University welcomes more than 17,000 students for start of classes

KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 1, 2022 – The University of Rhode Island is set to welcome the Class of 2026 and thousands of returning students to its Kingston, Narragansett Bay, and Providence campuses during the next week. Classes officially begin at the state’s flagship research university on Sept. 7.

The 2022-23 academic year kicks off with a fall semester that will include a number of academic, athletic, and cultural events, as well as an official inauguration ceremony for the University’s 12th president, Marc Parlange.

COVID-19-related policies remain in place and include recommendations that all students, faculty, and staff be vaccinated and boosted to protect themselves. New students were required to complete a COVID-19 questionnaire and returning students were asked to upload records of any new COVID-19 vaccinations received since last semester. All students will be required to test up to 24 hours before or within 48 hours of their arrival to campus. The University no longer requires mask wearing indoors, except in spaces where direct academic instruction and research are taking place, unless a faculty member waives the requirement. Masks are also required at URI Health Services in clinical settings.

Student move-in days begin Thursday, Sept. 1, and run through Sunday, Sept. 4. URI President Marc Parlange will greet and visit with students and families throughout move-in.

Orientation events for new students are taking place this week as part of O-Week leading up to the start of classes. Events are intended to increase student engagement and to familiarize students with campus, the URI community, and resources for student success. Sunset yoga, Movie on the Quad, Rhody Rec Fest, and a day trip to Narragansett Town Beach are among the planned events. A Welcome Back to Campus event, hosted by President Parlange, will take place Oct. 6 on the URI Quadrangle. The event will include a rock wall and other recreational activities, a food truck and farmers market, music, and a student organization fair.

The University posted another record-setting year for applications with 25,400. The approximately 3,300 first-year students will join approximately 500 transfer students, more than 2,000 graduate students, and thousands of returning URI students, to comprise a student body of more than 17,000 when classes start next week.

This information is based on the best available data at the time of publication.

URI’s new Center for Military and Veteran Education–being established to serve and support prior, present, and future military-connected students, faculty, and staff as they further their educational and professional objectives–will open on the Kingston Campus on Sept. 7 with a ribbon-cutting celebration.

The University will formally inaugurate Marc Parlange as URI’s 12th president in ceremonies on the Kingston Campus on Sept. 22. Parlange, whose tenure as president began Aug. 1, 2021, has held academic leadership, research, and faculty positions at Monash University, Australia’s largest university; the University of British Columbia; the prestigious Swiss public research institute École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Johns Hopkins University; and the University of California, Davis.

The College of Business will mark its 100th anniversary with a series of events taking place throughout the year, including a building lighting at Ballentine Hall, scheduled to take place the evening of Sept. 21. An official 100th anniversary celebration kickoff event will take place during Alumni and Family Weekend, Oct. 15.

Ranger Hall, home to URI’s Harrington School of Communication and Media, will be the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 21 to celebrate the completion of a recent 20,000-square-foot interior renovation project providing new general and active learning classrooms, computer labs, video and audio editing suites, and film production and screening rooms.

URI’s annual Honors Colloquium, “Just Good Food: Creating Equitable, Sustainable, and Resilient Food Systems,” will explore our disconnect from the food system, except as consumers. The series, running most Tuesday evenings from Sept. 13 through Dec. 13, will feature expert speakers examining numerous aspects of the local and global food systems. The colloquium is free and open to the public.

The Textile Sustainability Forum, “Weaving a Sustainable Future,” will take place on the Kingston Campus Sept. 12. The event will highlight trends and ecological changes that impact the textile industry and will include presentations and a panel discussion led by URI faculty and industry experts.

The Re-Envisioning Nature: An Environmental Humanities Lecture Series is a yearlong series drawing on the expertise of environmental historians, literary scholars, musicians, and writers to demonstrate the role the humanities can play in understanding and addressing the urgent environmental questions of the day. The series kicks off Sept. 21.

The 2022 Christiane Amanpour Lecture, “Humanity in War Reporting,” featuring Jane Ferguson, will be held Oct. 20. Ferguson, multiple award-winning international correspondent for “PBS NewsHour” and contributor to The New Yorker, will explore the various techniques and approaches to bringing nuanced humanity to storytelling in conflicts.

Other notable happenings and events

The nationally ranked Rhody Rams football team will kick off the 2022 season with an away game on Sept. 1 against Stony Brook. The Rams’ first home game will take place Sept. 17 when they face Delaware at Meade Stadium.

The public is invited to attend Science Saturday on URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus Sept. 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Guests of all ages are invited to learn the latest in marine exploration, discovery, science, and management. The free event offers behind-the-scenes tours, interactive experiences, and conversations with a variety of ocean experts.

The URI Theatre season kicks off Oct. 13 with its first performance of the year. “Polaroid Stories,” by Naomi Iizuka, is the first of four performances planned for the 2022-23 season. Other shows in this year’s lineup include “Or,” by Liz Duffy Adams, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” by Lynn Nottage, and “Into the Woods,” a Stephen Sondheim musical.

Alumni and Family Weekend will take place Oct. 14–16 on the Kingston Campus. URI football will take on Elon and various other events are scheduled throughout the weekend for alumni and URI students and their families.

URI’s 15th annual Distinguished Achievement Awards will take place Oct. 22 at the Newport Marriott. The awards honor alumni, corporations, and friends who excel in professional achievement, leadership contributions, community service, and philanthropic endeavors.

The seventh annual URI Guitar Festival and Rising Star Virtual Competition will again bring an international lineup of celebrated guitarists to the Kingston Campus Oct. 20-23. Started as a one-day event in 2015 by Adam Levin, a URI classical guitar teacher, the festival has grown to four days with all concerts staged on campus or at nearby venues.

The University of Rhode Island’s Day of Giving is set to take place Oct. 6. This event offers alumni, faculty, staff, parents, friends, and students the opportunity to show their Rhody pride by supporting what they love at URI.

For more information on any of the items listed here, including specific event times and locations, registration details, and more, please visit the University of Rhode Island website at uri.edu.

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