RISD Community Questionnaire

Graphic Design Department -


Architecture Department -


RISD Community Questionnaire -

Age:

22
21
24
22

Male / Female:

Male
Male
Female
Female

In a Relationship:

Yes
No
No
No

Department (Major):

Architecture (grad 1st year)
Graphic Design (junior)
Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Education (final year grad)
Dept. of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design, MA Art + Design Education; Museum Education (grad 1 more year to go)

What area do you live in Providence?

N. Main St.
Moshassuck
I live in Mosh
N. Main St.

What space here in Providence is important to you and your community (when referring to community you can answer it in terms of your close group of friends, your department or RISD students as a whole) ?

I enjoy the open spaces by the river
Being in a social, close space
The museum
The Brown-RISD Catholic Community is very important to me and the rest of the Catholic community on the collective campuses. We meet in the Chapel located in Manning Hall on Brown’s campus.

What time do you finish work on an average day of the week.?

midnight
Midnight or Two in the morning
By midnight
10pm

Where are the three main places you eat lunch in Providence?

Cable Car, Jolly Roger, downtown somewhere
Moshassuck, Portfolio, Jolly Roger
Fellinis, Café Choklad, my apartment
Portfolio Café, Au Ban Pain, Café Choklad.

How do you like to relax socialize after class at RISD, where do you go, what do you like to do?

Go out to the bar and have a few drinks, and relax
I like to hang out with friends at 15 West
I take naps to relax. And knit, because I am cool. Where do I go? Shopping. Or make dinner. I live a really exciting life.
I usually go home to relax, and up to Providence Place or Thayer Street to socialize (shopping, restaurants, movies, bars)

Are you part of any clubs societies at RISD?

No
No
No
No

Name 3 places in providence you would go or like to go to in your free time or weekends?

Movies, Grad Bar, Wild Colonial
15 West, Local Parties.
The farmer’s market at Hope High School, brunch on Thayer…

Give three positive and three negative aspects about RISD?

Positive: there is a large range of opportunities in the arts, and it is a good and well respected education.
Negative: Lack of organization

Positive: I love the studios. 15 West is great area and very nice to live in. The campus is in general pretty close to gather.
Negative: Moshassuck is to far away and does not feel like part of campus. There is no major social area in RISD to hang-out. People are not very social, everybody has there own group. I hate the eating plans here. Living in Moshassuck I have to walk half a mile to eat on campus. I am sophomore so I have to have a meal plan but I am not walking so late at night to get something to eat and I can not get my money at the end of the year. Its easier or me to eat at Moshassuck. Plus all of the stop-n-shop is very far and whole foods is way to expensive. RISD rides also suck It faster to walk home then to use the risdride system.

Positive: RISD Museum is a teaching museum, lecture series in the Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Education brings in relatively good speakers and relevant figures in the field, my thesis advisor is pretty amazing
Negative: Departments are segregated (there is little interaction) – Elective classes magically always seem to conflict with required courses – Housing is lame, as in Jorge is lame to be specific

The campus is a bit too urban for me and I sometimes feel unsafe in this area, but I also enjoy the urban area in some respects; the area is historic and beautiful. As a graduate student I would like more association and integration with the rest of the school, but at the same time this is a positive given that grads are allowed more freedom and free range of space. There is a great effort on campus proper to be “green”. I feel though that “on campus” living for grads and transfers is overlooked (Moshassuck Square); I would like to be provided with recycling facilities at least.

Do you enjoy being here in Providence/ why be specific?

Yes, I enjoy the size of the city in that you can walk wherever you need to go. I also like the proximity to other major cities like Boston and New York. I also enjoy waterfire.
The city is very small, and everything close way to early. But I heard city is better in the spring
I do at times, for the simple fact I love New England. It is close to Boston.
Yes, Providence is a beautiful small urban city, not too big or too small and has a lot to offer.

How would you sum up your experience at risd so far?

Busy
It ok
Magical. My program is frustrating because it is entirely too flexible and my required courses this semester have no relation to my degree whatsoever. I feel like I'm not really getting a lot out of it, but it's not a terrible experience.
Very enjoyable.

What aspects do you feel could benefit RISD when it comes to creating a better sense of community?, what is lacking?

A common area in which students can meet up
Being a transfer I wanted to meet people since I have not meet anybody during freshmen year. So don’t put transfer so far away form campus
There is just a lack of interaction between departments, so people are constantly with the same group of kids.
More active social gatherings/opportunities targeted at all ages, maybe more interaction with the RISD Museum.

Name three things you would like to see here at RISD to create a better social environment (be honest in your assessment and answers)?

More interaction between departments. A commons for students to interact in.
-
I think the fact that our RA’s suck is a factor for those of us who live in housing.
I think the graduate community could be paid more attention to in efforts to create a more social-scholastic environment.

Do you feel you made the right choice coming here?

Yes
Yes the education is very good here
Sometimes yes, sometimes no
Yes.

In Jane Jacobs chapter ‘ The generators of diversity ’ Jacobs focuses on the diversity within city and the districts, which make them up. It is not an assumption that diversity is natural to big cities and in this sense is natural to institutions such as ours, RISD.
In 1791 James Boswell noted when referring to the city of London and how different it is a place it is to individual people, saw two different outlooks on city life from those involved in it. He explained these outlooks one being from the perspective of a narrow minded person who sees and views city life in terms of their particular pursuit, occupation & life. The other outlook, that of the intellectual who views the city as a place where a number of different activities and pursuits take place throughout the city all the time, and is open to the idea of pursuits outside his own individual world.
I believe at RISD it is easy for us all to fall into the first classification one where are idea of what happens around us is overlooked and instead focused on ones own life and work and therefore the opportunity to break out and interact with other people in different areas is lost, and so does the opportunity to build ties and relationships within the greater community at large.
Jacobs first important question in the chapter refers to city planning. How can cities generate enough mixture among users-enough diversity-throughout enough of their territories, to sustain their own civilization? This is a question I believe we should be looking to answer when focusing on the community that is RISD.
From the interviews I carried out it seemed this issue of diversity sprung up throughout with students feeling segregated, part of only the community, which forms their place of work. It became apparent from answers given that a central area where people could meet and socialize with different students from different disciplines was in great need to bridge this gap. It also became apparent to me that there was felt a lack of inter-discipline integration between student departments, which a few interviewees wanted so that they could interact with students from different disciplines.
Looking at the student population at risd there is a great diversity of students in particular from Asia. It seems apparent that although a real effort is made to try and integrate students from varying cultures, there is a cultural divide amongst communities here with students many students really only socializing with those who can speak there home language. Even thou this is only natural and is seen in every city and community, it works against efforts to bring communities such as ours together and therefore a greater effort maybe needed in part to bridge these gaps.
A lively city scene according to Jacobs is largely by virtue of its enormous collection of small elements in proximity to each other. From the answers to the interviews I found it was interesting how all the students ate lunch at different places to each other with all bar one listing one of the three places being home. All these places are again spread out and most did not involve campus dining. From these answers it gave me a sense that even in a city like providence there is no real
Central area or street where this vibrancy can be found from day to day and hour to hour in proximity RISD students other than Thayer St which would be seen as being too far away. Rather there is the aspect a number of different places dotted around. Each frequented by the small local community in proximity to it.