The University of Rhode Island’s Harrington School of Communication and Media recently reopened its speaking center in Ranger Hall.
The speaking center, which was a thriving center throughout the early 2000’s, closed after the professor that spearheaded the initiative took an administrative role at the University, according to communications professor Kristine Cabral, who runs the current rendition of the center.
“We had a speaking center going back in 2008, but I think it fizzled out,” Cabral said. “So here we are reinvigorating it after Ammina Kothari was kind enough to find us a space in this new, beautiful Ranger Hall building.”
The speaking center returned in a higher-caliber rendition than in years past. The old center, which was located in the basement of Davis Hall, was a much smaller room with undergrad students working as tutors.
The new center, located in Ranger Hall 301 A, is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and has a staff of three graduate students and a part-time faculty member who offer a variety of public speaking-related services.
“We welcome students coming in for a variety of reasons,” Cabral said. “If a student is trying to navigate speech anxiety, if they need help choosing a speech topic, researching or outlining for their speech, we can help them with that. If they would like delivery coaching, we have a podium in the room and can offer feedback in that regard as well.”
While the center is still in its infancy and has yet to establish a website and social media presence, students can arrange for a meeting by walking into the center during its open hours or emailing [email protected] . The center is also reaching out to classes throughout the Harrington School of Communication and Media to promote the center’s services.
“We have had two requests from faculty members to come in and talk about the speaking center,” Cabral said. “We asked COM100 faculty to consider offering extra credit to students who come in for a visit and we provide proof that they came to see us. We also have a little bit of a prize contest going on, where the first 10 people that come to visit us will walk away from a gift from the Harrington School.”
As the center continues to establish a presence on campus amongst communications and other public speaking-related majors, Cabral is certain that students will take advantage of the services the center has to offer.
“We believe we’ll get some traffic in the next couple of weeks, especially because those big speech assignments are just starting to be assigned at this point in the semester,” Cabral said.
The center will soon publish a website for students looking to access public speaking resources, which will be the most efficient way for students to connect with the center and its staff. For students looking for help with written assignments, URI offers both an undergraduate and graduate writing center, which can be contacted at [email protected] . For students wishing for help regarding multimodal writing projects, they can reach out to the Digital Writing and Research Studio, as well, located on the third floor of Roosevelt Hall.