Residential College, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

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The Residential College at the University of Michigan is a division of the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A) in Ann Arbor. Students commonly refer to the Residential College by the name "the RC."

Students in the RC atake classes in LS&A as well as specially-designed RC courses, many of which are seminar courses with fewer than fifteen students each. All RC students are required to live in the same residence hall, East Quadrangle, for at least their first two years. Since the RC is a part of the LS&A, all LS&A academic requirements apply to it.

A major requirement for RC participation is intensive language training, which consists of two 8-credit courses similar to language immersion, and one 4-credit readings course. Currently, intensive Japanese at the RC has no reading courses, and the semi-immersion curriculum consists of two 10-credit courses. Languages offered include Spanish, French, Latin, German, Russian, and Japanese.

86 faculty and staff at the University are associated with the RC, including nine Academic Advisors and four administrators. Charlie Bright is the director of the RC and also a professor of history.

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[edit] Mission

The RC lists the following as its mission statement:

The distinctive educational mission of the Residential College (RC) is to enable students to develop their intellectual interests and creative talents in an environment in which they can find their own voice and relate learning with doing. The RC faculty and staff challenge students to take the initiative in shaping their own education, to participate actively in classes and in extra-curricular programs, to think critically about what they are learning and reflectively about what they are doing, and to engage with the University community as well as the outside world.

To this end, the RC is a very tight-knit community within the University, and RC courses tend to be much more based upon discussion and interaction rather than lecture and self-study, compared to the courses offered by the rest of the University of Michigan.

[edit] Composition of the RC

The RC is an especially diverse community, even within the city of Ann Arbor; RC events frequently represent multiple religious affiliations and ethnicities. Dialogue on current events is common, and was especially so regarding the vote on and passing of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative in 2006.

Common stereotype on campus has it that the typical RC student is liberal and vegetarian; while these groups are indeed overrepresented in the RC relative to the general population of UM or Ann Arbor, this archetype by no means describes the majority or even the plurality of RC students.

[edit] Special concentrations

In addition to the usual concentrations in LS&A, RC students may choose to pursue five additional concentrations (RC website):

  • Arts and Ideas in the Humanities

Arts and Ideas in the Humanities integrates the study of literature, the visual arts, and music in an interdisciplinary program that describes a spectrum from theory to practice according to global cultural difference both ancient and modern.

  • Creative Writing and Literature

The RC Creative Writing and Literature program allows students to simultaneously develop their writing skills [in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, etc.] while pursuing a serious study of literature.

  • Drama

The RC Drama program offers a study unique at U of M: the understanding of drama both as art form and literature.

  • Social Science

RC Social Science seeks to make the world readily understandable for students, where problems and news items cease to be matters of remote interest, but become points of engagement for students.

  • Individualized Concentration

The RC offers a unique opportunity to the highly-motivated and self-directed student to develop his or her own plan of study.

[edit] External links