Frank Newman, the eighth president of the University of Rhode Island, served from August 1, 1974 to July 31, 1983. Born on February 24, 1927, Newman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Naval Science and Economics from Brown University in 1946, a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Brown in 1949, a Master of Science in Business Administration from Columbia University in 1955, and a Ph.D. in American History from Stanford University in 1981.
Newman came to the presidency of the University of Rhode Island from a background distinctly different from that of any of his seven predecessors. While all previous presidents of the university had had extensive careers in academia and/or government, the bulk of Newman's prior career had been spent in the private sector. His only previous academic administrative experience had been a seven year tenure as the Director of University Relations at Stanford University (1967-1974). In addition, Newman did not have a doctoral degree at the time of his appointment to the presidency. He did, however, complete the doctorate while serving as president.
While his rise through the administrative ranks of academia did not follow traditional paths, Newman was nevertheless well known and respected in the academic world from his service on two federal government education task forces. Newman was appointed to chair two task forces on higher education established by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare: The Task Force on Reform in Higher Education, 1969-1971; and the Task Force to Implement Reform in Higher Education, 1971-1973. Popularly known as the Newman Task Forces, these two groups issued two reports, The Report on Higher Education and National Policy on Higher Education, which made recommendations for sweeping changes in the administration and funding of higher education throughout the country.
It was with this background that Frank Newman assumed the presidency of the university on August 1, 1974. His nine year tenure was not dogged by the same degree of tumult and controversy that marked that of his predecessor, Werner A. Baum. Newman enjoyed a generally cordial relationship with the Board of Regents/Governors, which remained fairly stable throughout his administration. The student body of the mid-seventies to early eighties was not nearly as radical nor as vocal as its nineteen sixties counterpart. As a result, Newman was better able to concentrate on implementing his goals and objectives for the university.
One of his primary objectives was to rationalize the university budget process and to operate the university more efficiently so that it could better cope with the impending reality of reduced state financial support in the future. To this end Newman appointed a Budget Task Force in October, 1974. The Budget Task Force, chaired by Academic Affairs Vice-President William Ferrante, had a broad mandate to examine every aspect of the university's operation, academic and non-academic alike, and to make recommendations for change where necessary.
Over the following two and a half years the Budget Task Force scrutinized every operation of the university and made nearly 700 recommendations. Though many of the recommendations generated considerable controversy, the Budget Task Force was considered a success because it streamlined the budget process and encouraged critical self-examination by many of the university's academic departments and administrative offices.
While the Budget Task Force may have been Newman's most wide-ranging initiative, it was far from the only accomplishment of his administration. During his tenure, the Graduate School of Oceanography obtained a new four million dollar ocean-going research vessel, the Endeavor, to replace the aging Trident. The college of Human Sciences and Services was created by combining the old College of Home Economics with departments from the College of Arts and Sciences. A number of new programs were established including the Robotics Research Center, the Center for Ocean Management Studies, the Center for Atmospheric Chemistry and the Small Business Development Center. New construction on campus included a 70,000 square foot addition to the University Library, White Hall, the new home for the College of Nursing, and Watkins Laboratory on the Narragansett Bay Campus.
Despite its many successes, the Newman administration was not without problems and controversies, however. The chief areas of contention were labor relations and the university's employment and promotion practices vis a vis women. The university faculty which had unionized in late 1971, became increasingly dissatisfied with the negotiating posture of the Board of Regents through the 1970's. A faculty strike had narrowly been obverted in the fall of 1974 shortly after Newman assumed office. Neither Newman nor the university was so fortunate in 1979. The faculty went on strike for twelve days at the beginning of the fall semester. Newman in an effort to remain neutral pleased no one, and the strike brought the university much unfavorable press. An alleged rape of a freshman woman by several members of the university soccer team while the faculty strike was on-going furthered the impression that Newman had lost control of the university. Though the strike was eventually settled and charges against members of the soccer team dropped, Newman never again enjoyed the same level of support within the university community or from the general public that he had prior to the events of the fall of 1979.
In related labor problems, several female faculty members had filed a number of suits in the early 1970's charging the university with sexual discrimination in its hiring, pay, promotion, and tenure practices. Though the first suit was filed before Newman assumed office and the case was not finally settled until after he left, the issues raised by the suits plagued the Newman administration throughout its nine year tenure. The Federal District Court decision, issued in 1985, found for the women faculty members on many of the issues raised in the suit. It also described Newman in less than flattering terms as a "wily and experienced bureaucrat" who "...attempted to talk the problem to death."
The 1979 faculty strike and the prospect of continuing labor problems, the women's equity suit, and the university's chronic budget problems combined to convince Newman to pursue other opportunities in the academic world. In the summer of 1983, Frank Newman resigned the presidency of the University of Rhode Island to accept a position as a presidential fellow for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
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Records of the President's Office Frank Newman, Rec. Gr. 1.13, University of Rhode Island.
The records contained in this group are the administrative files of the office of the president of the University of Rhode Island during the tenure of Frank Newman, the university's eighth president. The records were transferred from the Carlotti Administration Building to the Special Collections Department of the University Library in several installments in 1984 and 1985. When received the records were in good physical condition and in an order consistent with those of Newman's predecessors in office.
Though Newman served as president from August 1, 1974 to July 31, 1983, the records both pre-date and post-dates his tenure in office. These records were kept with Newman's papers for reasons of continuity, either to document the antecedents of issues or events which came to fruition during this administration or to document the conclusion of issues or events which began in the Newman years.
The records from the years 1974 through the summer of 1979 are comprehensive and provide a detailed history of the first five years of the Newman presidency. Records for the last four years of Newman's tenure, however, are incomplete and, on some subjects, non-existent. For example, there are no files in the collection relating to the faculty strike of 1979 or to the women's equity suit, both major issues during the Newman presidency. Records relating to other significant events and issues of the administration, though present, are incomplete after 1979. It is hoped that many of these gaps can be filled when the records of Newman's successor Edward D. Eddy, are transferred to the Special Collections Department.
After processing, the records were organized into six series as follows:
The records of President Frank Newman were stored at the Carlotti Building shortly after his departure and transferred to Special Collections between 1983 and 1984.
Special Collections is the repository for all University records pertaining to the President's Office.
The records were collected and processed by Dr. Kevin J. Logan in 1990. Record groups not online as a finding aid, including the official Presidential papers of Frank Newman, began to be encoded in 2009 using the Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections (RIAMCO) guidelines.
The Subject Files consists of records relating to the administration of the University of Rhode Island during the presidency of Frank Newman. Included are correspondence, memos, reports, budget documents, agenda and minutes of meetings of the Board of Regents/Governors, program development documents, enrollment and admission statistics, and a variety of other materials relating to the administration, operation, growth and development of the University of Rhode Island.
Subjects range across the administrative spectrum and include admissions, affirmative action policies, collective bargaining, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the university's budget, the loss of accreditation and reaccredidation of the Graduate Library School, the academic colleges and schools of the university, and the related subjects of salaries and salary equity.
The university's budget and the related issues of labor relations and faculty salaries were areas of persistent problems throughout the Newman administration. Continuing the university's existing programs at the same id="c2" level of quality in the face of declining financial support from the state was a chronic problem for Newman. The budget files in this series document extensively the convoluted process with the university endured annually in getting its budget developed and then approved at the various levels of state government. The process not only involved the university, but the Board of Regents/Governors, the state legislature, and the governor's office as well. As these files demonstrate, the end product of the deliberations often bore little resemblance to the initial budget request.
A related issue was that of faculty salaries. The university faculty had long claimed that their salaries lagged behind those of colleagues at comparable institutions. Women faculty members further claimed that in many instances their salaries were lower than their male colleagues within the university. Attempting to raise faculty salaries in an era of declining financial support and addressing the issue of salary equity for women occupied much of the Newman administration's time and energy. Details of those efforts are documented in the AAUP and salary files. Neither of those issues was satisfactorily resolved, as is evidenced by a faculty strike over compensation in 1979 and a federal court decision which found the university guilty of discrimination against women faculty in the areas of rank and salary at hire.
The Budget Task Force was created by President Newman in the fall of 1974 with a charge to streamline and rationalize the budget process and to examine critically every department and office within the university for possible savings. Chaired by the Academic Affairs vice-president, William Ferrante, the Budget Task Force closely scrutinized every operation, department, and office of the university and made 693 recommendations over a two and a half year period. Though many of the recommendations generated controversy, the Budget Task Force was considered a success to the extent that it streamlined the budget process and encouraged critical self-examination by many of the university's academic and administrative offices. The records in this series document the activities of the Budget Task Force. Included are the Task Force's interim report, copies of its recommendations, and the responses to those recommendations by the department or office under scrutiny.
The records in this series are arranged numerically by the Budget Task Force recommendation number and chronologically within folders. Two bound volumes containing all 693 recommendations have been placed at the beginning of the series for ready reference.
This series contains records of the various all-university committees established by the president’s office. The records in this series do not represent the official files of the respective committees, however. Included are correspondence, agenda and minutes of committee meetings and committee reports.
Although largely eclipsed in the area of university governance by the establishment of the Faculty Senate in 1960, the all-university committees still played an important role in advising the president in administrative areas and in developing academic programs and policies for consideration. Among the major committees included in this series are the Administrative Council, the Budget Advisory committee, the Joint Educational Policy Committee, and the Commission on Undergraduate Education. Records for the latter two committees in particular are extensive.
The Joint Educational Policy Committee (JEPC) is a joint administrative/Faculty Senate committee established to determine the University’s future academic priorities and to consider new program proposals in the context of the university’s overall academic mission. A review of the JEPC files gives one some understanding of both the kinds of new programs being considered and the process by which those programs were reviewed for possible inclusion in the university’s course offerings.
The Faculty Senate Series consists of materials relating to the activities of the University of Rhode Island Faculty Senate and its interaction with the Newman administration. Included are correspondence, memos, minutes of Faculty Senate meetings, agenda, committee and sub-committee reports, and copies of Faculty Senate bills and resolutions.
These are not the complete or official records of the Faculty Senate, but rather a record of its interaction with a particular president within a given limited period of time. With the exception of Faculty senate minutes, the official records of the Senate can be found in Record Group 113, Records of the Faculty Senate. The official minutes of the Senate can be found in Records of Faculty and Administrative Meetings, Record Group 122.
The records in the series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record (e.g. agenda, bills) and chronologically by date within folders. Correspondence between President Newman and the various chairpersons of the Faculty Senate has been grouped together under the heading of “Correspondence” and arranged chronologically by date.
This series contains records relating to the activities of the office of the assistant to the president. The records in this series were created by presidential assistant, Lena Lucietto. The assistant to the president handled the day to day operations of the president’s office, answered routine correspondence, represented the president on committees and at meetings, monitored the progress of committees appointed by the president, coordinated the activities of the various excellence award committees (e.g. Staff Excellence, Teaching Excellence) and chaired the Commencement Committee. The records in this series document the latter two activities. Included are correspondence, memos, nominations for awards and honorary degrees, biographical sketches for honorary degree nominees, drafts of citations for honorary degree recipients, and biographical sketches of nominees for commencement speaker. The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically by date within folders.
This series contains copies of President Newman’s outgoing letters, as well as those of his administrative assistant, Victoria (White) Escalera. There are two sub-series, one each for Newman and his administrative assistant. Each of the sub-series is arranged chronologically by date.