Dialogues on Community at Rice (DCR) Registration

The Dialogues on Community at Rice (DCR) is a set of workshops designed to examine matters of culture, identity, community, collaboration, and dialogue fundamental to living, learning, and working at the university and essential for taking full advantage of a Rice education. It is offered as a 5-week workshop (UNIV 195 Dialogues on Community at Rice Workshop) or a 14-week/full semester for-credit course (UNIV 196 Dialogues on Community at Rice) and is required for all new undergraduate matriculants, including both new first-time students and transfer students.

When to Take the DCR Workshop

All new, first-time, and transfer undergraduate matriculants are required to register for either UNIV 195 or UNIV 196 during the first semester at Rice. This generally occurs during the fall semester and is intended to be taken immediately following the (UNIV 194) CTIS Workshop. It cannot be taken at another point in a student's educational career.

UNIV 195 and UNIV 196 are restricted to new undergraduate matriculants.

How to Register for the DCR Workshop

  • As with all other course selections, students should add their first choice DCR and alternate DCR into their Course Requests by the closing date of the Course Request Period. The closing date for Fall new matriculant registration can be found on the Fall O-Week Registration page. (Note: UNIV 196 requires a Special Registration Form in order to register for the course.)
  • When the results of the Course Requests are published, all students will be able to see their registration results.
  • During registration, students may add DCR workshops online via ESTHER if they did not receive one in their registration results; no DCR workshops may be dropped online via ESTHER. Students who have not registered for a DCR workshop (either UNIV 195 or UNIV 196) will be administratively placed into a UNIV 195 section that fits into their schedule. After all students have been registered for a DCR course, DCR drops and adds can still be done (dependent upon space availability) via a Special Registration Form submitted in person at the Office of the Registrar or via email to registrar@rice.edu. Neither an "add" nor a "drop" will require the instructor’s signature for UNIV 195, however, the OTR will not process an “add” when it will introduce a course conflict, double-booking or enrollment above the max course cap. No DCR "drop" will be processed without an appropriate, and space available, DCR "add."

Switching Between UNIV 195 and UNIV 196

A student who registers for UNIV 195, and then later decides to take UNIV 196, must adhere to all university "add" deadlines as posted on the appropriate Academic Calendar.

A student who registers for UNIV 196 in lieu of UNIV 195, and then later wishes to "drop back" to UNIV 195 after the fifth week of classes may do so up until the "drop" deadline as posted on the appropriate Academic Calendar. To drop back to UNIV 195 from UNIV 196, the student must do so using a Special Registration Form signed by the UNIV 195 director. (Note: this option is not available during the spring semester.)