Walking down the hill today, I saw Floyd Luton, Maintenance Technician in the Freshman dorm quad, unloading new mattresses for the dorms. Floyd is retiring next week after a 38 year career at RISD. If you were a dorm counselor ( what we called them in the 70’s) or an RA (what we call them now) or just someone who spent any time at all wandering the dorms for whatever reason, then you’ve met Floyd!

Seeing the bustle of activity in the dorms this time of year always makes me think about my own arrivals on campus, especially that exciting/terrrifying first year.  Remember those first days and weeks? As I connect with friends and classmates at reunions, I like to ask them about their memories of their first days here. Share your memories with me……….

For those of you who have been to RISD by Design, you may remember our cavalcade of handouts……

Yikes!  It’s enough to make a registrant turn and run for the non-collated non-florescent colored hills!

This year we’re going to simplify.  Thanks in part to our new map,  we’ve been inspired to cut down on all the wordy signage and handouts and folders (oh my!) and streamline, focusing on the visual.  Makes sense, right?  It’ll just be nametags (with a snazzy rbd lanyard), your schedule, folded versions of our fabulous map, an admission card for the museum, and small pocketable booklets with late additions, open studios and classroom info and the departmental presentation line-up.  A footprint reduced from the size of a full folder to a small stack of cards in one fell swoop!

Signage around campus will be comprised mostly of giant versions of our map, along with a legend and a “you are here” sticker.  That’s it!  No muss no fuss no gobs of text!

What challenges face incoming RISD students? What kind of classes are part of Freshman Foundation? How will they choose a major? And will they ever find a job when they graduate?  Find some answers to these questions and more at events like A Life in the Arts + Design:  An Overview of the Freshman Experience, Friday, Oct. 10, 12-5pm, Introducing Foundation Studies, Saturday, Oct. 11, 10-11am, Career Options in Art + Design, Saturday Oct.11, 1-2pm, and Sunday Oct. 12, 10-11:30am, and RISD’s Departments Illuminated, Saturday, Oct. 11, all day.  There’s more - have a look at the complete schedule, posted in the sidebar.

Eric Meier, Director of Interactive Media and RISD alumnus, shared his thoughts on attending reunions at RISD with me today- click here to view this short video.

If you love the new map Aaron Meshon ‘95 IL created for RISD, you might want to know that we will be producing a limited edition of fine prints, signed by the artist,  and t-shirts, which will be available for sale during RISD By Design weekend. Prints will be available for $100 (and $20 for shipping after the fact). You can contact Claire Robinson at 401.454.6379 if you are interested in having one shipped.  By the way, if you are a fan of Aaron’s work, be sure to check out his website.

Did you know that Mem Hall is now the home of the painting department?  Besides housing sophmore painting studios, there are 2 new gallery spaces.  OK, now where did the mailroom go?

As I’m sure we all remember from our time there, RISD is not for slackers. Working hard is a fashion statement, you just have to be doing it. This is most apparent when watching the freshman walk up the hill from Waterman to the dorms, charcoal conspicuously covering every square inch of their bodies, seemingly trying to out-do each other with how gray they can turn their complexion by the end of studio.

But I also remember that there were times when you just needed to take a break. At least once a semester, as hard as it was, you just needed to do anything but work. Besides, Providence is a beautiful place for the adventurous, sometimes mischievous art school student. In my time there, I spent a decent amount of my relaxation time exploring the city, from abandoned buildings to disused bridges to what turned out to be my favorite, an abandoned railroad tunnel running underneath College Hill for close to a mile.

A photo from the 1969 yearbook of a student in the tunnel.

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I imagine that like me, other parents of RISD students have been attending school events for many years - since elementary and even pre-school. I know that I have been attending school-sponsored events with my two children for 22 years!

By now, such events could seem to be tedious obligations or that attending yet another would be hopelessly repetitious – one school event blurring into another. But, having attended RISD by Design weekends I can assure you, I am looking forward to this event.

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As we approach RISD by Design weekend, we get many calls regarding where to stay in and around Providence. For your lodging pleasure, we have compiled a list, which includes, at the top of the page, those hotels with which we have special weekend rates.

Now that we’ve found you someplace to stay, how about telling us where all your friends got off to? We’ve posted all our lost reunion year alumni here. Let us know if you have a lead on their whereabouts!

Now we know who’s not around, want to know who is? You can find a real-time list of attendees here.

Thanks for stopping by! We’ll see you in October!