KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 29, 2025 – The University of Rhode Island revealed a bold vision to modernize its campuses through a plan approved Friday by the University’s Board of Trustees. The new comprehensive campus plan provides a formal blueprint to enhance facilities and the overall campus experience over the next 20 years.

URI President Marc Parlange said the plan spans every aspect of University life—classrooms, laboratories, housing, arts and culture, athletics and recreation across the Kingston, Providence, Narragansett Bay and W. Alton Jones campuses. The plan was also developed around six core principles: advancing scholarship and research; exemplifying institutional stewardship; fostering community cohesion; improving accessibility; enhancing inter-campus connectivity; and committing to a sustainable future.

“We have come a long way—from our founding as a small agricultural school to our position today as a global research university,” Parlange said. “And the work ahead is just as important. At a time when society is asking more of us—more solutions, more leadership, more innovation—this plan gives us the spaces, tools, and direction we need to rise to that challenge. Together, we will continue to build a university that serves and inspires Rhode Island, our region, and the world.” 

The plan, formulated through broad community input and engagement, will shape the campuses’ physical spaces to support the University’s growing community and its changing needs, including constructing new facilities and pedestrian pathways.

URI retained Boston-based Sasaki Associates in June 2024 to lead the process of developing the University’s first new campus plan since Jan. 2000, along with a 17-person advisory committee consisting of URI community members—chaired by Abby Benson, the University’s Vice President for Administration and Finance. The planning study received input from more than 30 stakeholder focus groups; from individual students, faculty, and staff at three on-campus forums; and from more than 750 online responses.

“This plan provides the URI community a clear direction on how we can not only improve the physical infrastructure of our campuses in ways that are welcoming and accessible, but also create a thriving campus atmosphere well into the future,” Benson said. “This plan supports each of our four Focus URI strategic priorities, and I am grateful to the hundreds of community members who shared their passion for URI and their ideas for its future.”

URI Director of Planning and Real Estate Development Ryan Carrillo, who helped lead the plan’s development, says the 2000 plan has been implemented and the University completed almost all of what was in that plan. The new plan, Carrillo said, is a launching point into the physical manifestation of the University’s strategic plan, Focus URI.

The plan calls for approximately 1 million square feet of academic space to be created by “infill” and not sprawl at URI, said Carrillo and URI Associate Director of Campus Design Katherine Kittredge, who also helped lead the effort. With that, 31 academic and residential housing buildings are planned to be demolished over the next two decades due to their aging infrastructure, Kittredge said. Those structures will be replaced with new and renovated facilities over time.

Also, new infrastructure will create additional open green space across the Kingston Campus, helping to beautify the area and bring the URI community together, for example developing a more defined trail system in the North Woods.

Renovations to the Memorial Union are also included in the campus plan. Benson says a renovated Memorial Union will make the central student building more visible and welcoming on all approaches to the building.

Enhancing regional connectivity is an important priority for URI to reduce carbon impacts associated with private vehicle use while providing convenient options for commuters. The plan supports the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s plans to improve Route 138 and proposes installing sidewalks and improved lighting along both sides of Route 138 between the Kingston train station and the intersection with Old North Road, enhancing pedestrian access along this corridor. The plan also recommends increasing the frequency of campus shuttle service to the station and advocating for expanded rail service that better serves the URI community.

“We will partner with the town [of South Kingstown] and the Department of Transportation, depending on which project it is, to make it a better transition on how you get to campus,” Kittredge said.

The plan recommends establishing pedestrian priority routes, roadways that support better accessibility and safety within the center of the Kingston Campus, while also establishing more fluid connections between landscape and facilities along these corridors. This includes redesigning Butterfield and Complex roads to create a friendlier environment for pedestrians within the campus residential district and incorporating separated bike lanes and new sidewalks on the extension of Farm House Road.

Also being planned is a new “central spine” from the University Quadrangle to Ellery Pond on the campus’ western side near the athletic facilities. Carrillo said the new pathway, which includes modified walkways and a new greenway, prioritizes accessibility for all members of the community.

“It was about making the campus more accessible, in terms of mobility, and also more welcoming,” Carrillo said.

The plan also seeks to enhance and beautify Ellery Pond and White Horn Brook to be more welcoming and serve as a destination to the campus’ wetland areas. Those enhancements will also improve URI’s stormwater management.

The University will now turn to implementation of the plan and including future developments in its 5-year rolling Capital Improvement Plan.