Swan Hall is the home of the humanities classes at the University of Rhode Island, and is located right behind Edwards Auditorium and across the street from the Alumni Center. Swan is one of the bigger humanities halls at URI. It offers a wide variety of courses to take as a student at URI; most history, social sciences, languages and world culture classes are located in Swan Hall.
Enrollment started to skyrocket after the post-World War II period. In the 1950s and 1960s, when college started to become more accessible. Baby boomers started getting to the age where they could finally attend college. With the boom of students applying to the University of Rhode Island, more buildings needed to be built to have space for students to learn. Built in 1961, Swan Hall was previously known as Independence Hall when first built. It was originally a hall for general education classes.
This building was part of a bond with other buildings for URI. In the tailend of the 1950s, Rhode Island voters approved a bond which was about $10 million allocated to the University for buildings like Independence Hall, the library, the biological science center and the fine arts center. It took just under $1 million to build Independence Hall.
After years of the building functioning at such a high level, wear and tear on the building and well-needed renovations needed to be made on the building. A major renovation project occurred on the building of Independence Hall. The renovation took place from 2004-2006. This renovation gave the building so many great amenities like technologies, redoing the lobby, landscaping and getting bigger classrooms. That renovation took about $9 million.
In 2008, Independence Hall was renamed in honor of M. Beverly Swan. Swan was a former student at URI, and after she graduated, she came back as a distinguished professor who taught linguistics. Swan was also a member of the Arts and Sciences department. After years of working in the arts and science department and being a professor, she was promoted to provost; and was the vice president of academic affairs for 17 years. If you walk into the hall today, you will see a metal swan in the lobby area to commemorate the legacy of M. Beverly Swan.
“This building is one of the few buildings on campus named after a woman,” Professor of Applied History Catherine DeCesare, who also has worked as an archivist, stated.
Most buildings on campus are named after men like Washburn Hall, Ranger Hall and Edwards Auditorium. This makes Swan Hall stand out from the other buildings having a women representative.
Today, Swan Hall is like a melting pot of culture and experiences. Swan Hall often hosts events such as “Curating Latin American and Latinx Art in the 21st Century”. This event is being held on Oct. 11 at 5:00 p.m. URI is constantly holding events like these in Swan Hall to highlight minority groups and people from different backgrounds and shed light on topics that are not heavily talked about. Swan hall has changed numerous times over the years, but regardless of that, Swan will continue to spread culture, history and inclusion.