Alumnus Tom Ryan and wife donate $35 million, the largest in URI history Photo by Greg Clark.
Alumnus Tom Ryan and wife give $35 million
Alumnus Thomas M. Ryan and his wife Cathy Ryan have made a $35 million donation to the University of Rhode Island, the largest private donation in history.
The $35 million will be divided three ways: $24 million to the development of the George and Anne Institute for Neuroscience; $10 million to establish the Thomas M. Ryan Scholars Program and a combined $1 million challenge to the men and women’s basketball teams.
The Ryans had also had made the previous largest donation in University history of $15 million in 2013, which created the Ryan Institute.
“Tom and Cathy really want to work closely with the University to identify the areas that can make the University of Rhode Island distinctive and will have the biggest impact,” University President David Dooley said. “They’ve always been very collaborative in talking through what could we potentially do for URI that would make it a fundamentally different and better University. The original conversation around neuroscience really was built from this discussion.”
The Ryan Institute currently exists as a graduate program and research center at URI. The $24 million going towards the institute will help build on neuroscience research at URI, at a time where the University is also working on developing a neuroscience undergraduate program.
Although there is a neuroscience research work being done at URI, there is currently no undergraduate neuroscience major.
“The University of Rhode Island will continue to develop as one of the nation’s foremost centers of neuroscience research related to finding treatments for neurodegenerative disease,” Dooley said.
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“This scholarship is a wonderful example of a fantastic alum stepping up to help support our students,” Vice President for Enrollment Management Dean Libutti said. “This is really a wonderful opportunity to provide a full ride for some terrific students to join our community.”
The University is hoping to begin this program for new students applying in fall of 2020. Admissions will identify approximately 50 students who fit the criteria of the program and bring them to URI for a series of interviews with a committee of admission counselors, administrators, professors and more.
“Right now we receive over 23,000 applications from new and transfer students,” Libutti said. “We’re hoping this will just expand and help URI on the map. We do great things, but the fact of Tom and Cathy Ryan’s gift to the University will really continue to propel us in the recruiting of really top students. We already have top students; this is going to help us even more.”
The URI basketball teams will use their $1 million gift from the Ryan family as a challenge to increase their money from other donors. This gift will go towards building a practice facility for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, according to Dooley.
“This will enable the University to remain competitive in its most important intercollegiate athletic sports, mainly men and women’s basketball,” Dooley said.
The donation will help all students at the University by furthering the school’s reputation.
“This benefits all of our students,” Dooley said. “The Ryan Neuroscience institute will be central to developing a new undergraduate major for neuroscience, producing more Ph.Ds in neuroscience. It will bring really top notch students to the University in any field. It will make a big difference to the students, to the faculty, and to the entire institution.”