversity Inclusion in the Modern Workplace” and “Managing Bias” training sessions in spring 2021."
Political Actions and Support for Anti-Racism
  • Providence conducted the "inaugural PC Anti-Racism Summer Series." The college posted a series of zoom videos on activism, policing, systemic racism, implicit bias, and how white folks should embrace Black Lives Matter.
  • In 2016, PC welcomed Melina Abdullah of California State University to host an event called "Womanist Black Nationalism and Group Centered Leadership in Black Lives Matter."
  • PC claims that "antiracism" is a "necessary virtue" that is "rooted in [its] Catholic and Dominican tradition." The Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion writes, "We as a division and as a college pledge to uphold the values of antiracism and use antiracism as a framework to guide our actions." Its resources link to "The 1619 Project," "Me and White Supremacy," and "7 Ways Non-Black People of Color Perpetuate Anti-Blackness."
Program and Research Funding
  • "The Dialogue, Inclusion, and Democracy (DID) Lab pursues engaged scholarship on dialogue, inclusion, and reflective civic practice. With a core leadership team of student, faculty, staff, and community co-directors, along with a larger network of affiliates and collaborators, the DID Lab will develop a practical philosophy of “what works” to critically engage with disputed questions through real-world experiences using deliberative, equity, and community-based pedagogies."
  • "The Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has created a Community & Diversity Mini Grants program. This program provides funding to incentivize and support faculty, staff, and student organizations projects that advance, equity, and engagement as a collective participatory process for the campus community. Proposals must align with the five DEI focus areas and support innovative and community-focus efforts. 10 projects were fully funded in 2019-2020."
  • PC has Equity & Engagement Innovation Mini-Grants, where six awards of up to $2,500.00 per semester are given.
  • PC's Community and Diversity Program Mini-Grants offers eight awards for up to $300 each per semester.
  • The Feinstein Institute for Public Service is dedicated to confronting these three questions: "1) How can we contribute to the dismantling of racial injustice and inequity, the persistence of which continues to be a major obstacle to community well-being? 2) What opportunities exist for the Feinstein Institute to combat poverty and economic inequality, locally as well as globally? 3) How can we work with others in the community to enhance the capacity of young people to reach their highest aspirations, for themselves, their families, and their neighborhoods?"
Resources
  • The Black Studies Program hosted an event in October 2020 called "Movements for Black Studies and Decolonizing the Curriculum."
  • The "Presidential Committee to Address Systemic Racism" is an "advisory to the President and the President's Cabinet on effective practices and strategies that eradicate systemic racism..."
  • In June 2023, Dr. Quincy Bevely was appointed the inaugural vice president for institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion at Providence College.
  • IDEI In Our Community is the newsletter of the Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI) team. The newsletter is designed to provide insight into the many initiatives and programs happening at PC that "celebrate diversity, promote inclusivity, and support the College’s aspiration of becoming a beloved community."
  • PC's Center at Moore Hall is "a place for students, faculty, staff and community to build fellowship in an affirming space."
  • The 5 Focus Areas for Institutional Diversity are: 1) Structural Diversity, Access and Equity; 2) Institutional Infrastructure; 3) Climate and Intergroup Relations; 4) Formal and Informal Curricula; and 5) Student Learning and Development.
Symbolic Actions
  • "During the summer of 2020, in honor of Juneteenth, the PCSB sponsored a diversity, equity, and inclusion summer challenge, which invited all PC students to examine the impact of systemic racism and racial injustice on business organizations."
  • Providence conducted its second "Anti-Racism Summer Series" in 2021. One session was titled, "The Spirit of Critical Race Theory: Its Religious Roots and How it Speaks to the Church." Another session discussed "Racial Equity and Justice" with regard to restorative justice.
  • On June 15, 2023, Providence hosted a Juneteenth Celebration Lunch.
Last updated June 7th, 2024
©2024 Critical Race Training in Education. All rights reserved.