David Dooley – RI Future

October 18, 2016October 24, 2016

David Dooley on why RI should invest in URI this election

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There are two University of Rhode Island projects that would benefit if voters pass Question 4 on the statewide ballot this November.

One is a $25.5 million upgrade to Bliss Hall, a prominent classroom building on the Quadrangle at the center of campus that was built in 1929, and “hasn’t really been renovated since then,” said URI President David Dooley in a recent interview with RI Future.

“The exterior will look exactly the same except the air conditioners won’t be sticking out the window any more because we will have state-of-the-art HVAC,” Dooley explained, “and there will be an addition on the back facing all the new engineering construction that will be going on behind Bliss Hall starting next year.”

The Bliss Hall renovation is part of an overall $150 million project, started under Governor Chafee, to upgrade the engineering program and its facilities, which Dooley described as a major area of growth at URI.

“We know it is one of our fastest growing colleges,” he said, noting there are more than 30 local businesses started by graduates of URI’s engineering school. “We know that every year we have more applications to the College of Engineering than we did the year before. We know we can’t accommodate all the qualified applicants that want to come here to become engineers.”

The second part of Question 4 would direct $20 million to fund “innovation campuses” – or partnerships with the private sector.

“We want to do things that broadly build a robust and successful economy in this state and in the nation,” Dooley told me. “I do think we know enough about the importance of innovation and growing the American economy and keeping America competitive in an increasingly competitive global economy and we know enough about how innovation can fuel not just economic prosperity but also enhance the social fabric of the state and the nation to know that these kind of centers – which are well-precedented, and there are a wealth of success stories out there – can work, can be a magnate for investment in Rhode Island and can attract new talent into Rhode Island as well as create a wealth of new opportunities for the Rhode Islanders that are already here.”

Companies would apply in a public process, that has yet to be defined, and provide matching funds. The $20 million could go to several companies, or just one. “We know that they are going be selected on the basis of what looks like a good return on Rhode Island’s investment in terms of new jobs, new businesses and economic growth,” Dooley said. “How those get translated into very specific points is yet yet to be determined. We certainly expect to play a role in that because we think we have a lot of expertise to share in those areas.”

URI already has such partnerships with companies such as Amgen, Hasbro, Ratheon and Schneider Electric.

“We’ve already got some examples of companies that have come to Rhode Island specifically because they wanted to work closely with URI,” Dooley said, mentioning Navatek in Wakefield. “They are a Hawaii-based company. They opened up their second office right here in proximity to URI just so they could work with URI faculty and students on ocean engineering.”

Dooley said he was comfortable, both professionally and personally, if a defense contractor started an innovation campus with URI.

“To a degree, I can be comfortable with that because I do think we have a responsibility as the world’s leading democracy to provide leadership and in our 21st Century world that continues to mean that in addition to all the robust diplomatic efforts you can mount, you have to have the military capability to say this is what needs to happen or to intervene, if necessary,” he said. “That’s how I think about it individually, as the president I think about it as our responsibility is really to serve all the people of Rhode Island and therefore that includes individuals who are working in the defense industry here in Rhode Island.”

Dooley said he doesn’t worry that the matching funds will incentivize the university to educate for the market, rather than for enlightenment. He said URI’s general education requirements guarantee that can’t happen.

“It is the kind of investment that I think Rhode Island needs to continue to make in order to build not just an economy but a society that is robust and vibrant,” he said. “It’s about driving education, driving research forward and driving innovation. Because that nexus of innovation, the research, development transfer component of innovation been such a source of growth for the American economy ever since World War II, frankly.”

July 17, 2016July 17, 2016

RI religious leaders blame Trump, Gingrich for vandalism at local mosque

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During an interfaith vigil for peace on Saturday, Rhode Island religious leaders implicitly and explicitly blamed Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich and the Republican rhetoric opposing religious freedom on the national political stage for vandalism that happened at a mosque in Kingston, Rhode Island on Thursday night.

“In one sense this incident is an isolated incident,” Rev. Don Anderson, the executive director of the Rhode Island Council of Churches who organized the vigil, told the crowd of well more than 100 people who came to be with the members of the Masjid al Hoda mosque Saturday.

“But we also need to understand that this happened in a context,” Anderson continued. “It took place in a context where there is irresponsible, hateful speech in our country. It is being applauded by many of our fellow citizens and it demands that we make a statement and stand up together.”

The isolated incident in question was an attack on the Muslim Community Center of Kingston, near the University of Rhode Island campus, Thursday night. A vandal broke windows in the mosque and spray painted “Muhammad prophet of butchers” on an outside wall. The context is Trump and other prominent Republicans who foment religious persecution by calling for new rules and regulations to monitor Muslims in America.

“When someone says that all Muslims should be banned from American shores, even temporarily, it hurts us all,” Anderson said. “When someone suggests that unconstitutional, anti-American suggestion that every American Muslim has to take a faith test, that is absolutely and positively wrong and we must stand together and acknowledge that and help people to understand that we don’t believe that. We do not believe that is the America that we want to live in. and we need to say that long and loud.”

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has called for Muslims to be temporarily prevented from entering the United States. Gingrich, on Friday, said Muslim Americans should be subject to deportation based on a faith test. While Anderson didn’t name Trump or Gingrich specifically, other religious leaders did.

“The hatred and the animosity that is being spewed by … I can’t even describe them as leaders,” said a dismayed Iman Farid Ansari, a well-respected leader in the local Muslim community. “For Newt Gingrich to even suggest that there’s a test… What is it about freedom of religion that he doesn’t understand?”

Ansari put US Attorney Peter Neronha, who also spoke at the vigil, on the spot about Gingrich’s call for a religious test for Muslim Americans, an idea that was widely panned as both unconstitutional and un-American. “Our US Attorney is here,” Ansari said, motioning to Neronha, who was seated nearby. “Don’t you think it’s against the constitution? I think it is.” Neronha laughed along with the crowd, but didn’t otherwise offer a legal opinion.

Neronha’s office sometimes investigates vandalism against religious institutions. He said they are helping South Kingstown Police investigate the Kingston incident. About a similar hate crime against a Muslim school in West Warwick two years ago, Neronha said, “We’re still working on the incident at the Islamic school and there is promise in that investigation. I’m convinced we will bring that person to justice.”

Neither Neronha nor Congressman Jim Langevin followed the theme of putting some blame for local violence on national political figures. Of the three secular speakers at Saturday’s event, University of Rhode Island President David Dooley came closest to putting the local incident into a global perspective.

“It does seem, and in real ways it is true, that we face unprecedented times,” Dooley said. “The challenges, the diversity of those challenges, the magnitude of those challenges, is perhaps greater than it has ever been. But I think we can take some comfort, at least I hope we can, in the recognition that in many respects the hatred that we fight today has long been with us, and we have defeated it in the past.”

While the secular speakers shied away from being overtly political, the religious leaders did not. A Muslim, a Christian and a Jew each parsed the vandalism against the Kingston mosque as a symptom of the national dialogue.

“To think that a man running for president could promote and exacerbate policies of hatred, fear and suspicion is just simply unbelievable for all of us,” said Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman.

He implored people to follow the example of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who denounced Donald Trump earlier this week in spite of the tradition that justices remain apolitical.

“Don’t be shy,” Voss-Altman said. “Stand up, speak out. We will stand together to oppose hatred, and division, and fear. We do so today, we do so tomorrow, we do so on November 8 and then we continue to do so.”

June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

URI part-time faculty won’t be ‘ignored, exploited and disrespected’

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URI President Dr. David Dooley sat quietly as URI Part-Time Faculty United (URI PTFU) partnered with Rhode Island Jobs With Justice to carry signs and speak out at RI’s higher education board meeting Wednesday night against low wages, a lack of job security and a hostile work environment.

PTFU Executive Director Patricia Maguire said negotiations between URI and the part-time faculty have been dragging on for over 2 1/2 years. Rather than bargain in a fair and open way, URI negotiators simply say “we have nothing to offer you.”

Maguire said that her group has been reduced to “begging” for better wages and working conditions. “Any [school] president or the administration, that has received a substantial pay increase, did not have to walk around the university holding signs, asking for it. I’m not even sure they asked for it.”

Kenneth Jolicouer, with 35 years teaching experience in higher education and a host of honors to his credit, said that working conditions at URI have deteriorated markedly over the last few years.

“I had my part-time position taken away in September 2013, because according to administration, I worked too many hours,” said Jolicouer, “15 hours in a staff position plus teaching two classes. This is a position I have held since 1992. As a result my URI pay has been cut by close to 50 percent.”

During Jolicouer’s entire 4 1/2 minutes of speaking, he was ignored by board member Dr. Jim Purcell, commissioner of postsecondary education, who simply messaged with his cellphone the entire time. It was only when Dorothy Donnelly, another educator with years of experience, demanded his attention that Purcell began to feign interest. At the 2m 15s point in the video below, Donnelly asks Purcell for his seat, which he graciously gave up.

“We have about 25 people here supporting us. About half of those are part-time faculty,” said Donnelly, “That’s no surprise. I’m even amazed that they’re here. I thank them for their commitment and their courage, because they are all at will employees.”

“We have been in contract negations for almost three years now,” said Donnelly, “and we have not had contact negotiations since last December.” Donnelly need that these meetings are known for their repeated delays and stalling tactics on the part of URI negotiators.

“Part-time faculty continue to be ignored, exploited and disrespected,” said Patricia Maquire. URI doesn’t believe in the value of the education they are selling, says Maguire. Devaluing the educators devalues the education.

Also speaking was Peter Nightingale, a member of the physics department at URI and Fossil Free RI, there to express solidarity with the PTFU. Nightingale took some time to speak about URI’s lack of interest in divesting from fossil fuels.

March 27, 2012March 27, 2012

Dooley Takes Issue with Op/Ed on Tuition Increases

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It isn’t often that an editorial is so off-the-mark as to warrant news coverage, but such is evidently the case with the Projo’s take on tuition increases from Saturday morning.

In an article in today’s Journal about a Q&A session with URI president David Dooley, Gina Macris writes: “He spoke at length about the ‘great deal of misinformation’ about the causes of higher tuition and mounting student debt, singling out ‘misguided editorials like the one in The Providence Journal on Saturday.'”

Misguided indeed.

The editorial board seemed to be writing about the rising cost of tuition, then quickly veered into how college isn’t for everybody – almost as if this was part justification for the cost of college rising.

“For many years, college tuitions have risen at up to three times the general inflation rate,” Saturday’s editorial said. “This has happened as society’s leaders constantly harp on the importance for many young people of getting a college education. That idea is exaggerated in our view; for many people, obtaining a post-high-school vocational education would be considerably more useful than going to a liberal-arts college.”

It’s true that tuition is rising far faster than general inflation. And it’s true that our leaders “harp on” the importance of a higher education (as well they should). It’s also true college isn’t for everyone and many are better served with a vocational education. But to put those three statements together makes it seem as if the Projo thinks we are wasting our time trying to make college available to the masses and we might as well just send the smartest and richest and let the rest enjoy auto shop – or eat cake, as it were.

Dooley took issue with the Projo’s insistence that “curious courses” and high-paid staff were driving up costs at URI.

“A proliferation of curious courses is not a cost-driver at URI,” Macris said he said. And she also quoted him as saying, “we are driving up higher education costs because we are anxious to add higher-paid administrators is one of the sillier things that I’ve read.”

Dooley knows the real reason tuition is going up, and he explained it to me last week.

“Public higher education is increasingly seen really out of necessity I think in the view of a lot legislators as a discretionary part of the state budget,” he said. “They have long assumed … that if they fund higher education less and ask families to do more, Americans have such a strong belief in the value of higher education, particularly public higher education, that they will pay more and they have been willing to do that for two decades. ”

Dooley called this model “unsustainable.”

March 19, 2012March 19, 2012

Occupy URI, David Dooley on Tuition Increases

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Protesting years of cuts to public higher education in Rhode Island that have caused rampant tuition increases, Occupy URI mic checked the meeting of the Board of Governors for Higher Education Monday night with a song.

While their tactics were lighthearted, the issue is a serious one. The Board of Governors recently approved a 8 percent tuition increase that will mean this September an in-state student will pay an extra $1000 a year, up from $10,400. Since 2008, said spokesman Mike Trainer, the legislature has cut some $45 million to the three state colleges in Rhode Island. But because the cost of an education is only getting more expensive, students are running up enormous student loan debt to pay for the cost cutting.

There was a brief moment of tension when Professor Scott Molloy, who showed up late, asked to speak even though he didn’t sign up to and Chairman Lorne Adrain asked officers to prevent him from doing so.

Aftewards, I spoke with URI President David Dooley about the issue. He told me that legislators seem to view funding higher education as “discretionary” because when they make cuts, tuition goes up and enrollment doesn’t suffer. He also said the state would be wise to invest more in higher education.