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URI RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX

 

 

Campus URI Kingston campus is a charming combination of at least three primeval elements: beautiful seaside location (water), relaxing rural setting (land) and comfortable atmosphere of a traditional New England college (air). Being rather spacious, it abounds in all three components. At the same time it is very well designed and organized. The core of the campus is a central quadrangle on the top of Kingston Hill surrounded by main educational and administrative buildings. Student residence halls dot the hillside, with athletic fields and buildings on the level plain below. Thanks to the good foresight of the postwar planners, they were all built along one single line which goes South to North (Butterfield Road – Heathman Road). Being placed in between the Quadrangle and the athletic facilities they secure an easy access to classrooms, the library, computer labs, the Memorial Union, dining halls, and all on-campus special events. Students and faculty are only a 5 minute walk away from first rate recreational facilities, which offer a full slate of activities including fitness program, swimming and intramural sports. The Ryan Center, which hosts big concerts and sport events weekly, crowns the north-eastern edge of the campus.
  Heathmann Hall LoungeAlthough many residence halls do not lean directly on the transversal Butterfgield Road - Heathman Road, they are connected with it through a net of narrow but passable service paths. That allows delivery to go unimpeded by the ongoing traffic and almost as easy as unloading into somebody’s own closet. While keeping peace in close contact with the surrounding nature (many lawns and slopes, two small serene ponds, a brook), halls are full of life and commotion: they sponsor academic decathlons, semiformal dances, barbecues, in-house movies, and workshops or presentations on various topics. To preserve as much as possible of the green surfaces for hall areas, parking spots around the buildings are purposely limited to a necessary minimum (staff, service and emergency vehicle). In return, several big long-term parking lots are reserved for residents on the nortth-west (the Fine Arts Parking Lot) and south-west corner of the campus (Keaney Gym Parking Lot), respectively (see the map).
Halls and Apartments: URI campus has 19 residence halls: Adams (built in 1958), Aldrich (1966), Barlow (1963), Bressler (1949), Browning (1961; renovated in 2003), Burnside (1966), Butterfield (1950; renovated in 2002), Coddington (1966), Dorr (1966), Ellery (1966), Fayerweather (1971), Gorham (1971), Heathman (1969; renovated in 2005/6), Hopkins (1966), Hutchinson (1958), Merrow (1961), Peck (1958), Tucker (1961) and Weldin (1963). Barlow, Weldin, Bressler, Butterfield and Browning hall have been renovated to build the Freshman Village along with Adams which has received new windows in the summer of 2003. Central administration for residential education is still located in the first floor of Roger Williams Center (built in 1966). In addition the Housing and Residential Life Department (HRL) manages three complexes of apartment buildings: The Graduate Village on Route 138, the University Terrace (southward of Bressler) and the Gateway Apartments on Upper College Road. The stallite office for apartment buildings and summer housing is located in the basement of Adams Hall.
Dining Halls: There are three dining halls on campus: Butterfield, Hope (demolished and now being rebuilt) and Roger Williams Commons, one of which is generally open between 6:30a.m. and 8.p.m. All students must buy meal tickets for use in any one of three dining centers on campus. Live in staff members have a five meal plan, which includes any 5 meals, each week, Monday through Sunday for the entire current semester. In addition one time balance to the amount of $75 (7500 points) per semester is added into their Ram Account. Ram Account is an "online" computerized system connected to "card reader" terminals, which decode the wide magnetic stripe on the backside of student/employee ID. Points on the Ram Account enable students to use the Dining Cash operation facilities, such as Ram’s Den, America’s Cup Room, Hope Late Nite, Hope Corner Store, Catering services, and Warehouse shopping at the Dining services Distribution Center. One can host their guests upon subtraction of their points. Portions are unlimited on all items in Roger Williams and Butterfield Dining halls. Hope Dining Hall provides the added convenience of ‘to-go’ service (recently demolished in order to make place to a new commons - to be open in 2007).
Shape: Architecturally, all halls are brick or cement block buildings, representing two decades of the modern functionalistic style on American campuses. The halls built in the fifties and early sixties (Bressler, Butterfield, Adams, Barlow, Weldin, Browning, Peck, Merrow, Tucker, Hutchinson) are rectangular brick buildings with double-loaded long corridors. After most recent renovations Barlow, Weldin, Bressler, Butterfield and Browning were added big entrance towers which make their external outlook a bit "postmodern". The interior of these towers houses newly installed elevators.
Architecture: Burnside HallThe halls built in the mid sixties and early seventies are of two kinds. The first and older one (completed in 1966) is represented by Aldrich, Burnside, Coddington, Ellery, Dorr, Hopkins and Roger Williams Center. These structures are all cement block buildings, built according to the same polygonal pattern with cluster units. The last and the most innovative stage of the nowadays withering modernist architecture is is to be seen in Heathman, Gorham and Fayerweather, which have towers connected with rectangular or diamond-like annexes stretched themselves in straight line or in a right angle.
Hall Styles: By interior arrangements of rooms and hallways one can distinguish three main styles of residence halls and living communities at URI:
 
Standard Halls:
Four-Room Suites:
Two-Room Suites:
Apartments:
Adams
Barlow
Bressler
Browning
Butterfield
Hutchinson
Merrow
Peck
Tucker
Weldin
Aldrich
Burnside
Coddington
Dorr
Ellery
Hopkins
Fayerweather
Gorham
Heathman
Northwoods Residences
Building B
South Woods
Residences C
Terrace
Gateway
Graduate Village
Northwoods Residences
Building A
   
Corridor Style: Standard residence halls have rooms that open onto a common hallway. There is one common bathroom for each hallway. Depending on the size of corridors, standard halls are divided into two groups: Large Corridor and Small Corridor halls.
  The large corridor residence halls, known as "the Big 6", are: Adams, Barlow, Bressler, Browning, Butterfield, and Weldin. The small corridor residence halls, known as "the Little 4", are Hutchinson, Merrow, Peck and Tucker.
Names: With the exception of Hutchinson hall, which honors Anne Hutchinson, a radical puritan settler from the seventeenth century, all these halls are named after former administrators at URI. Adams honors George Adams, first graduate (class 1894) and later Dean of the School of Agriculture; Barlow, Bressler and Butterfield memorialize three former presidents: John Barlow (1872-1944), Raymond Bressler (acting president 1931-1940) and Kenyon Butterfield (1903-1908) respectively; Browning hall is named after Harold Browning (1893-1987), Professor of Botany who served as a Dean of Arts and Sciences and Vice-President; Weldin hall is dedicated to John Weldin, Professor of Bacteriology and Dean of Administration (1946-57); Merrow hall honors Harriet Lathrop Merrow, Professor of Botany for 25 years at URI; Peck hall commemorates Helen Peck (1887-1941), Professor of English and Dean of Women, whereas Tucker hall honors Lucy Tucker, a deserving secretary and the registrar, who served in URI administration almost fifty years (1910-1946).
Suite Style: Four-Room Suite-Style halls are located in the Roger Williams Complex. They are Aldrich, Burnside, Coddington, Dorr, Ellery and Hopkins. Because of the location they are commonly called "Complex". The halls in this area consist of buildings with three (Aldrich, Hopkins, Ellery), four (Dorr) or five (Burnside, Coddington) four-story towers connected by a common ground floor. One student room in each cluster on the upper floors has sliding doors opening onto a small balcony. Each floor has one or two clusters of four rooms that open onto a common hallway and share two private bathrooms. Bathrooms are shared and cleaned by those living in the cluster.
Names: These halls bear the name of illustrious figures from the colonial period of Rhode Island’s history. Aldrich hall is named after Aldrich Nelson (1841-Hopkins Hall1951), powerful Rhode Island congressman and senator; Coddington hall memorializes William Coddington (1601-1678), the richest man in the seventeenth century New England, who founded Portsmouth and Newport; Ellery hall is dedicated to William Ellery (1727-1820), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who has strongly opposed slave-trade at the beginning of the nineteenth century; Burnside hall commemorates Ambrose Burnside, a Civil War hero and former Governor of Rhode Island (1866-68); Hopkins hall is named after Stephen Hopkins, the eighteen century governor (1756-64), second signatory of the Declaration from Rhode Island, and author of a pamphlet "The Rights of Colonies Examined", where he espoused the idea of "no taxation without representation"; finally Dorr hall honors Thomas Dorr, a proponent of general suffrage (including African Americans) and a school reformer. The central building is named after Roger Williams, a puritan settler from 1632, who is rightly considered the founder of Providence and the whole state.
Suite-Style: Two-Room Suite-Style halls have semiprivate suites consisting of two rooms with a bathroom between them. Each room opens onto a hallway. The building’s offices, study rooms, lounges, laundry rooms, and other special-use rooms are located either in the center of the building or in the basement.
The North Woods Residences offer ten bedroom suites.
  Two room suite style halls are Fayerweather, Gorham and Heathman. They are also known as "the Triad".
Fayerweather hall is named after Sarah Harris Fayerweather (1812-1878), an African-American anti-slavery activist; Gorham hall is dedicated to the "Gorham Silverware", one of the first metal stores in Rhode Island, owned by Jabez Gorham, while Heathman hall memorializes William Heathman (1872-1968), first African American lawyer admitted to the Rhode Island Bar in 1898.
Hall and Room Access: An electric access system is in operation in all residence halls. This security system provides monitored access to the halls. A resident’s ID card is used to unlock the exterior door of the residence halls. Residence halls differ also in respect to the types of interior room-locks. At this point four different lock types are being used in our dorms: only key, keys and combos, mechanic combos only and electronic combos.
Only Key Halls: Adams, Coddington, Dorr, Hopkins, Burnside (with the exception of 4 suites that have keys and combos)
Keys and Combo Halls: Tucker, Merrow, Peck, Hutchinson, Ellery
Electronic Locks: Browning, Fayerweather, Gorham, Barlow, Weldin, Heathman, Butterfield, Bressler.
  With the ultimate objective to establish a uniform and efficient locking system for all rooms in the residence halls HRL is currently making efforts to replace old key and combo locks with electronic combos. Due to the high costs of this investment, this must be, however, viewed as a long-term plan.
Hall Organization:

What all dorms have in common, regardless of their architectural style, is the unified system of supervision and staffing. Each residence hall is supervised by a Hall Director or Graduate Assistant. Residence Hall Directors (RHDs) are full-time staff members of HRL and live in the residence halls. They coordinate the social, educational, and recreational activities in the residence halls. The RHDs also enforce policies and regulations and maintains acceptable community standards among residents. In addition they serve as resource persons to turn to for initial counseling or referral if resident is experiencing personal or academic difficulty. Graduate assistant (GA) assists in the supervision of the students and students staff. They are full-time graduate students working for HRL on a part-time basis. Resident assistants (RAs) are full-time undergraduate students working for HRL on a part-time basis during academic year. Usually an RA lives together with the residents of a hallway, floor, or a group of suites providing first and immediate assistance to the residents. During the evening and early morning hours Residence Halls Security Officers (RHSOs), are on duty around the residence halls. Also two or three custodians work in each residence hall on a regular basis.

Set-of Facilities: Every hall has its own set of facilities, from study rooms, weigh rooms and Ellery Hallcomputer labs to pool tables and vending machines (typically in lounges). Laundry facilities are either in the basement (like Heathman) or in the first floor (like Ellery). Both vending and laundry machines could be conveniently activated by inserting your I.D., assuming that you have added money from your Ram Account to the Vend stripe of your I.D. (The Vend stripe is an encoded narrow magnetic stripe on the backside of your card, which enables you to avoid use of coins and cash.)
Thematic Housing: Residence halls may differ also in respect to the gender, year, major or interests of residents they predominantly or exclusively house. While gender separation finds less and less supporters, gathering based on common age or chosen field of interests gains in importance. To the exception of Merrow Hall South, which is all women, all other halls are co-educational. HRL has set up Barlow, Weldin and Browning Halls as special-interest housing for first year students only. The rest are either mixed or upper-classes halls. Some halls are designated as theme halls, for example, the Wellness program is in Tucker, Academic enrichment community (Honors student) is in Merrow North, Engineering community is accommodated in Peck, while a foreign language area is envisaged to be established in one hall.
Beginning in the fall 1999 semester the Department of Housing and Residential Life, in cooperation with the Multicultural Center, has started offering a new theme housing option called the Diversity House. Located in the former fraternity house Sigma-Phi-Epsilon on Fraternity Circle, the Diversity house is a diverse multicultural intentional community of students interested in issues and activities related to social justice and social service.

 
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