URI – 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.”

August 26, 2015August 27, 2015

Trade higher wages for paid parking

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What do we want? Free parking!

What?

Greater City Providence deserves journalistic credit for picking up on a story about graduate student organizing at URI and connecting the dots about how those demands impact environmental planning goals. I wanted to make a specific repost here, as well as add a few thoughts of my own, because I don’t find that the labor world and the environmental world always talk to each other very effectively in Rhode Island (or anywhere, maybe). People who read RI Future, like myself, care about labor organizing and what it portends for a more equal future for all of us at the workplace, but may also be concerned about exactly the points that GCPVD brought to light.

The story: The URI grad students reportedly have asked for a continuation of free parking at URI’s ~~downtown~~ Kingston campus. In an earlier version of this article, I had given information about downtown and Kingston, but in this sentence I accidentally glossed over and left only the word “downtown” during last minute corrections. The union has been clear that its demands relate only to the Kingston campus. I am keeping downtown information here as well for context because I think it’s relevant to URI’s overall parking policy discussion. Apologies for the error! The free parking is of course not really free at all, but costs taxpayers money to subsidize the garages where people park, and policies that subsidize parking warp commute choices towards driving. In addition, URI stands out for having very incomplete and inconvenient transit pass policies. The result is a very easy and cheap drive commute competing with a more cumbersome and expensive transit one, right across the street from Kennedy Plaza. Students at URI Main Campus in Kingston have access to the 66 and 64 buses and an excellent bike path through South County, and could in short order have MBTA service as well. Grad students naturally see the attempts from university officials to charge them for parking as an attack on their already meagre livelihoods, but it’s an ominous sign for the future of Rhode Island if free parking policies continue in such obvious transit-oriented locales.

Where I would add to what Jef Nickerson of GCPVD has said is that I actually think this is a relatively easy issue to resolve, and doesn’t at all have to pit us either against the environment or against unions. The solution here is to charge full price for parking just as the university has proposed, but also credit grad students with that cost as pay which can be used for whatever they like. That would mean that workers who bike or ride the bus effectively get a raise, while everyone else breaks even. Graduate students are right, in my view, to be pointing out the absurdity of their pay hovering around $15,000 a year. It’s just that the solution to that is better pay, not subsidized driving.

Many states, like California, require a parking cash out for workers in certain types of jobs. In California, it’s structured so that only employers who rent parking are required to give the cash out, because it’s assumed that rented parking spots are a liquid asset that can be dropped or maintained by the employer based on parking demand, and that the savings should be passed as part of people’s wages. In URI’s case, the parking that is rented is paid for by the state to the Dunk Center, and so is definitely that kind of liquid asset. In Kingston, as in downtown Providence, the parking situation is absurd. URI has been gradually tearing up more and more of the agricultural land around it to satisfy the needs of its students and faculty to drive instead of finding ways to resolve that through on-campus housing expansion, transit, or biking. Parking cash outs have a positive effect on commute modeshares–increasing carpooling, biking, walking, and transit-use.

It’s not probably well known, but there was a window of my life when I did a lot of labor organizing, and was even a card-carrying union member. The work that the grad students are doing to improve their working conditions is something I support. But an injury to one is an injury to all not just in labor situations, but also for our world as a whole, and it’s the duty of union members to imagine a new world in the shell of the old, not just to make shallow demands about their own needs. This is a time when the grad student union could show real leadership and modify its demands in order to get what it needs for its workers while also respecting the future of our planet.

I dreamt I saw Joe Hill last night,

Driving an S-U-V.

I said to Joe, “our planet’s dying”,

He said, “it’s up to me.”

~~~~

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.

November 23, 2014November 24, 2014

URI upsets Nebraska: a tweet-by-tweet of the game

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I’ve seen a lot of basketball games in Kingston and I’ve never seen a more packed house, a more enthused student section or a bigger upset than URI’s 66-62 overtime win against #21 Nebraska Saturday night. You can relive the biggest Ram victory since 1998 via my tweets from the game.

October 9, 2014October 9, 2014

Global #Frackdown at URI

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Global Frackdown at URI: October 12, noon-2pm in front of URI Foundation on Upper College Road, Kingston

As the nearly half a million people participating in the People Climate March in New York City on September 21 demonstrated, we now depend on our leaders who are in the streets. They will secure our daily bread, and they will forgive our debts, as they organize everywhere.

The message echoing in the streets of New York and across the globe may come as a surprise to some. The following is from a report that Jared Paul posted after his arrest at #FloodWallSt in New York. In Jared’s My report back from #FloodWallSt / #PeoplesClimateMarch he makes the key point loud and clear:

Looking around it became clear that the majority of the messaging was blatantly anti-capitalist. Signs read: “Capitalism Is Destroying Our Planet,” “Corporate Globalism doesn’t work: System change now!” “Climate Change is Class War.” I thought it was just our area but as thousands of people streamed by on either side heading for different parts of the march, I saw that the signs were almost all of similar messaging. From watching #DemocracyNow I knew that there was a large contingent of First Nation activists leading the march with a clearly anti-capitalist message as well.

Not all of URI might be quite ready for this radical position, but some of us certainly are. However that may be and wherever you may find yourself on this political spectrum, please join us for the:

Global Frackdown at URI: October 10, noon-2pm in front of URI Foundation on Upper College Road, Kingston.

Green Power to the People!

May 8, 2014

Andrew Winters and institutional bullying at URI

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“Midnight Tonight: Students Protest LGBT Campus Safety at University of Rhode Island.” This was the headline on a Campus Pride blog of September 22, 2010, announcing a round-the-clock occupation of the URI library “to ensure the safety and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, faculty and staff.”

When the dust had settled in early 2011, students awarded their adviser, Andrew Winters, a “Certificate of Service and Admirable Citizenship,” honoring him as their advocate.

Within weeks, Andrew, at the time assistant to the VP for student affairs, received a blistering letter of reprimand. It consisted of unsubstantiated accusations and personal insults, and ended with a demand for his silence and the following threat: “If you do not comply with the above expectations […] you will face disciplinary procedure up to and including termination.”

Several weeks later, Andrew went on administrative leave; in June he succumbed to the pressure and left. Ever since, university officials have refused to comment other than stating to the press that he “retired,” and that: “Everyone was in agreement around the terms. He was not forced to retire.”

In fact, Andrew was bullied and coerced into a separation agreement that he signed under duress. Since then, also Joe Santiago, his former assistant, was “let go” from his position at the University without written notice or explanation.

Much of this, and another University of Rhode Island case of bullying has been on the news lately. See the Hummel Reports:

Also see this report in Unfiltered Lens, a student newspaper.

After what university administrators spun as retirement, Andrew has spent most of his time trying to correct these systemic problems with their countless victims of which he is one.

In spite of increasing awareness of the need for corrective action, elected officials and the Board of Education have, as is their pattern, neglected their responsibility. In Andrew’s case, inaction has been justified by: “He should take his case to court and have the separation agreement reversed.” But “liberty and justice for all” too often is an illusion for those who cannot act without the terror of losing their physical, emotional and economic health.

The root cause of the systemic failure at the University is that over the last 50 years state funding has dropped from 60% in the 1960s to a current low of less than 10%. As a consequence, university administrators have become public relations representatives whose main concern is financial rather than academic strength.

In the resulting environment of a privatized, bottom-line driven institution advocates for victims of bigotry, discrimination or sexual assault will be shot as messengers who threaten the “product brand.”

Silence and coverup also affect the public as this corporatized environment allows officials to enter into separation agreements with clauses such as this:

The University will not contest or object to Mr. Winters’ eligibility to collect and receive unemployment benefits or compensation.

As mentioned, Andrew Winters was coerced into this agreement. He would not have been entitled to unemployment compensation, had he retired voluntarily, as the University claims. He lost his job, and was qualified to collect, after he informed Department of Labor officials of the circumstances of his departure.

What excuse does the University have for doling out unemployment benefits and compensation via a ploy that cannot see light of day”

The regular citizen recognizes this for what it is: a conspiracy to defraud the People of Rhode Island. As in the case of 38 Studios, complicit officials leave it to the public to foot the bill for their shady deals.

The Rhode Island Legislature may have begun to address this misappropriation in the submission of House Resolution 2014 H 7669 “Creating a special legislative commission to investigate issues of fairness in the hiring and retention of certain faculty members and employees of the University of Rhode Island.”

Surely it is long past time to restore ethics and transparency to higher education and to public institutions in Rhode Island, and long past time to correct the injustice done to Andrew Winters, Joe Santiago and the People of Rhode Island.

We, the People, shall not rest until we have eradicated misappropriation, bullying, and suppression. We shall not rest until we have established a system of collaboration, transparency and justice for all.

May 6, 2014May 6, 2014

DEM, URI team up to help fishing industry

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The state Department of Environmental Management and the URI Graduate School of Oceanography are partnering to produce more – and more efficient – data and analysis about the fishing industry here in the Ocean State.

The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Institute “will enhance the state’s ability to positively affect marine fisheries research and management,” said Jason McNamee, a DEM biologist. He was speaking to a crowd of scientists, students, bureaucrats, politicians and fishermen at the Mosby Center, the oldest and most waterfront building at the Bay Campus. The group met there to formally bless the effort.

The Institute will focus on both commercial and recreational fishing, which DEM Director Janet Coit said “bring hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs into Rhode Island.”

Oceanography professor Jeremy Collie said he hopes the collaboration can make the state a hub for research and information. “When people have fisheries related questions, they will come to Rhode Island first,” he said.

And the folks from the fishing industry seem happy with the effort too:

As far as what the Institute will do, “I can think of about 50 projects off the top of my head,” said one fisherman in the audience. Ideas ranged from studying closer the emerging squid and scup fisheries, to the effects of climate change – which include some species, like cod and lobster, moving out of local waters and others, like summer flounder, moving in.

“The fishing industry will drive the agenda,” McNamee said. But Collie added, “the focus will be on research, not management.”

April 28, 2014April 29, 2014

RV Endeavor studies global oceans, makes money for URI

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The RV Endeavor is one of the ways the Rhode Island is already a national center for studying climate change.

The 185-foot research vessel (or RV) is staffed by URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography and its home port, the Bay Campus. But it’s owned by the National Science Foundation, and it’s paid for and used by whomever happens to need to study planet Earth’s vast oceans.

“We’re a charter boat for scientists,” said Second Mate Chris Armanetti.

Tuesday the Endeavor leaves on a 30-day trip to Iceland, where Princeton geoscientist Bess Ward will be studying how phytoplankton reacts to different forms of nitrogen. “Some of the kinds of phytoplankton that we think are really important are actually sucking carbon into the ocean,” Ward explains as she readies her equipment in the boat’s main lab for the long trip.

This is the second time her research has taken her aboard the Endeavor, which is one of 24 research vessels in the world equipped to help unlock such scientific mysteries, which Ward assured me are much more crucial than they sound in the abstract. “We care how our ocean ecosystems will respond to global change.”

Her and eight grad students are traveling more than 2,000 nautical miles to study these phytoplankton at their richest, which is off the coast of Iceland in the North Atlantic during spring. They will be accompanied and assisted by the Endeavor’s crew of 12, who work in three shifts with four people on duty at any given time.

The Endeavor isn’t cheap to operate. Ward, whose grant is for $3 million, is paying URI $24,000 a day for its services.

“It’s important both scientifically and financially,” said Tom Glennon, the director of marine operations for the Graduate School of Oceanography, who said the Endeavor makes between 10 and 12 such trips a year.

“It’s a money spinner for the university, for sure,” said technician/crew member Bill Fanning.

Glennon and Fanning chatted over a catered lunch on the boat after two tractor trailer trucks worth of food were stored on the boat for the trip to Iceland and back. The Endeavor serves three meals a day, with dinner menus ranging from chili to filet mignon, while at sea.

There’s a small dining room, and an even smaller library with a few couches. And other than that, the creature comforts are few and far between. There are small bunk rooms in the hull, with cramped bunk beds in small rooms. Most share bathrooms.

The bulk of the boat is research space. There are three labs on the boat, and most of the deck is for lowering equipment into the depths of the ocean. The cable they were winding the day I visited could stretch 8,000 meters into the sea.

The Endeavor has been all over the world, save for the Indian Ocean. Recent trips include Peru, Hawaii and Scotland.

“It’s driven by the science,” said Tom Orvosh, an technician and crew member. “It can get pretty intense at times, if the weather’s rough and people can’t get their work done.

Crew members say seasickness isn’t really a problem for visiting scientists because it usually passes after several hours.

The Graduate School of Oceanography has housed a world-class research vessel since 1962, when legendary dean John Knauss helped the school acquire the RV Trident. In 1977, it replaced the Trident with the Endeavor. The Endeavor was retrofitted in 1992, but it’s nearing the end of its tenure. Crew members said such boats are good for about 30 years, and that it would cost roughly $65 million to replace her.

April 9, 2014April 9, 2014

Think big, URI. Guy McPherson does.

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Fossil Free Rhode Island received a reply denying our request that URI divest from fossil fuels on March 14. Recent reports warn of stranded carbon assets and the looming popping of the carbon bubble. Even so, the URI Foundation continues to invest in wrecking the climate, and calls it “Building for the Future.” Now, that requires really Big Thinking!

Meanwhile, Fossil Free RI continues the climate conversation with a visit from author, public speaker, and “latter-day gadfly,” Guy McPherson, Professor Emeritus of the University of Arizona, who will speak on climate chaos and humanity’s reaction to it:

What does climate change actually mean for us as human beings? Can we still live compassionate, exceptional lives even if the odds are stacked against us?

Guy McPherson, who thinks human extinction will begin around 2030, is a knowledgeable, amusing and challenging speaker. This is a chance to hear about instabilities too hard to capture in climate models, topics that many “grown-ups” consider “too scary for the kids.”

McPherson’s view is more dire than that of the majority of climate scientists, but his arguments deserve our serious attention. First of all, there is the One Percent Doctrine which states that

If there’s a 1% chance […], we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It’s not about our analysis […] It’s about our response.

If this infamous doctrine provides cover for the 1% and its perpetual wars, should it not apply with a vengeance to climate change and the risk of ecocide it poses?

Guy McPherson’s talk will provide the vital counterbalance to the politically motivated censorship imposed upon the IPCC report:

The poorest people in the world, who have had virtually nothing to do with causing global warming, will be high on the list of victims as climatic disruptions intensify, the report said. It cited a World Bank estimate that poor countries need as much as $100 billion a year to try to offset the effects of climate change; they are now getting, at best, a few billion dollars a year in such aid from rich countries.

The $100 billion figure, though included in the 2,500-page main report, was removed from a 48-page executive summary to be read by the world’s top political leaders. It was among the most significant changes made as the summary underwent final review during an editing session of several days in Yokohama.

If you can make it, please join the Facebook event and invite your friends.

This event (no charge — donations accepted) is sponsored by Fossil Free Rhode Island: action for climate justice, urging public institutions that divestment from fossil fuels is the only moral choice.

March 29, 2014March 29, 2014

March Madness shows RI better land use

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For those of you who aren’t as obsessed over land use and transportation as I am, you may not be aware of the annual #MarchMadness #parkingcrater competition on Streetsblog. Last year’s winner, Tulsa, Oklahoma, was certainly embarrassed to get national attention to its poor land use, but the pain must have worn off when the city quickly changed its zoning code and land use policies to discourage surface lots in its downtown. We could certainly use such a victory in Providence. Here are some of the places we’ve highlighted in the state so far:

University of Rhode Island campus, Kingston, RI

URI is a relatively pretty campus, although with the campus constantly expanding its parking, it’s hard to know how long that will be the case. Eco RI has highlighted the campus’ hunger for farmland, which it has been quickly converting into surface lots. URI’s Kingston campus does have a policy of charging a small fee for parking to residents and students, but the need to add more lots suggests that that price does not meet the demand. URI’s other positive features include support for RIPTA passes to students at its Kingston campus, as well as a bike path running nearby it through the villages of South Kingstown and Narragansett. URI has failed so far to make crossing Route 138 to the bike path safe for students, and also has yet to charge any fee or provide any transit incentive for students or faculty at its Providence campus, which is nearby Kennedy Plaza.

Which brings us to. . .

Rhode Island College, Providence, RI

Rhode Island College is a warning of what URI could become. With “free” parking for students (paid for automatically through tuition), RIC doesn’t even charge visitors from outside the university to park. It’s entire campus is wall-to-wall surface lots. It’s the saddest/ugliest thing I’ve ever experienced.

RIC’s policy means higher fees for students, who don’t even find themselves happy with what they get in return:

South Side Hospital Complex, Providence, RI

Whoa! It’s like the surface of the moon over there!

The Providence Streetcar is planned to terminate in the hospital complex, and I certainly hope it will improve development patterns there and reduce the need for so many lots. However, there’s a real need to develop #frequentRIPTA, as the 12 minute frequency planned for peak streetcar trips will not be adequate for such a short route.

One also wonders if doctors and nurses would have more positive impact on the neighborhood’s struggling businesses if they didn’t have to trek across huge lots to get to anything outside of the hospital.

The South Side of Providence doesn’t have a great public reputation, but I’ve spent a lot of time walking and biking down there, and it’s a really nice community with a lot of good things going for it. Another thing that would help reduce this parking crater would be to update the Point Street I-95 crossing. It’s currently designed as a two-lane one way with a lot of fast traffic on both sides, very poor pedestrian access, and virtually no way to cross on bike, except for the fleet of heart. The South Side is deceptively close to downtown Providence, and could have a lot of mobility benefits for low income folks on a one- or zero-car budget if RIDOT hadn’t callously built its infrastructure for circa 1955.

The Dean Street Bridge

This span of bridge crosses U.S. 6 and the Amtrak Northeast Corridor between Federal Hill and Smith Hill, but with no access for transit or bikes. The ramps into Federal Hill are just a stone’s throw from the Viaduct, but apparently the state also thinks it appropriate to waste a huge footprint of land so that people can use highways as local roads. A 2013 assessment by RIDOT found the bridge to be in “fair” condition, and called it “functionally obsolete” (functional obsolescence can refer to a number of things but does not indicate structural problems. It can, for instance, simply mean that the agency feels the bridge needs more “capacity”, i.e., costly widening). The bridge is part of a series of expensive infrastructure projects necessary to U.S. 6 & 10, including the 6/10 Connector, which will come at an estimated cost of $500 Million and will dwarf the cost of the Sakonnet Bridge. The poor design of the Dean Street Bridge, with poor multimodal access, means it’s in a constant traffic jam for users, and cuts of anyone who is not driving.

Perhaps this is a job for a highway removal, and unlike I-195, let’s take it out and just not replace U.S. 6 at all. The 480 foot span of the Dean Street Bridge could then be considerably reduced in for whatever comes next, and multimodal improvements like transit lanes, protected bike lanes and wide sidewalks could carry users other than cars between two of Providence’s nicest neighborhoods.

The Statehouse Lawn

There was a time when there was no parking at the Statehouse. . .

Highlighted by the Projo, The Phoenix, and Providence Preservation Society as a majorly bad land use, the surface lots that Governor Chafee added to Francis Street and the Statehouse lawn have set taxpayers back millions (the Francis Street lot cost $3.1 Million for land acquisition alone, making each of the approximately 100 parking spots $30,000 a pop, without factoring in things like lighting, paving, or drainage costs). To put this in perspective, with matching funds from a City of Providence program, residents could plant 15,000 street trees for this cost, half that if they had no matching funds from the program. In a city of 25,000 street trees, that would represent a huge growth in green space. The Walking Bostonian has reported on the comparative cost of providing bus service compared to parking and found bus service to be cheaper, while a Hartford study recently found that for each parking spot a city gets, it loses $1,200 in tax revenue.

The (Proposed) Garrahy Garage

This is definitely one of the more improbable pictures I’ve taken off of the internet to support a weird metaphor. . .

As we finish our week of educating the I-195 Commission about the need for urban protected bike lanes, the front-and-center position of parking comes to mind. Commissioner Jan Brodie last expressed opposition to the bike lanes, which have broad community support, because they would threaten double parking (which is illegal), and did not agree to using a few on-street spots as loading zones for the court buses and trucks that tend to block the street. The fact that the I-195 Commission has been encouraging public expenditures on a parking garage, at $30,000-$50,000 per spot estimated cost should seem a little out of place with this, especially when it’s noted that Providence’s downtown is covered in parking in every direction, and that getting people on bikes or into transit makes many parking spots available without adding any.

The project has been greenwashed, in my opinion, by adding a bus hub to the bottom of the garage, but of course as a driver what one needs least is a garage to park and catch a bus from, and as a transit user what one needs least is a bus hub at which to park one’s car. So it’s kind of like wrapping yarn around a pigeon to attach it to a rat, and then calling it a magical griffin. . .

Do you have a #parkingcrater to add to our #MarchMadness competition? Tweet one at @transportpvd!

THIS JUST IN: As I was writing this, Barry Schiller of the Coalition for Transportation Choices wrote to say that RIDOT is planning to widen I-95 through parts of Providence, at $46 Million in costs. I can’t wait to see the parking craters that come of that plan if it’s ever approved. . . I <3 RIDOT.

~~~~

Note: An earlier version of this article attributed an incorrect cost estimate for the replacement of the Dean Street Bridge. This post has been updated to include an assessment by RIDOT that does find the bridge to be “functional deficient” and in only “fair” structural condition for its superstructure and substructure. Thanks to commenter Jef Nickerson of Greater City Providence for noting this error.

March 19, 2014March 19, 2014

Resiliency in Rhode Island: a panel discussion on climate change

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As part of Fossil Free Rhode Island’s ongoing fossil fuel divestment campaigns, the organization is sponsoring a panel discussion on climate change organized by the Rhode Island Climate Coalition (RISCC).

WHAT: Resiliency In Rhode Island: a panel discussion on climate change
WHEN: March 19, 2014, 7pm
WHERE: Lippitt Hall, Room 402, URI Kingston, RI 02881

From rising seas to severe storms such as Hurricane Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo to record heat waves, floods, and droughts, the challenges posed by climate change are intensifying around the world, the US, and in Rhode Island with its 420 mile shoreline … while it lasts.

Rhode Island is already experiencing the effects. From big storms to urban heat, the challenges posed by climate change are on the rise.

Forum speakers will outline the challenges climate change poses for communities and governance. There will be a discussion about how Rhode Island can tap its creative capacity and unique assets to respond to climate change in a way that will improve the lives of all its citizens.

The event presents an exciting opportunity for the community to get involved in the conversation and in new climate initiatives.

Speakers at the Climate Forum will include:

Margiana Petersen-Rockney — Rosasharn Farm, Young Farmer’s Network
Julian Rodriguez-Drix — Environmental Justice League
Jim Bruckshaw — OSHA Consultant from Matunuck
Judith Swift — URI Coastal Institute
ECO Youth organizers such as Abe Vargas, Kendra Monzon, and Juliana Rodriguez

In June of 2013, Fossil Free Rhode Island requested that the URI Foundation divest from fossil fuels. In a letter received today, this request was turned down. The URI Foundation expressed its commitment to honor the intent of its donors by investing responsibly, implying that divestment was at odds with this.

Clearly, whatever destroys Earth cannot possibly be a responsible investment. This obviously is a view shared by those alumni who told me in recent days that they plan to form an alternative fund in which deposits can be held until the URI decides to divest. This latest development will certainly be part of the panel discussion.

The event is sponsored by:

Rhode Island Student Climate Coalition, a statewide alliance of students and youth working for a clean, safe, and just future for all
Fossil Free Rhode Island, taking action for climate justice, urging public institutions to divest from fossil fuels as the only moral choice
URI Multicultural Center, dedicated to the development —by means of social justice, change and empowerment — of a campus united across culture, identity, and discipline.

February 10, 2014February 10, 2014

No safety when people are disposable commodities

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One of the events organized at URI last week was a panel discussion on Alternative Strategies for Maintaining a Safe Campus. Here is an updated informal version of the notes I prepared for the occasion.

Outline

Identify the problem: how does one create a safe campus in a society that idolizes violence on all scales?
What can we do about it?

Violence

Societies breed the sociopaths they deserve. The following two are manifestations of the systemic violence:
- the lone-nut on a shooting rampage
- police departments militarized with perpetual-war surplus
The physical abuse we teach in military training and employ abroad in expanding our empire sets the standard for oppression we use at home. This is what happened to non-violent protesters of Disarm Now Plowshares when they resisted our nuclear weapons of mass destruction:
- They —nuns, priests, and a nurse— were arrested, cuffed and hooded with sand bags.
- At the trial the marine in charge testified:
  
  When we secure prisoners anywhere in Iraq or Afghanistan we hood them … so we did it to them.

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world
- home of 5% of the world population and 25% of the world’s incarcerated.
- 5% of black men; 2% of Hispanic men; less than 1% of white men are incarcerated.
- Read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow or watch this this video. Here is a panel discussion called End Mass Incarceration; it provides the missing links required to find alternative strategies.
With guns as god on our side we have 30,000 gun shot fatalities per year and 70,000 non-fatal shootings. These statistics dwarf the spectacular events that feed and are caused by the corporate media complex.
Pro Publica had an article about the effects of violence: The PTSD Crisis that’s being ignored:
- vicious cycle: neighborhood violence → PTSD → compromised public safety → neighborhood violence
These are the effects on children when they grow up in poverty and violence:
- learning disabilities
- lifelong negative health effects
- intra-uterine growth retardation
Pediatricians refer to this violence to which children are subjected as toxic stress. The solution of the corporate media complex assisted by the United Global Union Busters? Blame teachers for their under-performing students and call in the privatization troops!
Death preventable by effective health care: If we had the French health care system in US, there would be 140,000 fewer such fatalities per year.
The real numbers are a state secret, but a good estimate is that US national “defense” costs $4,000 per person per year. This amounts to a lifetime expenditure of more than $250,000 per person.
Martin Luther King in his Beyond Vietnam speech at Riverside Church onApril 4, 1967, a year before his assassination said:

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

The system we have created is what spiritual death looks like: we are all zombies now! Two atomic bombs worth of fatalities each year, but nobody notices and nobody cares because it produces no gripping pictures on the home page.
This is an abbreviated list with lots of victims of systemic violence, but it’s all peanuts compared to the violence of global inequality, which kills about 25,000,000 people per year. Global climate change, which barely registers in the corporate media, may cause a number of fatalities bigger by one or two orders of magnitude. How can we begin to solve that problem, if we collectively ignore statistics like these?

What can we do?

There is the eternal question: “How do we deal with the danger of increasing crime?”
A famous Dutch criminologist, referring to a newspaper notorious for its sensationalism had a simple answer: “Read a different morning newspaper.”
My reply 30 years later:

Tune out of the stupefying pap served up by the corporate media complex.
Get used to the idea that the brain acts as if it has two parts: (fast forward to the seven minute time mark in the video)
- System one responds to pictures and anecdotes; it can barely count or reason and is easily mislead, but it’s fast and can save us from immediate danger.
- System two can think systematically and critically; it can understand statistics, but it’s lazy, slow and painful to engage.
- The corporate media talk to system one. Tune out and there will be fewer hysteria driven events such as the lock-down at URI last year.
- Engage system one and you’ll realize that there is a war on the poor and people of color in America. The lone-nut shooter in a nice white, affluent neighborhood near you is responsible for only a minute fraction of the total number of victims.
How can an individual help solve problems of global scale? Follow Gandhi when he said: “Be the change you want to see in the world!” Maybe I’ll get to that, for now I’ll follow Martin Luther King with his:

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Once again, for the academic year 2013-2014 URI is in the bottom twenty of LGBT unfriendly schools.
According to government statistics, the most prevalent hate crimes by far on university campuses result from bias involving race and sexual orientation. Drawing attention to their manifestations on campus is encouraged as long as it results in nice photo ops for administrators. As soon as the message become a threat to the corporate brand image, the messenger is disappeared.
It happens all the time and it is what happened to my dear friend Andrew Winters at URI. First people get MLK peacemaker awards, but then something goes wrong and silence at URI sets in. Andrew’s disappearance was covered in
- CCRI’s Unfiltered Lens
- The Brown Daily Herald
- The Providence Journal
- Options, RI’s LGBT community newsmagazine
URI’s Good Five Cent Cigar, the Student Senate, and the Faculty Senate have all deliberately participated in the URI code of silence. Blessed by the Board of Education and the Governor’s office, the tactic of choice remains loyalty to the corporate Think Big brand. As always, the tactic of choice is saying one thing in public, and doing the opposite behind the scenes.

A perfect example took place when URI was featured in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The university’s CEO wrote in his blog of March 9, 2011 under the heading Another Special Moment for URI:

Many of your [sic] have heard me say that one cannot solve problems while trying to hide them, or by pretending they don’t exist.

Sounds good until you find out that the photojournalist working on this article for The Chronicle was ordered off the URI campus.

Violence makes most of its victims one by one; the vast majority remain nameless. The corporate media complex reports only on the spectacular outliers that produce juicy pictures. Is it surprising that this feeds mass hysteria?

Meanwhile, capitalism keeps alive a health care system run by death panels consisting of criminally overpaid CEOs. The system perpetuates violence and oppression in the workplace, in the streets, in the prisons and a global scale. The alternative strategy that we are looking for has been formulated by Camus:

In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.

November 23, 2013

Ocean State Morning Report

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Thanks to Mark Gray introducing me to the medium, I decided to make a podcast this morning. Please let me know what you think…

In search of a better way to pay for R.I. schools – ProJo

School Committee Weighs Improved Arts Oversight – EGPatch

The Saturday Morning Post: Quick hits on politics & more in RI – Nesi’s Notes

Travis Rowley: Lessons From The Hunger Games – GoLocalProv

For What It’s Worth – Bill Reynolds, ProJo

Go Rhody!

October 16, 2013October 17, 2013

Climate change movie at URI an unqualified success

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At 7 pm on Monday, October 14th, Fossil Free Rhode Island (FFRI) kicked off its campaign to push the University of Rhode Island to divest from fossil fuels with a screening of Do the Math, the ground-breaking new documentary from 350.org about the climate movement, to a packed house in Weaver Auditorium on the Kingston campus. “We stood … and we sat in the aisles to see Do the Math and to celebrate that fossil fuel divestment will come to URI,” I exclaimed enthusiastically even as I do physics at URI.

Tommy Viscione from Rotaract hosted, introducing Bianca Piexoto, President of Student Action for Sustainability (SAS), Evan Connolly, Vice President of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Student Association (ENRESA) and Lisa Petrie, Chair of the Green Task Force of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South County presented information on their groups.

Senator Whitehouse, who was unable to attend due to the government shutdown, sent a personal message of support to the group.

“Thank you to the Sierra Club and to all the students participating in this event for taking action on climate change. Every week, I give a speech in the Senate urging my colleagues to wake up to the effects of climate change. The effects are all around us, and they’re only getting worse: sea-level rise, ocean warming and acidification, temperature records and heat waves.

Mother Nature is giving us some pretty strong signals, and we ignore them at our peril. I’ll keep fighting to get Congress to wake up, and your actions on campus are also critical. We need to spread awareness and encourage everyone to make their voices heard. Again, thank you for organizing this event, for pressing for divestment, and for joining the fight against climate change. I hope you enjoy the film.”

The audience sat in rapt silence as the film laid out the “terrifying math” of global warming: the fact that, barring drastic action, we will blow through our “carbon budget–” the amount of fossil fuels we can burn without utterly destroying the climate–within the next 15 years–and, still more frightening, that the fossil fuel companies already have on their books over five times that amount.

Beyond “the Math” it documented the emergence of the burgeoning climate movement in the U.S., from the protests against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to the divestment campaigns that have sprung up on over 300 college campuses and in scores of cities nationwide. A pre-recorded video message from Bill McKibben, The Next Chapter, was shown after after the movie.

Since we launched the Do The Math tour sixteen American cities including Providence … seven or eight big universities, some of our big denominations like United Church of Christ. (They have plans to divest.) There’s a lot of momentum so we need you in this fight pushing ahead…We continue to fight Keystone in every way we can. There are 75,000 people who have pledged civil disobedience — we hope that it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, you know where I will be … Very glad to see lots of people out for Summer Heat to shut down Brayton Point, the last coal fired station around here. Time to to shut it down.” In fact, last week, the new owners announced plans to retire the plant.

“The movie made me feel hopeful about the possibility of ending the use of fossil fuels and saving the earth and all its inhabitants!” said Jan Creamer of Wakefield.

Then Sarah Martin, ENRESA President, introduced the panel: Abel Collins, RI Sierra Club, Rachel Bishop, Brown Divest Coal, Nick Katkevich, founding member FFRI and Pat Prendergast, a second year environmental and natural resource economics master’s student and a URI Energy Fellow.

A lively discussion followed and the panel adeptly handled a wide range of questions beginning with what Larry Kelland of Wakefield described as a creeping expansion of corporate “rights” cementing the influence of fossil fuel companies influence on public policy due to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. Other topics that came up were: widening the divestment strategy and asking if the group was looking into asking philanthropic foundations to divest so as to be consistent with their charter to “do public good.” Liz Marsis, formerly of the George Wiley Center, pointed out that diverse environmental groups must band together with social justice groups in demanding change. Nick Katkevich echoed this sentiment, noting that

we need to move outside our silos and see the connections between the crises we face. Climate change will unleash a wave of migration such as the world has never seen, making immigration reform more urgent than ever. The same banks that are financing mountaintop removal mining are forcing families out of their homes.

Judging from the conversations before hand, perhaps as much as one third of the crowd came to get information. There seemed to be groups in which one person was very well informed while others came to learn. Judging from the response and questions, the audience left convinced that there was no doubt that the evidence was compelling and immediate action was needed. Terry Cummings, a member of Occupy Providence and URI alumn said “(it was a) great success. I dig the film (second viewing) yet, it’s the peeps and their awakening that moves me as well.”

Maureen Logan of Westerly, who is also a member of the Raging Grannies, asked about hosting a screening of the documentary there. Terry Cummings, a member of Occupy Providence and URI alumnus, said “(it was a) great success. I dig the film (second viewing) yet, it’s the peeps and their awakening that moves me as well.”

Tommy Viscione, wrapped things up with announcements of upcoming events and actions. Later that night Abel Collins posted his thoughts that summed up the feeling of the event:

I am going to bed tonight with a deep sense of gratitude. Thanks to the great work of URI student volunteers and the member/volunteers of Fossil Free RI, , and the Rhode Island Sierra Club, we had standing room only in the auditorium.

The film was inspiring, but it was the community that came together to experience it and the great discussion that we had afterward that made it meaningful.

September 29, 2013September 30, 2013

Coach makes 26 times what childcare providers earn

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The income gap between those who entertain the affluent and those who provide childcare services for poor and middle class parents and their children is massive, according to the Providence Journal. By way of comparison, URI basketball coach Danny Hurley’s state subsidy is more than 26 times larger than what the average community-sponsored childcare provider earns.

Hurley earns $600,000, Politifact RI confirmed, making him the highest paid state employee. Earlier in the week, a page 1 story compared the starting salaries of teachers to the childcare providers who will most certainly earn a little bit more if and when they sign their union cards.

If you read really, really far down into that story, you’d have learned that the average pay these providers earn is $20,028.86.

According to the Providence Journal:

The state paid the licensed childcare providers $23,028.86, on average, last year, in amounts that varied from the $224 paid to a woman on Hunts Avenue in Pawtucket, to the $76,991 paid the top-earner.

It would appear that many of the people paid by the state to take care of other people’s children are, themselves, poor enough to qualify for financial assistance from the state and federal government.

The ProJo has dedicated a lot of time and energy to these childcare providers, many of whom it reports are poor. Why? The editorial page won’t run anything from advocates of the organizing efforts and the news coverage reads as if it was reported by Fox News (I would absolutely positively welcome any disinterested parties to weigh in on this).

The Providence Journal isn’t the only well-heeled local organization to take an intense interest in this unionization effort. So has the Freedom for the Prosperous, a public-sector despising local think tank that purports to care for Rhode Islanders economic well-being. By way of comparison, I would love to know how much both of these two groups have invested in their campaigns to call attention to 600 people who earn on average $20,000 getting a raise.

Whether it’s how much we pay a basketball coach, how much childcare providers earn, or why the ProJo and the Freedom for the Prosperous spend their time and money on certain topics, it’s all evidence that modern American capitalism seems to reward making more money rather than adding value to the community.

Ed note: For clarity, I think Danny Hurley is both an awesome basketball coach and well-worth $600,000 a year to Rhode Island taxpayers. I passionately believe the childcare workers who take care of poor and middle income children have among the most crucial roles in our community – they are helping out with the kids who have a high likelihood of falling through the cracks and every additional penny we invest in this function will reap huge though often invisible dividends for taxpayers AND the citizenry.

March 7, 2013

Former Prisoner Facing ‘Backlash’ For Pursuing Education

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This post, by TTEF President Andres Idarraga on behalf of the Board of Directors, originally appeared on TTEF’s blog.

The recent controversy surrounding a young man pursuing his education at the University of Rhode Island raises several societal issues. (“One student’s journey from state prison to URI sparks inquiry,” Katherine Gregg, 2/24/13). Should we encourage all Rhode Islanders to pursue an education, regardless of background? How do we encourage the formerly incarcerated to successfully re-enter society and assume their rights and responsibilities as citizens?

I am co-founder and president of the Transcending Through Education Foundation. The Foundation was founded last year to encourage and support people who are incarcerated and were formerly incarcerated in pursuing higher education. We believe education is the most effective tool in helping people live productive lives and become better citizens. Postsecondary education has proven to lead to greater civic participation and higher earnings.

URI and other institutions of higher education should of course consider the background of applicants and the safety of students and faculty when making admissions decisions, whether the applicant has a criminal record or not. However, in this case, URI did not have the benefit of assessing Mr. Jones’s criminal record in making its decision because the alternate admission application he filled out did not request the information.

URI states that normally they review applicants with a criminal record on a “case-by-case” basis. We support case-by-case reviews and commend URI for having such a review process. We also encourage URI and other institutions of higher-learning to continue to develop criteria that assess more than a person’s criminal record when making an admission decision. Relevant criteria should be developed from a thoughtful and knowledgeable position that can withstand the occasional controversy.

As Rhode Island’s flagship public university, URI has a role in educating all Rhode Islanders. This includes qualified applicants from the over 20,000 Rhode Islanders living in the community on probation or parole and the many more who have a criminal record. Educational institutions serve a historical role in providing people with a way out of challenging circumstances, whether they are born into them or are responsible for them through a series of bad decisions. If universities relied solely on criminal background checks, they would practically foreclose a vital pathway to a better life for many people. And we would collectively reinforce a cycle of poverty and struggle, sometimes leading to prison, for the same population.

Without knowing Malcolm Jones’s specific circumstances, we know that he decided to pursue his education, most likely as a way to better his life, as many other citizens also do. We should encourage more people to do the same and support the efforts of our institutions of higher education in providing people with that opportunity.

Sincerely,

Andres Idarraga

President

Transcending Through Education Foundation

January 9, 2013January 9, 2013

Brown May Cost More But Grads Have Less Debt

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All else being equal, if a URI and a Brown grad both apply for the same job, the kid with the Ivy League degree is probably going to get the gig. That Brown diploma ought to be more valuable; at $54,000 a year, Brown costs a lot more than does URI, which runs the average student about $24,000 a year.

But it shouldn’t also be easier for the average Brown grad to pay for the premium! According to the Project on Student Debt, it is.

In 2011, the average Brown grad owed $20,455 for their degree while the average URI grad owed $25,973. At Brown, only 45 percent of 2011 graduates had student loan debt while 73 percent of URI grads did.

The Project on Student Debt Rhode Island ranks Rhode Island as having the fourth highest average student loan debt in the nation at $29,097. RISD didn’t report its data for the study, but here are some of the others:

Salve Regina ……………..$43,237
Roger Williams ………….$38,365
Bryant University ………$37,813
Providence College …….$32,850
Rhode Island College …$21,384

The Brown Daily Herald had an article about this back in November with a great lede: “Despite having the highest tuition in Rhode Island, Brown had the lowest average debt of all reporting colleges in the state for class of 2011 graduates, according to the Project on Student Debt, a report published by the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit.”

December 27, 2012December 27, 2012

Privatization of Higher Ed Violates State Constitution

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As reported here and here, the University of Rhode Island has spent close to $500,000 on repairs of its president’s tuition-funded home, which is among the fringe benefits that come with the president’s job, such as a car, an expense account, and club dues.

Excessive administrative spending is but one of many results of nationwide privatization of public education. Particularly distressing in this context is the root cause of this development, namely the decline of the fraction of the URI budget that comes from the Rhode Island general revenue, a percentage that has dropped from 60% in the 1950s to less than 10% currently.

Privatization has resulted in an explosive increase in tuition. As documented in Trends in College Pricing 2012, a College Board publication, inflation-adjusted tuition and fees have increased by more than 350% since the early 1980s. Excessive spending on presidential perks, in particular at URI, typifies a litany of deplorable policy decisions that coddle university and college administrators at the expense of public education. Recent examples are:

URI’s previous president got a 14 percent raise in 2008-09.
The previous president cashed in with a retirement incentive of 40 percent of the $183,000 “faculty” salary he earned after his resignation as president ot the university, a salary which happens to roughly 80 percent higher than full professor faculty salaries.
URI’s current president started his tenure at a salary about 25 percent above what his predecessor ever made.
A study performed for the American Association of University Professors found that between 2004 and 2010 spending on instruction and academic support at URI declined by 10 percent; while spending on administration increased by 25 percent.

In spite of all of these excesses and skewed priorities, the almost defunct Board of Governors of Higher Education routinely justifies the tuition hikes and administrative bloat it authorizes by claiming concern for quality education. Of course, the ultimate responsibility for the neglect of public education rests with the Rhode Island legislature. The legislature and its serial enablers of the Board of Governors for Higher Education, which is tasked with oversight of public higher education, are duty bound to uphold the Rhode Island Constitution and pertinent statutes. Their collective failure in this respect is monumental. As Sections I and IV of Article 12 of the Rhode Island Constitution state:

[…] it shall be the duty of the general assembly to promote public schools and public libraries, and to adopt all means which it may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education and public library services.
The general assembly shall make all necessary provisions by law for carrying this article into effect. It shall not divert said money or fund from the aforesaid uses, nor borrow, appropriate, or use the same, or any part thereof, for any other purpose, under any pretence whatsoever.

Title XVI [of the Rhode Island General Laws] adds:

[…] the purpose of continuing and maintaining the University of Rhode Island […] in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the pursuit and the professions of life […]

Privatization is sold as if it provides better services at a lower cost to the taxpayer, but the real costs to Rhode Island and its citizens are hidden. In education, chief among those hidden costs are increased tuition and interest on student loans, which exclusively benefits moneylenders. The examples listed above are just a small sample of the many symptoms that characterize a society unable to keep in check the predatory impulses of a small minority.

December 20, 2012December 20, 2012

The Right Needs A Head On A Stick; Erik Loomis’ Will Do

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It’s been a bad end of the year for conservatives. After deluding themselves into thinking they were going to win the presidential election by a landslide, they instead found themselves routed by a president they’d labelled “socialist” and claimed that he “palled around with terrorists.” And then in the wake of a national tragedy which left twenty-eight people dead, among them 20 children and six educators, politicians decided that they were no longer willing to sacrifice the lives of American citizens so that a few people could own assault rifles. Mike Huckabee’s remarks that the removal of Christian worship from public schools was to blame for the Sandy Hook massacre didn’t go over that well.

In the face of these failures, the right wing fell back to the cultural warfare they so successfully waged during the 1980s and 1990s. With Christmastime a few weeks away, it wasn’t hard to resuscitate that narrative. Now, with gun control looking to be increasingly likely, conservatives needed a target. Enter University of Rhode Island professor of labor and environmental history Erik Loomis. A perfect target for the “universities are indoctrinating our children” theme of conservative writing.

Prof. Loomis, known best in left wing circles for his political blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money, tweeted that he wanted Wayne LaPierre’s (CEO of the National Rifle Association) head on a stick and that the NRA should be classified as a terrorist organization (he has since deactivated his twitter account).

In the civilized world, this is what is known as “hyperbole.” In the conservative world, this is calling for Mr. LaPierre’s assassination. Anchor Rising’s Marc Comtois postulated that Prof. Loomis was merely seeking attention. How did Mr. Comtois prevent him from receiving that attention? With a broadside blog post, that was later redistributed and linked to by “traditional” media on their Twitter accounts and websites.

Better people than I have already written in Prof. Loomis’ defense such as Prof. Daniel Nexon at the Duck of Minerva and Prof. Loomis’ colleagues Robert Farley and Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns & Money. The academics who write for Crooked Timber issued a joint statement that went a bit further; they asked readers to contact URI’s Dean Winnie Brownell (winnie@mail.uri.edu), Provost Donald DeHays (ddehayes@uri.edu), and President David Dooley (davedooley@mail.uri.edu) in a polite, civil, and firm manner and tell them to protect free speech.

That’s the right manner of response. The wrong response was URI’s shameful and cowardly statement that played directly into the conservative bullies’ hands, while also elevating what was essentially a story contained to right wing loudmouths and left wing reactions into “real news”.

Let me be clear, the right wing are being bullies here. These are the same people that use hyperbolic language every day. These are the people who claimed that our President assists terrorists and was one himself, that he’s an Islamic Kenyan sleeper agent who hates America, that he’s destroying the nation with his godless socialism, that he’s a fascist fostering a cult of personality so he can end the American Republic forever.

If URI buckles to the demands of these hypocrites it will be a blow against intellectual freedom that will reverberate across the United States; and I do not believe I am being hyperbolic here. No academic’s opinions are safe, regardless of whether they’re left, right, or center. It will prove to the right wing that intimidation works, that no use of hyperbole that the right can portray as offensive anywhere should be protected speech. And tactics that work are often copied. The left will push back in the exact same manner, and then it will be a battle over who can collect more heads.

Universities and colleges need to be centers of academic freedom regardless of political belief, if only because we are all enriched when they can have debates that political discourse is too soundbite-based to have. It’s a near-sighted and hypocritical game the right is playing. And they should be condemned for playing it.

November 19, 2012November 19, 2012

Progress Report: RI Tops Region in Food Insecurity; Pension Compromise Talk; Roger Williams and Thanksgiving

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munford — URI gave a great effort against Ohio St. on Saturday before falling to the 4th-ranked team in the country. (Photo by Bob Plain)

We’re now the number one state in New England for food insecurity, reports the ProJo this morning. 15 percent of households in the state can’t afford the food it needs. This is a crisis of epic proportions that goes largely unaddressed because the influential class doesn’t tend to know many people that are affected by it.

To that end, kudos to these Providence College students who helped deliver leftover cafeteria food to some of the most needy people in our community.

Scott MacKay, who knows how local politics works as well as any Rhode Islander, suggests its time for the state and labor unions to strike a deal on pension reform … letting the legal system work it out, he argues is potentially very expensive and at the least very risky for taxpayers. Plus, Providence and Mayor Taveras has shown that this is a far better option politically, as well.

Speaking of pension reform, not one of the 17 state legislators who voted against it lost in the election for doing so, reports GoLocal.

And back to RIPR for a moment … Ian Donnis seems irked that I’m still irked that WPRI kept Abel Collins out of a televised debate! Interestingly, I actually think WPRI did Collins an electoral favor by snubbing him – he got more earned media by not being included than he would have had he debated, which wasn’t his strong suit as a candidate in the first place. That said, I don’t think affect on outcome is the standard by which media organizations should determine who should and should not be included in debates. I think it should be based on what potential voters should know about their options … news coverage doesn’t exist for candidates to benefit from, it exists for consumers to learn from.

The Boston Globe reports America owes Thanksgiving to Rhode Island’s own Roger Williams, not the Puritans who are often giving the credit.

Whose at fault for Hostess filing for bankruptcy? Labor, which didn’t agree to an 8 percent pay cut, or the CEO who took a 80 percent pay increase before asking employees to make a sacrifice? Either way, that’s no way to come to the negotiating table.

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