On Tuesday, Rhode Island will choose whether to approve or reject a higher education bond that would give $160.5 million to the state’s higher education institutions, including the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College.
URI would receive $87.5 million to build a new biomedical sciences building, which would reside alongside Flagg Road. Rhode Island College would receive $73 million to renovate Whipple Hall and update the facility, which was built in 1958. An approval would make Whipple Hall the home of the Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies at RIC.
“We are totally constrained,” Parlange said. “Currently we are cramming basically three groups into lab spaces where really there should just be one research group.”
URI has about 6,500 students studying aspects of the biological sciences, according to Parlange.
“I think URI is really looking to expand in areas of biomedical research, and like any other research, you need the space, and then you need good people,” Bongsup Cho said, a professor and the director of IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence at URI. “To attract good people, you need the infrastructure…”
Rhode Island is focused on how a new building could influence the school past the next several years.
“This is about the future,” Cho said. “You don’t think about the next couple of years. We’re thinking about the next 20, 30 years. I think it’s going to make a difference. And that’s what put URI in the forefront of biomedical science, not only in Rhode Island, but regionally. To compete with other places in New England, right? Boston, Cambridge and New Haven.”
In addition to competing with other places in the Northeast, URI hopes to create more job opportunities for their students.
“We see this as really just infusing excitement both for our faculty and for our students, but also to help attract new companies for the state of Rhode Island, to help support spinoffs coming out of the labs,” Parlange said. “We also have colleagues at other institutes and schools that are actually talking about attracting companies here.”
Rhode Island College is also in need of the money to renovate the hall, according to Rep. James Langevin, the distinguished chair for the Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies at RIC.
“Whipple Hall dates back several decades now and is definitely long overdue for an overhaul and refurbishment,” Langevin said. “…It will be rebuilt as a new building and repurposed for training the next generation of cyber defenders and cyber professionals and students going into artificial intelligence.”
The new renovations will not just be for the students of RIC, but will also allow the school to expand their cybersecurity service.
“We will be providing real-world cybersecurity services to municipalities, school districts, nonprofits and maybe some small businesses as well, but it will also be an opportunity where you’ll have cyber professionals running it,” Langevin said.
The higher education bonds have been heavily supported by the state prior to this election. URI, RIC and the Community College of Rhode Island have received $277.3 million in the last six years.
This article was produced in conjunction with the University of Rhode Island’s public affairs reporting class under the journalism and public relations department.