News&Views

A matching endowment bill

for higher education passed the General Assembly in the final hours of the legislative session. The Endowment Incentive Program establishes the structure needed to encourage greater private giving to URI, RIC, and CCRI by providing $1 in funding for every $2 privately raised, with a cap for each institution. The program will require an annual state appropriation. No specific funds were provided in this year’s budget for the state’s share of endowment matching funds, but higher education advocates view the passage as a major step forward. “The most important outcome at this point is having secured the matching endowment legislation as an official state program and commitment,” said Robert M. Beagle, URI’s vice president for University Advancement. “ We are enormously grateful to Sen. Jack Revens for his years of support and his articulate advocacy of the program. We are indebted to Rep. John Patrick Shanley for all of his efforts in the House to see this legislation move from the conceptual stage into a real program.”

James Lynch

became the new dean of admissions on July 1, succeeding David Taggart. Lynch comes to URI from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he served as associate vice president of enrollment management and dean of admissions. Lynch has 15 years experience in undergraduate and graduate student enrollment services with expertise in traditional, multicultural, international, and non-traditional admissions, as well as student financial aid policies and procedures. He earned a B.S. in communication from Boston University, an M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University, an M.S. in mass communication from Miami University, and a Ph.D. in higher education from the College of William and Mary.

The Ram Fund

an investment portfolio managed by College of Business Administration students, has celebrated completion of its fourth year. Established in the spring of 2001 with $100,000 in seed money from the Alumni Association, the program’s goal is to give advanced business students the opportunity to invest and manage money for the long term. Among some of the companies students analyzed this year were Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., American Power Conversion, and TJX Companies, Inc., the parent of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. At the end of the spring semester, the students presented their findings and investment decisions to the Ram Fund Advisory Board and the Alumni Association. “Students place this very high on their list of top experiences at URI,” commented Dean Edward M. Mazze.

Jumpstart URI Corps tutor Michonne Gamble-Rivers of Providence and her Jumpstart partner, Elena, read a book.

Princeton Review Names URI a College with a Conscience

The Princeton Review named the University of Rhode Island the number one party school in the nation in 1993, 1994, and 1995. A decade later that same organization has named the University a “college with a conscience.”

“There’s been a change of culture during the past decade that connects learning in the classroom with the community,” said Merith Weisman-Ross ’94, who heads the Feinstein Center for Service Learning at URI.

URI is featured in The Princeton Review’s Colleges With A Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement. To select colleges and universities for the new book, The Princeton Review partnered with Campus Compact, a national coalition of presidents from more than 950 colleges and universities committed to the civic purposes of higher education.

Since 1995, all incoming freshmen have been required to participate in a one-credit URI 101 course with a service-learning component called The Feinstein Enriching America Program.

URI works with more than 70 community partners in Rhode Island, providing a range of services to the underprivileged, sick, and disabled. Students regularly volunteer, serve food, and visit with clients of St. Patrick’s Meal Kitchen.

URI offers 48 classes in 17 programs that incorporate service learning. Local schools receive a windfall of URI services. For example, URI’s Mentor-Tutor Internship began with a handful of students seven years ago. This year, 250 mentor/tutors from all disciplines became “wise friends” to disengaged K-12 students in 27 schools from Westerly to Providence.

Another 41 URI students this year participated in Jumpstart, a national early childhood program. Jumpstart URI Corps tutors, serving as part-time AmeriCorps members, worked one-on-one with preschoolers at three different South County sites to further develop their language, literacy, and social skills.

Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE), a pre-college science and math enrichment program for minority and economically disadvantaged students, is a partnership between URI and school districts. The program serves 240 elementary, middle, and high school students and 22 teachers in 12 schools throughout the state.

With the help of the South County Habitat for Humanity chapter, students, faculty, and staff from the College of Human Science and Services took the lead raising funds and providing the person-power to build a home in Westerly that is now occupied by a family with four children.

The Rhody the Ram Yard Sale

held on June 11 in the parking lot of Keaney Gym raised close to $2,000. Proceeds go to the Rhody the Ram Endowment to provide financial support for students who volunteer their time performing as the URI mascot at athletic contests and other events. The endowment now stands at $20,000. The first scholarship will be awarded in the spring of 2006.

A bronze plaque

commemorating the life of C. Robert Shoop, professor emeritus of zoology and an expert on amphibians and snakes, has been installed at the entry to the research reserve at the W. Alton Jones Campus. The reserve is now called the C. Robert Shoop Environmental Research Reserve. “As we approached the granite stone on June 8, 2005, to install the plaque, there was a tree frog sitting right in front of the stone,” commented Shoop’s friend Keith Killingbeck, professor of biological sciences. “Immediately after the plaque was in place, the sun shone through the trees and reflected brightly off Bob’s bald pate. Shoop would have loved it! Make that, Shoop loved it!”

The Graduate School of Library and Information Studies

honored alumni for their professional contributions and presented scholarships to several current students at its 40th anniversary celebration. Anne Parent, M.L.S. ’74, who heads the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services as chief of library services, received the Distinguished Alumna of the Year award. Tony Stankus, M.L.S. ’76, a science librarian at the College of the Holy Cross and an adjunct professor at URI, was recognized for having received the Rose Vormelker National Award at the Special Libraries Association 2005 Annual Conference in Toronto. Ann Marie Whitney received the Rhode Island Special Library Association Memorial Award. Kathleen Cheromcha received the Alice Brendel Award from the Rhode Island Chapter of the Special Library Association and the Elizabeth Futas award from the GSLIS. Other GSLIS award winners were Darshell Silva, who also received the Elizabeth Futas Award; Zachary Berger, who received the Betty Fast Award; Dennis Cronin, who received the Stewart Schneider Award; and Paulina Shadowens, who received the Patricia E. Jensen Award.

Thanks to a Joint Effort

between M.B.A. students and the Corliss Center, a Warren non-profit agency serving adults with profound hearing disorders, a snack shop has finally opened along the East Bay Bike Path. One of five projects organized by Deborah Rosen, it gave her M.B.A. students a chance to apply their business skills to non-profit organizations. Other M.B.A. student projects assisted the South Side Community Land Trust of Providence and its community garden; Saving Sight Rhode Island of Warwick, which provides screenings and treatment for vision disorders; Groundwork Providence, which is involved with improving Providence’s physical environment; and Fantasy Works of Saunderstown, an educational theater company.

Updates on Alumni

Congratulations to

Lorne Adrain ‘76, a past president of the URI Alumni Association and the 2005 recipient of the Rhode Island Foundation’s Inspiring Partner Award.

Michael Matone ’74, who was honored at the Speaker’s Awards Reception for Rhode Island Student Athletes held at the Rhode Island State House in April. In attendance were URI President Robert L. Carothers, Vice President of University Advancement Robert M. Beagle, and Athletics Director Tom McElroy.

Yuzuru Shimizu

The Symposium on Natural Chemistry

was held at the Bay Campus on July 21, 2005, in honor of the 70th birthday of Professor Yuzuru Shimizu, who holds URI’s Omar-Youngken Distinguished Chair in Natural Product Chemistry. The conference covered such topics as marine toxins and red tides, natural products chemistry, and chemical oceanography. “Dr. Shimizu has been one of the University’s preeminent researchers over the last several decades,” said Pharmacy Dean Donald E. Letendre. “It is with great pride that we highlight his leading research in marine natural product chemistry.”

The Department of Chemical Engineering

has expanded its curriculum to include a biology track in response to the significant growth of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and advances in molecular biology. “While chemists are usually the ones who synthesize drugs, it’s chemical engineers who process and mass produce the drugs,” explained Arijit Bose, professor of chemical engineering and chair of the department. “By giving our students a background in biology, we’ll be producing students with a competitive advantage for these high-paying and important jobs.”

Cathy Roheim,

a professor of environmental and natural resource economics, joined trade negotiators from around the world gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, last May. Her role in trade discussions was to help negotiatiors understand the complicated issues related to international trade in fisheries. “The WTO doesn’t like subsidies, but there are a number of subsidies in fisheries trade, which often lead to overfishing,” said Roheim. A key concept that the fisheries experts tried to get across was that there are good subsidies and bad subsidies that could dramatically impact the health of a fishery.

The Bookshelf

Recent books by alumni and faculty.

Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend by Mitchell Zuckoff ’83. Random House, 2005. Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) has entered history as the originator of a swindle, now known as a Ponzi scheme, that dupes people into making investments into a fraudulent scheme that is fueled by nothing more than the investors’ own money. Mitchell Zuckoff, a national reporter for The Boston Globe who teaches journalism at Boston University, recounts Ponzi’s meteoric rise from penniless Italian immigrant to millionaire businessman and his equally swift fall to convicted felon to pauper dying in the charity ward of a Brazilian hospital. Like Dennis Kozlowski and other recent financial high flyers, Ponzi never believed that he did anything wrong.

Rooms of Grace: New and Selected Poems by Paul Petrie. New Orleans Poetry Journal Press, 2005. The poems selected here by Paul Petrie, professor emeritus of English, from his life work are arranged in four major sections. The first is autobiographical, tracing the development of life from childhood to old age. The second dramatizes observations and imaginings as well as events from history and mythology. The third, Songs and Other Measures, strives to give the poems a musical effect. The final section explores such concepts as the mind, nature, and art. Petrie’s work has been published in eight collections and in over 100 literary journals.

The University of Rhode Island

is taking a leadership role in an effort to make Rhode Island the first official “well state” in the nation through a worksite wellness program. Governor Donald L. Carcieri made the announcement at the “Get Fit, Rhode Island” kickoff event at the Statehouse on June 29, 2005. The Governor’s wife, Suzanne Carcieri ’65, led the steering committee that developed the program.

The Endeavor

URI’s oceanographic research vessel, took a daylong trip on June 30, 2005, to collect seawater samples for testing of possible distribution of Alexandrium (the phytoplankton species that makes up red tide). The vessel transported two officials from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management to an area between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard. The sampling was one of the many activities made possible by the state’s Rhode Island Endeavor Program.

A $750,000 National Science Foundation

grant will enable the University to recruit, mentor, educate, and retain minority graduate students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). URI will use the alliance grant to hire a full-time recruiter with staff support in its Graduate School. Diversity teams of faculty, students, and alumni will visit partner institutions to encourage undergraduates to consider pursuing Ph.Ds. URI faculty members who have signed on include Harold Bibb, biology; Nasser Zawia, pharmacy; Joan Peckham, computer science; Mercedes Rivero-Hudec, chemical engineering; and Jaycoda Major, chemistry.

As hurricane Dennis

intensified to a Category 4 storm in mid-July, one of the tools used by the National Hurricane Center to predict the storm’s path and intensity was recently improved by URI researchers. The hurricane prediction model developed by GSO Professor Isaac Ginis is coupled with an atmospheric model created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The coupled GFDL/URI Hurricane Prediction Model, one of a dozen used by the National Hurricane Center, was the most accurate forecasting model during the 2003 and 2004 hurricane seasons.

The URI Annual Fund

raised $1.18 million for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, an all-time record and 5 percent increase over the previous year. The Annual Fund is the University’s primary source of unrestricted support for many ongoing programs. Annual Fund Director Sarah Howard had high praise for the honorary chairs of the Annual Fund, Wesley R. “Wes” Card ’70 and Dianne Kenny Card ’69: “They worked hard on the fund from the beginning to the end. They can take pride in making this our most successful year ever. As the Cards end their service to the Annual Fund, their commitment to URI won’t end. They have accepted the University’s invitation to be next year’s Winter Gala co-chairs.”

The University of Rhode Island Distinguished Achievement Awards

In 2006 the University of Rhode Island will inaugurate a brand new program to recognize and honor URI’s most distinguished and accomplished graduates as well as friends of the University.

This program will replace the Alumni Achievement Awards and the individual Halls of Fame that URI’s separate colleges have hosted in the past.

The Distinguished Achievement Awards will recognize excellence in professional achievement, leadership contributions, and community service.

Each year, four to six individuals will be selected to receive Distinguished Achievement Awards by a committee composed of representatives from URI’s colleges, the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the Division of University Advancement, the Department of Athletics, the Alumni Association, and the student body.

The inaugural program will take place at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence on October 14, 2006.

Please watch QUAD ANGLES for further details about this exciting new program.