RWU sees bigger role in adult ed

CONTINUING ED: From left: Providence Economic Development Director James Bennett, Mayor Angel Taveras, Roger Williams University President Donald J. Farish and RWU Continuing Studies Dean Jamie Scurry at an event announcing the school’s planned Providence expansion. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
CONTINUING ED: From left: Providence Economic Development Director James Bennett, Mayor Angel Taveras, Roger Williams University President Donald J. Farish and RWU Continuing Studies Dean Jamie Scurry at an event announcing the school’s planned Providence expansion. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

When Roger Williams University opens its new offices in One Empire Plaza in mid-2016, the school will be making good on a commitment to broaden experiential-learning offerings for an estimated 1,200 continuing education students – many of whom are adult learners and midcareer professionals.
The expanded presence in downtown Providence for the Bristol-based university will serve up to 360 law school students and hundreds of university graduates and undergraduates partaking in community-based outreach and engagement projects.
But the School of Continuing Education, which Dean Jamie Scurry says has already outgrown its existing space in Metro Center at 150 Washington St., is expected to represent the largest number of students using the building, expanding its 2014-15 roster of 1,000 by another 200 students by the summer of 2016.
“Everybody keeps talking about the skills gap in Rhode Island,” said RWU President Donald J. Farish. “Somebody has to be running education programs that will allow adults to acquire new skills during their working lifetimes. We feel we have a role to play.”
The facility will allow not only an expansion of existing programming, but a more comprehensive, campus-like setting that includes expanded student-support services; state-of-the-art, integrated technology; grab-and-go food options; and a small bookstore, Scurry said in an email.
“More importantly,” she said, “it allows for adult learners to have a space that allows teaching and learning to spill out of the classroom into small group and individual settings, and in ways that provide on-site students opportunities to work with distant-learners via technology.” Most students take advantage of some form of online learning, she added.
Continuing education programming today includes 15 bachelor’s degrees, four associate degrees, nine certificate programs and one emergency-medical-services special program. Scurry said more programming will be offered in 2016 in social and health services, health care administration, emergency medical services, community development and paralegal services.
The school’s Professional Education Center, which offers certificate and other programs, will expand its customized education and training, in areas as diverse as procurement, lean thinking, supply-chain management, social media and diversity training, she said.
At a cost of $11 million for renovations and a lease totaling an expected $23 million over 12 years from Berkeley Investments Inc., the 76,566 square feet of space that was most recently home to the failed 38 Studios LLC video game company will be infused with the activity of adult learners, law students and others engaging in community-based outreach, said Farish.
The university also has negotiated a $1.8 million payment in lieu of taxes with Providence over 12 years, even though by law it is not required to pay anything, said Tax Assessor David Quinn.
By occupying more than 50 percent of the building and leasing it for more than 10 years, the university can be treated legally as the owner and be tax exempt because they have a tax-exempt charter, Quinn said.
Farish said actually owning the building would be “more upfront outlay than we wanted to make. For us, it’d be easier to think about it as an annual expense.”
Third-year law students in particular will take advantage of the new site, said Farish and law school Dean Michael Yelnosky.
“We have been committed since the law school opened 21 years ago to making experiential education a central part of a student’s education, not a peripheral add-on,” Yelnosky said.
At the law school, students may be working in clinics or externship programs in a law firm or judge’s chambers. RWU Law also guarantees students one semester of experiential learning and many students decide to do that work in Providence, Yelnosky said.
“It’s logistically hard to do it out of Bristol,” adds Farish. “It’s a lot easier to do it out of Providence because the courts and law firms are right down the block.”
Peter Wilbur, vice president for university outreach and engagement, says that in addition to the continuing education and law school students, more than 800 students a year are engaged in some form of community outreach, and the projects they do often become part of portfolios that can be presented to future employers.
Wilbur oversees the Latino Policy Institute, HousingWorks RI and the Community Partnerships Center, as well as the Feinstein Center for Pro Bono and Experiential Education, the Business Engagement Center, the Feinstein Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, the Career Center, and Employer Outreach and Engagement.
Of those, LPI and HousingWorks will remain in Providence, and the CPC will have a significant presence there, although some services will remain in Bristol, said university spokesman Brian Clark. The pro bono services will have satellite locations in both Bristol and Providence, and the fledgling Business Engagement Center may have a small presence in the city, he said. •

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