In 1986, President Edward Eddy initiated an evaluation of the organization and management of the University. With permission from the state Board of Governors for Higher Education, he hired Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. to study the administration. The consulting firm met with more than 70 people in the administration and college community over the course of 5 months and compared URI's organizational structure with that of similar schools.
The consulting firm's report, which was released in March 1987, found that there were 24 different people reporting to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. This is one of the reasons why the firm recommended switching to a "cabinet model" of management. The cabinet model would replace the five Vice-President positions with a Provost and three Vice-Presidents: one for Student Development, one for Business and Finance, and one for University Relations.
The new Provost position would have some of the same responsibilities as the Vice-President for Academic Affairs. However, the Provost would delegate more authority to deans and staff so that he or she could take on responsibility for strategic planning and management.
In September 1987, President Eddy presented a report to the Board of Governors for Higher Education recommending that the University adopt the cabinet model. On July 1, 1988, Dr. William Ferrante stepped down as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dr. Beverly Swan began to serve as Acting Provost while a search was conducted to fill the position permanently.
Any qualified person doing scholarly research is permitted to use material housed in the Special Collections Unit.
Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Records of the Office of Vice-President for Academic Affairs, William Ferrante Papers, Rec. Gr. 2, University of Rhode Island.
The overwhelming majority of the records span Ferrante's academic vice-presidency from 1972 to 1988. There are some items in the collection, however, which both predate and postdate his term as academic vice-president. Those records have been kept with the Ferrante Papers because they provide continuity to issues which arose prior to Ferrante's assumption of the vice-presidency and/or which were not finally resolved until after he left the position.
The Vice-President for Academic Affairs was the chief academic officer for the university and second in rank to the president among the university's administrative officers. The records in this record group are the administrative files of the office of the vice-president for academic affairs during the tenure of William Ferrante. They document the activities of the highest ranking academic officer at the University of Rhode Island.
The collection is arranged into seventeen series as follows:
The Records of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs, William Ferrante Papers, were transferred to the University Archives during the summer of 1992.
Before 1992, the records had been stored in boxes and file cabinets in the basement of the Carlotti Administration Building and are generally in good physical condition.
Several other collections of Provost's Office records are contained in the University Archives.
The Subject Files series contains records relating to the academic colleges, departments, and programs of the University of Rhode Island. They document the administration of the University's academic programs by the office of Vice-President for Academic Affairs.
The Vice-President for Academic Affairs was the chief academic officer of the university and bore responsibility for all aspects of academic programs and programming from approval of college budgets to program reviews and evaluations. The subjects represented in this series reflect that diversity of responsibility and include admissions, affirmative action, the university and college budgets, personnel issues and decisions, collective bargaining, the Board of Regents/Governors, salaries and salary equity for women, the faculty strike of 1979, grants, tuition and fees, and faculty research.
The types of records included in this series also reflect the diversity of responsibility of the office. They include correspondence, memos, administrative reports, budget documents, legal documents, agenda and minutes of meetings, new program proposals, programs of events, resumes, and grievance hearing transcripts and reports.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.
This series consists of records relating specifically to the administration of the individual colleges and academic departments of the University of Rhode Island. Included are correspondence, memos, annual reports, agenda and minutes of individual college and department meetings, college and department budget documents, course proposals and syllabi, self-study reports, new course and program proposals, and accreditation reports from regional and national accrediting agencies.
Topics include departmental and college budget allocations, hiring, promotion, and tenure of faculty, program reviews and evaluations, accreditation of colleges and/or programs, new programs, appointment of department chairs, the creation of a new College of Human Science and services to replace the College of Home Economics, the status of the Graduate Library School , and other issues associated with the management and daily operation of the university's colleges and academic departments.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the college and alphabetically thereunder by the name of the academic department or program. Records are arranged chronologically within folders.
The records in this series document the activities of university-wide and Faculty Senate committees of the university. They are not the official records of the various committees, but rather copies of those records deposited with the office of vice-president for academic affairs.
Among the committees represented are the Academic Standards and Calendar Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, the Campus Planning and Coordinating Committee, the Commencement and Ceremonials Committee, the Computer Advisory Committee, the Curricular Affairs Committee, the Joint Educational Policy Committee, and the Joint Operations Committee.
The types of records include correspondence, memos, reports, proposals, and agenda and minutes of meetings.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the committee and chronologically within folders.
This series contains records relating to meetings of the Council of Deans. The Council of Deans, chaired by the vice-president for academic affairs and consisting of the deans of the various colleges or their designees, served as an advisory council to the president of the University of Rhode Island on academic issues.
Among the issues considered by the Council of Deans were the budget, faculty promotion and tenure, program reviews, collective bargaining, accreditation of the university and individual colleges and programs, exceptional salary increases for faculty, and proposed revisions to the University Manual.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by the type of record and chronologically within folders.