The University of Rhode Island is looking to pass a $165 million bill that will be voted on as a bond referendum in the midterms to implement a plan to build a new Integrated Health Building.
The building’s location would be on the East side connected to the pharmacy program in White Hall.
“It’ll be an expansion of White Hall,” Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Abby Benson said. “But it’ll be used to house shared clinical and classroom spaces for our health and science programs.
The building would be referred to as integrated because it is going to be used for both the combinations of nursing, health sciences and pharmacy, so that students who study in these different areas will be able to share it with other students, according to Benson.
As the bill has not passed, URI leadership has been working to advocate for the funding with state officials.
“We have submitted a budget request to the governor,” Benson said. “The governor included it in his budget request to the legislature, and then the legislature approved at the initial request we provided, and now it goes to a vote.”
If the bill were to be approved, URI would have to wait until next year until they go through with their plans.
The plans for the new building would not begin until July of 2027. The construction won’t be until much later as the design process has to be put in place first before anything else happens, according to Benson.
Construction has been an ongoing process for a while at URI and all over campus as students try to navigate around it. By adding this building, there is the possibility of students having to navigate around certain parts of campus again because of some areas that likely get shut off.
“There is a lot of construction happening, which can be frustrating for students,” Benson said. “I hope people see it as a sign of progress because the state is really investing in URI and we have a lot of really exciting projects happening.”
If the bill passes, it will take a while for URI to get everything in place before the construction gets underway.
“It’s not estimated to be ready for use until the fall of 2031,” Benson said. “So it’s essentially a four year process.”
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