After decades in the position, Jayne Richmond is retiring as the dean of URI’s College of Academic Success. Photo by Ethan Pellegino.
The University of Rhode Island’s dean of the University College for Academic Success (UCAS) has announced that she will retire at the end of June after spending 35 years of her career at URI.
Jayne Richmond first came to URI in 1986 to train graduate students to work in higher education. She earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education and Counseling at the University of Florida, which she said was one of the first universities to offer this type of program. She also previously worked as a professor at Kansas State University. She became the assistant dean for UCAS in 1993 before being named dean in 1999.
As dean, Richmond has transformed how URI supports its students both academically and personally. A few of her programs and accomplishments at URI have been creating the Academic Enhancement Center, which includes over 100 student tutors; creating the early alert system, a referral system that allows UCAS to intervene if a student begins struggling; starting the leadership minor; and integrating other programs and services into UCAS, such as the Writing Center and Career Services. She also integrated URI’s internship program into the college, which around 8,000 students take part in each year.
One of Richmond’s most recent accomplishments was improving academic advising.
“My feeling was very strongly that students needed accessible, accurate and accountable advising, and so we brought in full-time professional advisors who are all certified,” Richmond said. “They have to go through all of the training that we do so that they know what they’re doing, and there’s accountability because our mission is to get to students.”
Richmond believes that this effort was a success. In the five years that the new advising system has been in operation, the graduation and student retention rates have risen. She also said that students have earned more credits per semester on average since this system was introduced.
One of the primary reasons that Richmond believes she has succeeded in her role has been because of her background in counseling and mental health. She has used this experience in implementing programs such as the academic advising system and the early alert system.
“For me, it was always [about] looking through that lens of what the student experience was,” Richmond said. “And so that has just been just an honor and a thrill to do that for years.”
Richmond has not decided what she will do once she retires but said that she hopes to still find a way to help others, possibly by volunteering as a student advisor or in another way to support mental health.
As her tenure at the University comes to an end, many of Richmond’s colleagues and other members of the community have reflected on all that she has done at URI.
“It is hard to imagine the URI community without the day-to-day caring, dedication and support that Dean Richmond has provided to our students,” Provost Donald DeHayes wrote in a statement. “I thank her for her amazing contributions and wish her joy in her retirement.”
Richmond said she hopes URI continues to grow in how it supports its students after she’s gone.
“This University has been a spectacular place to have a career,” Richmond said. “What I love most is how a broad, excellent research university provides students and its staff and faculty, with a small college feeling, because everyone is important … It makes for a powerful learning environment, and that must continue.”