URI seeks help from masters' grads to meet Kresge Challenge Business dean says help from 2,500
alumni is crucial

KINGSTON, R.I -- December 22, 1999 -- The University of Rhode Island's College of Business Administration is reaching out to alumni of its masters' programs to help meet an important challenge. The state's oldest nationally accredited business school is asking its nearly 2,500 master of business administration graduates to play a major role in helping with The Shareholders Campaign, which will fund major renovations to the College of Business' building, Ballentine Hall.

URI Business Dean Edward M. Mazze, the Alfred J. Verrecchia Leadership Chair in Business, said the MBA drive was initiated after URI was awarded a $500,000 Kresge Foundation Challenge Grant.

To receive the Kresge grant, URI must raise $2 million in private donations for the Ballentine effort and its Green Hall renovation project in a little more than a year. Mazze added that the Kresge grant is a great opportunity. Funds raised through the 1999-2000 MBA Alumni Fund will be allocated to the Shareholders Campaign for the renovation of Ballentine Hall.

"We need your help to make this happen," Mazze said in a personal letter to MBA graduates. "We ask that you consider a gift of at least $100 to the MBA Alumni Fund. Everyone benefits from URI's strong reputation in graduate business education.

"Having a state-of-the-art center for management education is critical to our ability to attract outstanding MBA students and faculty," Mazze said. "Our MBA programs are the premier graduate programs in business in the state of Rhode Island and the region."

URI offers three MBA programs: the one-year, full-time MBA; the part-time MBA offered evenings at the URI Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education in Providence and the Executive MBA offered weekends at URI's W. Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich. In addition, the College offers a master's degree in accounting and a doctorate in business.

"The programs provide opportunities for individual professional growth, and are outstanding resources for companies seeking highly educated workers," said Mazze. "And all are offered at tremendous value."

"We want Ballentine to become a showcase for business outreach and a place of welcome for business people," said Cameron Jones, URI assistant director of development for the College.

He said URI MBA grads with many years of experience at the top levels of their careers understand the importance of outstanding facilities and equipment to compete in the marketplace. "We already have that with our outstanding Providence campus and our beautiful Alton Jones facility.

"Now we need to make similar things happen on the Kingston campus," Jones said.

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For Further Information: Dave Lavallee 401-874-2116