URI looking to expand Providence presence

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND President David M. Dooley outlined some of the school's educational agenda as well as its efforts to help improve the state's economy at a media breakfast held Wednesday. / COURTESY THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND President David M. Dooley outlined some of the school's educational agenda as well as its efforts to help improve the state's economy at a media breakfast held Wednesday. / COURTESY THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

PROVIDENCE – The University of Rhode Island plans to increase its presence in the state’s capital city, according to President David M. Dooley, as part of a strategy to better prepare its students for success as well as help Rhode Island’s economy grow out of the hole it is in.

Dooley spoke at a breakfast reception for media held at the Rhode Island Foundation’s offices in Providence, and he used the location to highlight the commonality that he feels with foundation President and CEO Neil D. Steinberg, whose Make It Happen RI initiative has jumpstarted a number of economic development plans in the state.

The university “shares a sense of urgency about rebuilding the Rhode Island economy,” Dooley said, adding that “if someone is on life support, urgency is needed – and Rhode Island’s economy is on life support.”

He pointed to three focuses that URI has identified to help the state economy grow. First, the school is re-tooling its academic programs, with an eye on making the educational experience the best possible.
Second, it is growing the amount of research being done. He said that Rhode Island, as well as the United States, needs more high-wage jobs, and university research is one of the sure ways to drive that outcome.

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Lastly, Dooley pointed to a growing presence in Providence as a plus for the school and the state. “The economic heart of the state is” in Providence, he said. For that reason, URI moved its MBA program to its downtown campus. It is one of the four partners of the Founders League, a replacement to the defunct Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship that URI, along with Betaspring, Brown University and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, will use to offer community, space and programming for entrepreneurs of all stages.

Looking forward, Dooley said that the Harrington School of Communication and Media is considering making one year of its program locate to Providence, where the media and marketing industries (and their clients) are located to a large degree. He also reiterated his interest in building a joint nursing facility/research space with Rhode Island College in the Knowledge District downtown, a project many believe could be a catalyst for large-scale development of biotechnology and life science enterprises in the city.

While the nursing facility introduced last year in Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee’s budget as a bond issue was designed to be put on this month’s ballot, the measure did not make it to the floor of the General Assembly, and Dooley was not necessarily disappointed in that. He has been a proponent of having the state commit to a long-term lease in the proposed facility (as opposed to committing to a bond), which would allow a private developer to build a larger project that could include space for biotech companies to do research and/or manufacturing. In the end, the state would be able to educate more nurses at a cutting-edge facility, while also having a greater inventory of laboratory space within the city district that also includes Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School, as well as Rhode Island and Women and Infants Hospitals. And he contends that the state would save from $15 million to $20 million a year compared with what it would cost to expand nursing education facilities on both the RIC and URI campuses.

Dooley also noted that in the spring the university would be rolling out a Corporate and Business Community Engagement Center, through which businesses could access information, research and interns across the multiple disciplines taught at URI. He pointed to a similar project at the University of Michigan as an example of what might be accomplished here.

Another issue Dooley said he would like to see addressed is the extension of commuter rail service to the Kingston station. He sees the URI community’s 18,000 people as a natural ridership base (going in both directions), and it would help link the school to Providence as well as the rest of the Boston-New York corridor.

Attending the breakfast were recently hired Associate Vice President of Community, Equity & Diversity Naomi R. Thompson and URI Head Men’s Basketball Coach Dan Hurley. Dooley made a point of saying that one of the university’s goals was to prepare its students for success in a rapidly changing world, with creating a diverse community being a key component of that charge. Thompson’s hiring is a sign that the school takes that goal seriously, he said. He also noted that if the school was going to be playing intercollegiate athletics, which he said was instrumental in helping bring a more diverse student population to the campus, it only made sense to strive for excellence, and Hurley was a sign that that was exactly what the school was doing.

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