The University continues to work to maintain and enhance our high-quality academic programs and provide strong support for our researchers. The following remain among the institutional priorities. Some of these broad initiatives may result in programs which will require Board approval. Others are designed to support existing activities and respond to a projected increase in enrollment.

·         Environmental Biotechnology Initiative. This interdisciplinary will involve departments and colleges university-wide in the study of life forms as they relate to the environment. The University’s facility plan is being adjusted to include the construction of the second floor of the Biological Sciences Building. Initial funding for the Environmental Biotechnology Center has been approved by the Economic Development Commission and Environmental Policy Committee.

·         Urban Initiative. Emanating primarily from the Providence campus, this initiative may include service learning experiences for students, a Public Policy Institute, and applied research in urban issues (education, hunger, race, immigration, housing, crime, environmental health, mass transit, urban design, planning and economics). Urban areas throughout the State will partner with URI to design courses, internships, consulting and joint funding proposals to attack a broad range of urban problems. Such partnerships may yield credit and non-credit course offerings that could lead to a certificate or a concentration in one of our degree programs.

·         New Faculty Appointments. In the fall of 1998, the number of tenure-track and tenured faculty was at an all time low. In order to maintain the quality of our academic offerings, meet the demands of accrediting agencies and fulfill our responsibilities to the growing number of students, it is now necessary to increase the number of faculty. Toward this end we have been submitting budget requests seeking funding to appoint an additional five tenure-track faculty beyond the number that would be hired to replace those lost through retirement or resignation.

·         Graduate Assistant Stipends. In order to sustain the most productive graduate student contributions, it is critical that we attract graduate students who are well-prepared, highly motivated and who show strong scholarly and professional promise. The competition for such students is keen and is increasing. Current stipend levels at URI place the University at a severe competitive disadvantage in attracting these students and, this in turn, threatens the strength of our programs. Data show that stipends for University of Rhode Island graduate students fall below those at other peer universities. For example, the stipend paid to the most advanced URI assistants is lower than the stipend paid to beginning students at all New England Land-Grant universities except one. Additional funding has been sought to move stipend levels to competitive levels. Because of the magnitude of the increases necessary, a two year correction is envisioned.

·         Library Capital. The ability of the University Libraries to meet the information needs of its faculty and students and the state's citizenry and to play a leadership role in developing innovative solutions to information access issues has been limited severely by the increasing costs of acquisitions and our inability to make necessary increases in its capital budget for materials. To stem the tide of further deterioration in the libraries' collections and to avoid the significant detrimental impacts this would have statewide, additional budget funding has been sought to augment the budgets for serials/journals, monographs, and electronic resources. The objective of these requests has been to bring the University's capital budget for its libraries to a level with those at peer institutions.

Go to:

Priority #1 -- Access and Affordability

Priority #2 -- Fiscal Planning
[To be included in President’s Management Letter.]

Priority #3 -- K-12 and Teacher Preparation Reform

Priority #4 -- Technology

Priority #5 -- Quality Assurance and Outcomes Assessment

Program Projections

View/Download the complete Academic Plan 1999-2002 in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

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