KINGSTON, R.I. – August 15, 2023 – The University of Rhode Island is set to welcome thousands of new and returning students for the start of the 2023-24 academic year. Fall semester classes officially begin at the state’s flagship public research university on Sept. 6.

The academic year kicks off with a full slate of academic, athletic, and cultural events.

Student move-in days begin Friday, Sept. 1, and run through Monday, Sept. 4. URI President Marc Parlange will greet and visit with students and families throughout move-in.

Welcoming events for new undergraduate students are taking place as part of O-Week leading up to the start of classes. Events are intended to increase student engagement and to familiarize students with the campuses, the URI community, and resources for student success. Sunset yoga, Movie on the Quad, RhodyFest, and a day trip to the beach are among the many planned events. A Welcome to Campus event, hosted by President Parlange, will take place Sept. 5. on the URI Quadrangle. 

The University posted another strong year for undergraduate applications and a record number of applications to its graduate programs. Approximately 3,250 first-year students will join more than 500 transfer students, more than 2,000 graduate students, and thousands of returning URI students, to comprise a student body of more than 17,000 when classes start. 

For this year’s incoming graduate students, New Graduate Student Orientation will take place on Aug. 15 with teaching assistant training on Aug. 30. The annual teacher assistant breakfast will be held on the Quad on Sept. 1 and the second part of New Graduate Student Welcome/Orientation, including a luncheon, will happen Sept. 5. Graduate students in the online accelerated program also begin classes on Sept. 5.

The URI community starts the school year with a new 10-year strategic plan, Focus URI, which was launched in February. The 10-year strategic vision will guide the University into the future and is built on four strategic priorities: broadening the University’s impact, enhancing student achievement, fostering an inclusive culture, and powering the university of the future.

About our students 

This information is based on the best available data at the time of publication.

• Nearly 5,700 students will live in 26 on-campus residence halls this fall, including 14 Living and Learning Communities. Approximately 650 students will reside in more than a dozen fraternity/sorority houses on campus, another 75 will live in designated International Engineering Program housing, and 22 Talent Development program scholars will reside in the Talent Development Achievement House. 
• Undergraduate and graduate students this fall will represent 48 different states and more than 65 countries.
• After Rhode Island, the top states represented in the first-year class are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, respectively.
• More than 30% of new students identify as being the first in their family to attend college. 
• Eight rising seniors completed internships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this summer through the NOAA Hollings Scholars Program, placed everywhere from Narragansett to the Northern Mariana Islands. URI was the top producer of Hollings scholars in 2022.
• Three URI students traveled to Korea, Kyrgyzstan, and Washington, D.C., to represent URI in the U.S. Department of State’s highly selective Critical Language Scholarship and Foreign Service Internship programs.
• More than 700 students are majoring or minoring in a language. 
• Two of URI’s graduate students earned National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Awards last year. 
• There are 16 sets of twins entering URI as first-year students.
• URI is one of only 12 engineering schools that offer a degree in ocean engineering; in addition, 85% of engineering students complete at least one internship prior to graduation.
• More than 30% of incoming first-year URI students are entering the University with college credits earned from Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Early Enrollment programs. Last year 10% of URI undergraduates were able to graduate in fewer than four years.

Campus happenings

The annual Free Farmers Market opens Thursday, Sept. 7, on the Quad. The award-winning market offers fresh produce grown in URI’s Teaching Garden and at East Farm free to URI students. The market takes place weekly on Thursdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (while supplies last) through October.

The College of Engineering will host a conversation with Lisa Pruitt on Sept. 18. Pruitt, a URI graduate, will discuss her struggles with an eating disorder and alcohol addiction while rising in the world of academia. This event is open to the public. Additional details and RSVP information are available here. 

The Honors Colloquium will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year, and the College of Business’ 100th, with this fall’s colloquium starting Sept. 19. “Not Business as Usual: Business for the Common Good” will host a range of dynamic speakers on Tuesday evenings in Edwards Hall. The colloquium is free and open to the public and also available online. 

The College of Arts and Sciences will mark its 75th anniversary with a series of events taking place throughout the year, including art shows, literature readings, music and theatre performances, and more.

Included in the College of Arts and Sciences 75th anniversary celebration is the Innovations in Storytelling Humanities Speaker Series, sponsored by URI’s Center for the Humanities. The yearlong series features historians and novelists, cartoonists and artists, musicians and musicologists, anthropologists, and quilters discussing the craft of storytelling. The series begins Sept. 20.

URI will host its first Sea Services Symposium on Friday, Sept. 29, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., on the Kingston Campus, showcasing opportunities available through URI’s maritime-related degree programs. 

The third annual Quad Fest takes place Oct. 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and includes the URI Student Organizations Fair, Rhody the Ram, lawn games, music, food, the Peckham Farm petting zoo, National Guard Rock Wall and more.

The Forensic Science Seminar Series will start in September This is the 25th anniversary of the free, public seminar series, also available online.

Academically speaking

The College of Engineering is holding its Kickoff Day on Sept. 5, with opportunities to meet new faculty, staff, and undergraduate advisers. Also being held that day are the graduate student welcome, an undergraduate student fair, and information on minors and concentrations, engineering innovation and entrepreneurship, undergraduate research match, and more. 

The Feinstein College of Education is welcoming applications this year for a new Ph.D. in education and a B.S. in environmental education. Both programs start in fall 2024.  

The college is also offering two new bachelor’s degrees: a B.S. in early childhood education for pre-K–2 and a B.A. in world language education that meets the state’s new requirements for world language instruction. Both programs address high-need areas in Rhode Island and beyond.

Africana studies at URI is now a department and has tripled the size of its faculty since last year. A broader set of courses will be offered in the years ahead, including new courses related to local Africana history in New England as well as economics and culture in the Dominican Republic and continental Africa.

The College of the Environment and Life Sciences is launching its new master of environmental management program this September. Fully online, the new accelerated master’s program is a response to the growing need for professionals with environmental expertise and one of the first of its kind in the U.S.

The Department of Landscape Architecture is offering a new accelerated bachelor’s to master’s program beginning this fall. This program will allow students with a landscape architecture bachelor’s degree to complete a master’s degree in environmental science and management with a specialization in environmental design and planning in one year.

Other notable happenings and events

Work has started at the Narragansett Bay Campus to usher in a new area of scientific research. Thanks to support from Rhode Island voters in 2018 and 2022, the new pier and other improvements will propel the state’s global leadership in the blue economy.

The women’s soccer team has its first official competition of the year when the team hosts Bryant on Aug. 17 at the URI Soccer Complex, the first of three home matches in August.

The nationally ranked Rhody Rams football team will kick off the 2023 season with an away game on Aug. 31 against Georgia State. The Rams’ first home game will take place Sept. 8 when they host Stony Brook.

Family Weekend takes place Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 this year, with the Rhody football team playing against Bryant on Sept. 30, with tailgating and fun activities before the game. The Student Entertainment Committee is also welcoming comedian Seth Meyers to the Ryan Center that night. 

The 2023 URI Day of Giving will take place Oct. 5, when alumni, parents, students, and friends of the University can join in supporting URI. Faculty and staff contributed $1.6 million last year to support students, research, and programs, an annual record. 

On Oct. 11, the International Engineering Program is offering a networking and student poster session presented by those who have just returned from their year of studying and interning abroad. The session is open to College of Engineering majors, College of Arts and Sciences STEM and language majors, College of Business majors, and College of Life Sciences majors interested in studying and interning abroad through URI’s International Engineering, International Business or International Computer Science programs. Interested faculty, advisors and alumni are also welcome to come and meet these globally-trained engineers and scientists.

The URI Theatre season will begin Oct. 12 with Marie Antoinette leading the 2023–24 season.

Homecoming Weekend will take place Oct. 13–15, with the Rhodyville block party taking place before the football game on Oct. 14 against Richmond.

URI’s 16th annual Be 5K Walk/Run for Mental Health Awareness will be held Oct. 15. Proceeds support mental health programs for students. 

The “Dressed for Business” Textile Gallery exhibit looks at 100 years of the business suit and celebrates the College of Business’s centennial. The exhibit is on display in Quinn Hall through December.  

For more information on any of the items listed here, please visit the University of Rhode Island website at uri.edu.