Message from Bob Beagle, Vice President


	Bob Beagle with John McCray, vice provost of Urban Programs, at the Distinguished Achievement Award celebration at the Providence Westin on October 17.

Welcome to the Division of University Advancement Web site. It's hard to believe that another academic year is beginning. Things are busy here on the Kingston Campus as classes get underway and we welcome 3100 freshmen to the URI Class of 2013.

We are excited about the arrival of the University of Rhode Island's 11th President, Dr. David Dooley, who has am impressive resume in teaching, scholarship, research, and administration. While President Dooley will lead the University toward a greater emphasis on research and the generation of new resources, he is also known as a leader strongly committed to teaching, to the value of the undergraduate experience, and to the vital role of a campus community. A formal inauguration for President Dooley is being planned for April 8, 2010. A series of other inaugural events will be held on April 7 and 8.

President Dooley may be new to Rhode Island, but he has been actively introducing himself and promoting URI to our publics. He has spoken to every Chamber of Commerce in Rhode Island, and has been interviewed extensively by both print and broadcast media. He is also visiting major for-profit and non-profit organizations around the state where he can tell our story to management and alumni employed there. In September, we embarked on our second annual Big Thinkers Series with a program in Boston. On November 19 we will be in Washington, D.C. and New York City on December 1. Last year we featured alumni as Big Thinkers; this year, we feature President Dooley as our newest Big Thinker.

Our fourth annual Homecoming Weekend Distinguished Achievement Awards celebration was another rousing success. More than 400 alumni, friends, and families of the award recipients gathered in Providence for the gala celebration. It was an emotional, uplifting reminder of the great impact URI alumni have around the world. It was also a poignant reminder of the “Think Big. We Do.” branding message.

If you have been on campus recently, you've noticed the light pole flags on Upper College Road bearing our “Think Big. We Do.” brand theme, with its accompanying tagline graphic (a globe with the University seal as shown on our revised URI Web site). Together, these elements proclaim that URI, with its uniquely small, quaint setting, is a preeminent university whose students, faculty, and alumni are doing work that has a meaningful impact in Rhode Island and beyond.

The brand continues to grow across URI's Web site, with more and more departments refreshing their pages. We've also opened up exciting new channels of communication with thousands of our alumni, students, prospective students, parents, and friends through daily updates on the social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We have also debuted "URILive!" a livecasting "channel" for the URI homepage. "URILive!" is live, streaming video of University events, and is being used to livecast the Fall 2009 Honors Colloquium events and other major events. See video archive.

Two 30-second branding television spots have aired since mid-March in markets where they reach potential students, influencers of students looking for a college choice, and URI alumni. A highlight of our television package was several months of advertising on NESN and YES. In both cases, we reached those legions of Red Sox and Yankees fans living in markets primary to URI. But, we also reached national Red Sox fans who subscribe to NESN. I have received many emails from alumni around the country (including the West Coast) who have seen our branding ads.

If you are planning a trip to Rhode Island, we hope you will find time to visit us. If you can't stop by for a personal visit, please visit us through our Web site, which is filled with updated information, videos, and live Web cam shots from the campus.

Best,

Bob Beagle

For more information about
Advancement at the University of Rhode Island, please contact:

Bob Beagle, Vice President for University Advancement
Alumni Center
73 Upper College Road
Kingston, RI 02881-2011
Phone: 401-874-2291
Fax 401-874-2292
Email: rbeagle@advance.uri.edu