University of Rhode Island President Marc Parlange has implemented town halls into each college as a part of his 10-year strategic plan and new incentive-based budget model.
The incentive-based budget model aims to place college deans in a position where they’re able to build programs between colleges and within colleges, Parlange said. The model will also enable broader connection with companies, government agencies and non-governmental organizations.
The strategic plan outlines a vision for the University over a decade highlighting five major priorities, according to uri.edu/stragetic-plan .
The model is designed to create progress through communication and faculty participation in the University, according to Parlange.
“What we have now is more of an incremental budget model so it doesn’t really necessarily allow growth and development of new areas that we would like to build at the University,” Parlange said.
The town halls were adopted into the budget on April 4, when Parlange released a message to all faculty and staff at URI, as the most recent implementations in the IBB, according to Rhody Today . Within the message, Parlange encouraged faculty and staff to attend and participate in town hall meetings.
The IBB was originally launched Oct. 10, 2023, after Parlange wrote a message to the URI community announcing the beginning of a process to design and adopt a new budget model at the University. Parlange spoke about the design process the next day during his State of the University Address .
Town halls have been implemented for all nine colleges at URI and also will be held for administration, Parlange said. These town halls may include the athletics department, the finance department and the police department.
The types of administrations which will be included in the town hall project are still being finalized, Parlange said.
“This town hall is a great opportunity for them to ask their questions and to express their concerns directly to President Parlange,” Sean Rogers, dean of the URI College of Business, said. “You have a president who’s asking the hard questions about the University of Rhode Island.”
These hard questions are being asked because at the end of the day the University is about the people and the culture, Parlange said.
“It can be scary of course when something is changing but ultimately, the goal is that the University of Rhode Island thrives financially and that we are on a good solid path for the future,” Parlange said. “People love it here at URI and they want to understand what’s going on in their university.”
Overall the town halls aim to build community engagement within the IBB, according to Parlange.
“I want to be able to reach everyone and reach it in a way that we can have a conversation and discussion,” Parlange said. “These bring a lot of people that don’t typically go to faculty senate meetings.”
Positive feedback has been shown from professors, including one who expressed that she’d appreciated she was able to hear questions from a different group of people, Parlange said.
As dean of the College of Business, Rogers said that it is his role in these meetings to be an observer so that faculty members can have the spotlight to ask questions.
The deans have been to a number of budget meetings whereas the faculty, staff and employees haven’t been able to go to as many, Rogers said. The goal is to allow these groups to have their ideas, comments and suggestions heard so deans can better understand what issues, concerns and adjustments need to be considered.
Most town halls will be occurring in the coming weeks, however town halls for the College of Pharmacy and the College of Arts and Sciences were held last week.
“There were faculty who got up to ask clarifying questions and then later they were quite enthusiastic about the plan,” Parlange said. “I think it was genuine appreciation from faculty.”
Discussion of IBB and the town halls has occurred frequently within the faculty in the form of informal coffee and breakfast gatherings, Parlange said. These meetings have been once a week for the past six weeks and include the University Provost, Barbara Wolfe.
“When you’re changing how the University operates economically there has to be a lot of communication,” Parlange said. “At the moment we’re really into communication.”
The incentive-based budget model consists of an executive committee which provides guidance, a steering committee, which provides equitable recommendations towards the executive committee, and a design committee which operationalizes and critiques the steering committee’s recommendations.
The plan outlines a strategic vision for the University over a decade highlighting five major priorities, according to uri.edu/strategic-plan .
These priorities include broadening of impact, enhancement of student achievement, fostering of an inclusive culture and powering the future of the University, according to uri.edu/strategic-plan .
The plan is a work in progress and will continue to evolve and adapt over time, Parlange said.
“Ultimately we hope to generate new sources of revenue that will support students,” Parlange said. “This is something that’s going to evolve over the next two, three, four years in terms of how it’s actually going to run and operate.”
On Friday, the College of Business will be holding its first town hall meeting from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Thomas Ryan Auditorium in the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences. The College of Engineering will be holding its first town hall meeting on Thursday, April 25, from 11 a.m. to noon in Bliss Hall.
For more information visit URI.edu/college-town-halls .