Rhode Island College was first established in 1854 as a teacher's college and called the Rhode Island State Normal School. With the move of the College to its Mount Pleasant Campus, it was renamed Rhode Island College in a reflection of its new comprehensive curriculum. Now RIC serves approximately 9,000 students and offers 90 undergraduate and 30 graduate academic programs.

The programs are divided into five Schools:

• Faculty of Arts and Sciences
• Feinstein School of Education and Human Development
• School of Social Work
• School of Management
• School of Nursing

The Mathematics and Computer Science Department has 23 faculty members and supports a Computer Science Program.

The Accounting and Computer Information Systems Department has 10 faculty members and supports a Computer Information Systems Program.

The RIC Art Department offers Summer Session Workshops, 6 week programs featuring media, techniques or subjects not covered during the regular school year. Courses have included:

• Computer Graphics: Adobe Photoshop CS2
• Webpage Design: Dreamweaver 8
• Beginning Flash 8
• Visual Literacy in the 21st Century