President Dooley poses for a photo with students while visiting them in Indonesia during J-Term. Photo by Brook Williams Ross.
URI president makes appearance during Indonesia J-Term Trip
The President of the University of Rhode Island, David Dooley, made a special appearance during a January term trip to Indonesia and directly interacted with faculty and students during their studies.
Nancy Karraker, natural resources science professor, and Tom Boving, geological sciences professor, led 17 students to Indonesia to study biodiversity, conservation and geology for 15 days. On the first field day of the trip Dooley spent several hours with the students, learning how to trap and track turtles, and hiking with them at Rawa Aopa Watumohai National Park.
“It was really great to see him out there with us,” Karraker said. “He was marching through the Savanna, catching turtles and enjoying the same beautiful sights that we were enjoying and learning out there. He was so great with the students, asking them questions, very curious about what they thought about it there and what they were learning there.”
One of the highlights of Dooley’s visit was when the students taught Dooley what they had learned during the trip. Before Dooley’s arrival, students partook in Karraker’s long-term research project, which involved tracking turtles that are significant to Indonesia’s ecosystem. Students explained to Dooley the turtles’ role in Indonesia’s ecosystem, as well as the challenges that those who manage national parks and wildlife reserves face.
“I’ve never been to that part of Indonesia before, and I’ve actually never heard about Professor Karraker’s research at that sight before,” Dooley said. “So I learned a lot about the nature of the ecosystem, how it’s governed by and changes with rainfall, the role the turtles play in the ecosystem, particularly around fostering growth of trees and in the area and how they fit in with the larger ecology of that part of Indonesia.”
Karakker said that Dooley displayed a significant amount of perseverance. She said that Dooley could have simply met the students in Bali for an easier experience, but instead traveled for three and a half hours over two mountain ranges to spend four hours with the group in the field.
Students were also excited by how invested Dooley was in the experience.
“He didn’t seem like he’s the president of the college, he just seemed like a normal guy who was really interested in what we were doing,” Jordanne Feldman, a student who went on the trip, said. “He hiked with us in the national park when it was very hot and humid. He was such a trooper.”
Matthew Palasciano, another student who went on the trip, said that Dooley’s appearance was an unexpected surprise, but also a pleasant one.
“He really wanted to not be looked at as the president of the University, getting his hands dirty and being with the students, which I thought was super cool,” Palasciano said.
Both Palasciano and Feldman said that another highlight of the trip outside of meeting Dooley was learning from the Buginese people, an indigenous group who had little interaction with the outside world, learning about sustainable water management for rice paddies, and researching marine pollution.
Karrakker enjoyed Dooley’s visit, but was especially impressed by her students’ strength on the trip. The group frequently traveled in humid 90 degree weather for hours on end.
“The depth, the capacity for dealing with these conditions was so impressive in this year’s class,” Karrakker said. “No complaining, just absolutely enjoying what they were learning and what they were seeing, and being a group of students who realized not everybody gets to do this, we get to do this. And so I think more than most years, this class was really exceptional that way.”
According to Dooley, URI’s Southeast Asia representative Brook Ross asked him if he would be interested in making an appearance during the course while he was doing business with the Indonesian government. This is the first time that Dooley has made an appearance during an international J-Term course, but he would love to do so again if his schedule allows.
“I would say to any student, take advantage of the January term, whether you do it here, on-campus or online,” Dooley said. “Whether you take any of the regional trips that we have that go to various parts of the Northeast or in the U.S., but I would especially recommend to students that they consider an international experience, because it’s a chance to get out, spend an intensive time in a place you might never get back to.”