Late Bill Would Pull URI Governance From Council of Postsecondary Ed & Create Board of Trustees

Late Bill Would Pull URI Governance From Council of Postsecondary Ed & Create Board of Trustees

A bill introduced during the last weeks of the Rhode Island General Assembly session would shift oversight of URI to a new stand-alone board.  It would remove the authority of the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education over the University of Rhode Island (URI) — and establish an independent, seventeen-member board of trustees to oversee URI. Now, Governor Gina Raimondo has the authority to make appointments to the existing board.

Now, the twenty-eight page piece of legislation — introduced on May 30 by Senator Susan Sosnowski — is scheduled for consideration in the Senate Committee on Education on Wednesday, June 5.

In the bill, Sosnowski -- who was first elected to the State Senate in 1996 representing Block Island and South Kingstown -- makes the case that the move is necessary to make URI more competitive with regional peer institutions who have a board of trustees structure. There was also a last-minute companion House version.

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The move, however, could be seen as a power-play by URI President David Dooley, after Raimondo pushed for the expansion of the free college tuition “RI Promise” program next year from the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) to include Rhode Island College (RIC) -- leaving URI out. 

Making Case for "Keeping Pace with Competitors"

“The shrinking and shifting demographics of high school graduates in the region coupled with the increased competitiveness of the higher education marketplace requires the university to be strategic, nimble and innovative in its recruitment, financial aid and academic offerings in order to be successful,” states the bill, S-0942, in its effort to strike the oversight of the Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner over URI — and instead establish a board of trustees, appointed by the Governor — with the advice and consent of the Senate.

“The University of Rhode Island has become a public research university educating more than eighteen thousand (18,000) students annually, and offering opportunities to study in more than ninety (90) bachelor’s degree, more than seventy (70) graduate degree, and more than twenty (20) certificate and non-degree programs,” states the legislation. 

“The University of Rhode Island’s peer institutions and aspirational competitor institutions have governing bodies solely dedicated to the success of their mission and focus on these higher education trends and best practices for their public research university, and the University of Rhode Island would benefit from having a Board of Trustees entirely committed to exploring opportunities, addressing challenges, and creating new economic opportunities and partnerships for the university,” the bill goes on the state.

How it Would Work

The legislation explains how a “board of trustees” would operate — including assuming all liability “to sue or be sued in its own name…to exercise all the powers, in addition to those specifically enumerated in this chapter, usually pertaining to public corporations entrusted with control of postsecondary educational institutions and functions.”

READ THE BILL HERE

“There is hereby created a board of trustees for the University of Rhode Island, 14 sometimes referred to as the "board" or "board of trustees", which shall be and is constituted a 15 public corporation, empowered to sue and be sued in its own name, and to exercise all the 16 powers, in addition to those specifically enumerated in this chapter, usually appertaining to public 17 corporations entrusted with control of postsecondary educational institutions and functions,” states the bill. “Upon 18 its organization, the board shall be vested with the legal title to all property, real and personal, 19 now owned by and/or under the control or in custody of the council on postsecondary education 20 for the use of the University of Rhode Island including all its departments, divisions, and 21 branches.”

The bill goes on to enumerate how the board of trustees would operate, striking that the adoption of a budget for URI would be submitted to the Council on Postsecondary Education — and instead go to the board of trustees for approval. 

In addition, the bill clearly states that the Commissioner of Postsecondary Education moving forward would only have jurisdiction over the state’s colleges — striking language referencing oversight of each “public institution of higher learning” and replacing with “college” — in reference CCRI and RIC — and striking out “universities,” meaning URI would be exempt.

Sosnowski did not respond to request for comment on Monday.