RISD
Communications
Guide

RISD-specific terminology and best practices

When writing about RISD, don’t use the word ‘the’ when referring to the institution by its official name. The preferred title is simply:

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

Do add ‘the’ as a modifier (but not capitalized) when referring to RISD entities such as:

the RISD Alumni Association, the RISD Board of Trustees

the RISD community, the RISD Museum, the RISD Auditorium

When referring to RISD’s separate entities—the college and the museum—don’t capitalize the c, t or m in these words. Collectively, these two parts of RISD are often referred to as the institution (again, all lowercase), though generally the word ‘RISD’ covers both.

Although the word ‘school’ is part of RISD’s official name, the preference is to refer to the academic arm of RISD as ‘the college’ (vs ‘the School’) to differentiate it from grammar and secondary schools.

Please see below for best practices about the following:

academic divisions, departments and programs
academic and community resources
administrative departments
building names, addresses and contents
class years, majors and degrees
faculty titles
first-year students

Academic divisions / departments / programs

RISD’s four academic divisions (in bold below) include the departments listed under each along with official abbreviations for communications purposes. For guidelines about the usage of plus signs (+) in department and division names, please see the ampersands / plus signs section of this guide’s primary in-house styles glossary.

Architecture + Design
Apparel Design (AP)
Architecture (AR)
Furniture Design (FD)
Graphic Design (GD)
Industrial Design (ID)
Interior Architecture (IA)
Landscape Architecture (LA)

Experimental and Foundation Studies (EFS)
Digital + Media (DM)

Fine Arts
Ceramics (CR)
Film/Animation/Video (FAV)
Glass (GL)
Illustration (IL)
Jewelry + Metalsmithing (JM)
Painting (PT)
Photography (PH)
Printmaking (PR)
Sculpture (SC)
Textiles (TX)

Liberal Arts
History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences (HPSS)
Literary Arts and Studies (LAS)
Theory and History of Art and Design (THAD) previously known as HAVC / History of Art and Visual Culture
Teaching + Learning in Art + Design (TLAD)

The academic leaders who run RISD's academic divisions are called deans. Find the names of current deans at risd.edu/academics/leadership.

Use the full title of the department in all first references (Furniture Design vs Furniture or Jewelry + Metalsmithing vs Jewelry). In most scenarios, it’s not necessary to include the word department after these titles but if you do, the word ‘the’ should not be capitalized nor used before the department title (the Apparel Design department).

The following three Liberal Arts departments do not confer undergraduate degrees but do offer concentrations (which are like a minor at other colleges). Note that these are the titles of both the departments and the concentrations they offer:

History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences (HPSS)

Literary Arts and Studies (LAS)

Theory and History of Art and Design (THAD)

The two interdisciplinary MA programs in Liberal Arts are titled:

Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies (NCSS) use en dashes to separate the first three words

Global Arts and Cultures (GAC)

In addition to the concentrations housed in Liberal Arts, three interdisciplinary concentrations are also available. The first two are overseen by faculty members in Experimental and Foundation Studies, while the latter is aligned with Liberal Arts:

Computation, Technology and Culture (CTC)

Drawing (DRW)

Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies (NCSS)

RISD also offers two advanced "joint" degrees in partnership with other higher education institutions:

Design Engineering (MADE, with Brown University)

Landscape Architecture / Marine Affairs (MLA from RISD, MMA from University of Rhode Island)

The names of discrete departments are capitalized when the reference is clearly to the department as opposed to the discipline:

Students in Illustration generally visit New York once a semester.

Students studying illustration work in a broad range of mediums.

Academic and community resources

Various campus facilities and spaces have the following official titles, which should be used as presented here, except where a less formal designation (noted in parentheses) makes sense based on context.

Alfred DeCredico Gallery

Administrative departments

Generally, refer to an administrative department using its official title but without including the words ‘department’ after or ‘Department of’ before.

Academic Advising

Academic Affairs

Accounts Receivable

Admissions

Building names, addresses and contents

The official names, address and interior contents for each building on campus are listed alphabetically.

Aldrich Building | 72 Pine Street
Integrated Health and Wellness

Angell Street Studios | 52 Angell Street
Textiles (studios)

Auditorium Building | 17 Canal Walk
Experimental and Foundations Studies (studios)
Film/Animation/Video (studios)
Media Resources
RISD Auditorium

Bank Building | 27 North Main Street
Furniture Design (faculty offices and studios)
risd:store 3d

Barstow House | 62 Waterman Street
student housing

Bayard Ewing Building (BEB) | 231 South Main Street
Architecture (main office and studios)
BEB Digital Fabrication
BEB Gallery
BEB Lecture Hall
BEB Model Shop
Landscape Architecture (main office and studios)
print center

Benson Hall | 235 Benefit Street
Printmaking (main office and studios)

Canal Street Studios | 189 Canal Street
Apparel Design (main office and studios)

Carpenter House | One Congdon Street
student housing

Carr House | 210 Benefit Street
Carr Haus Café
Center for Student Involvement
Disability Support Services
faculty offices
International Student Services
Nature Lab (office)
Student Affairs

Center for Integrative Technologies/CIT | 169 Weybosset Street
Digital + Media (main office and studios)
Graphic Design (graduate office and studios)
Industrial Design (graduate office and studios)
Interior Architecture (main office and studios)
print center
Sol Kofﬂer Graduate Student Gallery

Central Power Plant | 9 North Main Street

Chace Center | 20 North Main Street
curatorial offices
Dryfoos Student Media Gallery
Experimental and Foundation Studies (studios)
Gelman Student Exhibitions Gallery
Michael P. Metcalf Auditorium
Minskoff Center for Prints, Drawings and Photographs
Museum main entrance
Museum Special Exhibitions Galleries

College Building | Two College Street
Architecture + Design Division (dean’s office)
classrooms
Environmental Health and Safety
History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences (main office)
Liberal Arts Division (dean’s office)
Literary Arts and Studies (main office)
Painting (studios)
Textiles (main office and studios)
Theory and History of Art and Design (main office)

Colonial Apartments | 173–185 Benefit Street
Planning, Design and Construction
student housing

Congdon House | Two Congdon Street
student housing

Design Center | 30 North Main Street
classrooms
Color Lab
Graphic Design (main office and studios)
Graphic Design Commons
Photography (main office and studios)
print center
Red Eye Gallery
risd:store
Typeshop
Watermark Café

Dexter House | 187 Benefit Street
student housing

Dexter House Studio | 187 Benefit Street
Experimental and Foundation Studies (studios)

Dunnell House | 16 Angell Street
student housing

Dwight House | 191 Benefit Street
student housing

Dyer Street Building | 103 Dyer Street
Workday

Dyer Street Building | 123 Dyer Street
Accounts Receivable
Budget Office
Controller
Federal Perkins Loan Office
Government Relations
Information Technology Services
Institutional Engagement
Media Group
Payroll
Procurement Services
Risk Compliance and Property Management

East Hall | 48 Waterman Street
Card Services
Bookbinding / Papermaking Studio
student housing

Ewing Multicultural Center | 41 Waterman Street
Intercultural Student Engagement

Fletcher Building | 212 Union Street
Co-Works
graduate fine arts studios (Glass, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture)

Homer Hall | 55 Angell Street
Pride Room
Reflection Room
student housing
Winston Clock Tower Gallery

Illustration Studies Building (ISB) | One Washington Place
Alfred DeCredico Gallery
Illustration (main office and studios)
ISB Gallery

Industrial Design Building | 161 South Main Street
Industrial Design (main office and studios)

Larned House | 71 Angell Street
student housing

Mandle Center for Living and Learning (15 West) | 15 Westminster Street
Auxiliary Services (offices)
Center for Arts & Language
Experimental and Foundation Studies (studios)
Fleet Library at RISD
Reflection Room
Portfolio Café
Public Safety (offices)
Residence Life (offices)
Spatial Audio Studio
student housing

Market House | 27 Market Square
Experimental and Foundation Studies (studios)
Film/Animation/Video (main office and studios)
Fine Arts Division (dean’s office)

Meeting Street Studios | 41 Meeting Street
Sculpture (studios)

Memorial Hall | 226 Benefit Street
Painting (main office and studios)
Painting Gallery
Printmaking (studio)
Tap Room

Metcalf Building | 7–14 North Main Street
Ceramics (main office and studios)
Foundry
Furniture Design Woodshop and Metal Shop
Glass (main office, studios, Hot Shop)
Jewelry + Metalsmithing (main office and studios)
Sculpture (main office and studios)
Textiles (studio)

Metcalf Refectory | 55 Angell Street
Catanzaro Student Fitness Center
Dining + Catering
The Met (dining hall)
seminar/meeting rooms

Nickerson Hall | 55 Angell Street
student housing

Nightingale House | 59 Prospect Street
student housing

North Hall | 60 Waterman Street
student housing

Pardon Miller House | 48 Angell Street
student housing

Point Street Studios | 130 Point Street
risd:store storage
Continuing Education (studios)

President’s House | 132 Bowen Street

RISD Museum (Farago wing entrance) | 224 Benefit Street
Ancient Egyptian Galleries
Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries
Asian Art Galleries
Café Pearl
curatorial offices
Decorative Arts and Design Galleries
18th- and 19th-Century American Galleries
European Galleries
Modern and Contemporary Galleries

SoMain Barn Building | 345–355 South Main Street
Continuing Education (offices)
Project Open Door
Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

SoMain Building 1 | 257 South Main Street
Jolly Roger Deli

SoMain Building 3 | 293 South Main Street
Center for Social Equity and Inclusion
Teaching and Learning Lab

South Hall | 30 Waterman Street
Public Safety
Residence Life
student housing

Thompson House | 63 Angell Street

Washington Place | 20 Washington Place
(accessible entrance: 60 North Main Street)
(mailroom: 10 Steeple Street)
Academic Advising
Academic Affairs
Auditorium
Center for Complexity
Continuing Education (classrooms)
Experimental and Foundation Studies (studios)
Finance and Administration
Furniture Design (main office and studios)
General Counsel
Graduate Studies (office)
Human Resources
Illustration (studios)
Integrated Planning
Liberal Arts Division (classrooms)
Mail Services
President’s Office
Provost’s Office
Registrar
RISD Careers
RISD Global
RISD Research
Student Financial Services
Title IX
Trustee Relations

Waterman Street Building | 13 Waterman Street
Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab
Experimental and Foundation Studies (main office and studios)
Waterman Gallery

What Cheer Garage | 160 Benefit Street
Campus Conference and Event Services
Facilities (offices)

What Cheer Garage | 28 Meeting Street
Facilities (shops)

What Cheer Studios | 156 Benefit Street
Experimental and Foundation Studies
Painting

Woods-Gerry House | 62 Prospect Street
Admissions
Campus Exhibitions
Enrollment
Woods-Gerry Gallery

OUTDOOR SPACES
Frazier Terrace
Homer Terrace
Market Square
Moore Terrace
Nickerson Green
RISD Beach
Woods-Gerry Garden

IN BARRINGTON
Tillinghast Place | 231 Nayatt Road
Continuing Education (studios)

The House at Tillinghast Place | 15 Freemont Avenue
residential and events rental property

Rental properties owned by RISD Holdings that are not occupied by RISD:

Page Building | 200–202 South Main Street

204 South Main | 204 South Main Street

SoMain Building 1 | 247-255 South Main Street

SoMain Building 2 | 261-267 South Main Street

Tanner Building | 262-266 South Main Street (250 South Water)

Fire House | 301-305 South Main Street (250 South Water)

Class years, majors and degrees

When referring to current students and/or alumni, include a class year and abbreviation for a major after each name. Design-wise, we opt to present years with the last two digits only and without an apostrophe to replace the first two digits. Also, only the first and last names are in bold. Class year and major designations remain unbolded:

Justin Brown 19 IL

Sarah Sandler 00 GD

(Note that since the class year/major appendage makes it impossible to present the name in the possessive form, we work around that through alternative sentence structures.)

For undergraduates, the BFA degree is understood, so it’s not necessary to repeat it when including these majors (followed by their abbreviation; see further below for Architecture):

Apparel Design	AP
Ceramics	CR
Film/Animation/Video	FAV
Furniture Design	FD
Glass Graphic Design Illustration Industrial Design Interior Architecture Jewelry + Metalsmithing Painting Photography Printmaking Sculpture Textiltes	GL GD IL ID IA JM PT PH PR SC TX

Alumni of the Brown|RISD Dual Degree program should be designated with the degree acronym followed by the year of graduation and the major code for the student’s RISD major:

Hannah Koenig BRDD 14 PR

For graduates of the five-year programs, include one of the following degree abbreviations before the class year and without listing a major after the year (since the major is indicated in the name of the degree). List the final degree (i.e. the fifth-year one) only:

Dina Zaccagnini BGD 93

Zoetrope Zook BArch 02

Although Architecture is the only department that still offers a fifth-year degree, many alumni earned professional degrees in the past so we still reference them as follows:

BArch	Bachelor of Architecture (the only one of the five still offered)
BGD	Bachelor of Graphic Design
BID	Bachelor of Industrial Design
BLA	Bachelor of Landscape Architecture
BIA	Bachelor of Interior Architecture

For graduate students, indicate which type of graduate degree an individual received, along with the year + major (MFA 99 FD or MFA 85 PT). As with fifth-year degrees, if the degree itself indicates what the major is, it’s not necessary to repeat it: MID 66 vs. MID 66 ID (redundant). The acronyms we use are:

MA	Master of Arts in Art + Design Education (offered in TLAD) Master of Arts in Adaptive Reuse (offered in Interior Architecture) Master of Arts in Design Engineering (joint program with Brown University beginning 2021) Master of Arts in Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies (Liberal Arts degree program as of 2018/19)
MArch	Master of Architecture
MAT	Master of Arts in Teaching (offered in TLAD)
MDes	Master of Design in Interior Studies (offered in Interior Architecture)
MFA	Master of Fine Arts
MID	Master of Industrial Design
MLA	Master of Landscape Architecture

If a person holds both an undergraduate and a graduate degree in the same discipline, indicate the major after the undergraduate class year only:

Henry Horenstein 71 PH/MFA 73

Martin Mull 65 PT/MFA 67

For alumni who earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees at RISD but in different majors, indicate the affiliation this way:

Mary Martin 65 IL/MFA 78 TX

Tamara Teakettle 90 FAV/MFA 92 PH

Degrees formerly offered at RISD, but no longer available include:

AD	Advertising Design
AE AR	Art Education (undergraduate degree) BFA in Architecture (four-year degree)
LA	Landscape Architecture (undergraduate degree)
MAE	Master of Art Education
MD	Machine Design
TC	Textile Chemistry
TE	Textile Engineering

In cases where no degree was awarded, follow the same guidelines regarding year and major but add an asterisk after the year. If John Smith was an ID major who would have graduated in 2019 had he completed his degree, for example, he would be referenced like so:

John Smith 19* ID

Subsequent references to an individual are by surname only (e.g. Eddins now works as a freelance designer…) without an honorific (no: Ms. Eddins now works…).

For communications aimed at external audiences unfamiliar with this shorthand, add the word RISD and the degree and class year but not the major designation:

Kevin Jankowski [RISD BFA 88]

Find the official titles of RISD’s administrative departments and offices on info.risd.edu, where you’ll also find phone numbers, email addresses and office hours.

Faculty titles

At RISD the faculty member in charge of each department is called the department head, while the faculty member in charge of each graduate program is the graduate program director and the person administering each concentration is called the concentration coordinator.

Full-time faculty members hold the title of assistant professor, associate professor or professor (the highest ranking), whereas part-time faculty members in studio disciplines are referred to as critic or senior critic and in the liberal arts, as lecturer or senior lecturer.

Only capitalize job titles when using them before a person’s name:

Ceramics Department Head Katy Schimert…

Professor Lucy Hitchcock

Professor of Graphic Design Lucy Hitchcock

Senior Lecturer Tom Roberts earned a 2017 Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching.

When used after a person’s name, the title is lowercase but the department name is capitalized:

Katy Schimert, head of Ceramics

Katy Schimert, department head in Ceramics

Lucy Hitchcock, a professor of Graphic Design

Tom Roberts, a senior lecturer in History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences, earned a 2017 Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Longtime Liberal Arts faculty member Tom Roberts earned a 2017 Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Tom Roberts, a longtime faculty member in History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences, earned a 2017 Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Note that, since Liberal Arts faculty have titles that reflect their specialization within their department, they are referred to as being in a department rather than as a professor of:

yes: Mark Sherman, a professor in Literary Arts and Studies

no: Mark Sherman, a professor of Literary Arts and Studies

The names of current faculty members, department heads and graduate program coordinators are listed on each departmental faculty page the risd.edu site (academics/department-title/faculty).

First-year students

Refer to first-year students (who don’t declare majors until March) by including a class year after their name and the acronym EFS (for Experimental and Foundation Studies). Note also that at RISD the preference is to refer to these students as first-year students not ‘freshman’ (individually) or ‘freshmen’ (when referring to them in aggregate). It’s also ok to refer to them as first-years or foundation students in subsequent references.