Patricia Martinez enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island because it was close to home. She was still new to the country, unfamiliar with college applications, SATs and such. But her parents wanted her to get an education, and they’d seen the Lincoln campus go up.
It was just 10 minutes from Central Falls, inexpensive and supportive. And it put the shy teenager on a whole new path.
“It became the university of my life because it gave me the foundation,” Martinez recalled in a speech at the grand opening of yet another CCRI campus, in Newport, on Sept. 29.
CCRI put her on track to pursue not just an associate’s degree, but later a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. And it introduced her to community involvement: She signed up as a VISTA volunteer, and she helped start the Latin American Student Organization.
When, a few years later, Martinez returned to CCRI to work part-time as a career counselor, she saw clearly what the college meant for her and so many others: It was the place that opened doors for them “to achieve the American dream.”
Now, said Martinez, a 1981 CCRI graduate and director of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, a whole new other group of people, the residents of Aquidneck Island, will have the same opportunities close to their own homes.
It’s been 15 years since Rhode Island’s public higher education system last opened a new campus – CCRI Providence – and for college President Thomas D. Sepe and system leaders, it was the culmination of more than five years of efforts to raise the money and get the campus built.
Sepe’s first task upon arriving at CCRI in 2000 had been to campaign for a $10.9-million bond to finance the Newport campus; voters approved it, but when the bids came in, the lowest was $12.4 million. It took more than two years to get the extra money, which was finally put in the fiscal 2003-04 state budget. And even then it wasn’t clear if CCRI would have all the resources to support a new campus.
But it finally happened: A 65,000-square-foot, three-story building that, from the outside, fits with old-style Newport architecture, but inside is the most modern of CCRI campuses, with 16 high-tech “smart” classrooms, computer labs, a distance-learning classroom and facilities for physical therapy, occupational therapy and massage students.
Before the ceremony, in the 250-seat auditorium, guests gathered for a reception in the light-filled atrium that is the heart of the complex.
Newport has been waiting for its own CCRI campus for more than a generation; there was first talk of bringing the college to the East Bay 35 years ago, when funding for the Lincoln campus was approved.
Building the campus on this particular site, five acres off Ranger Road donated by the U.S. Navy, was particularly enticing for local leaders because Newport’s North End needs redevelopment; as they saw it, CCRI could be an anchor for a much broader revitalization.
From the start, city officials, the Newport County Chamber of Commerce and local businesses worked closely with Sepe and his staff to support the project. They formed a group that raised $1.1 million for the campus and developed new partnerships with the college.
CCRI Newport opened Sept. 6 and already it has almost 1,200 students. Eventually, enrollment is expected to rise to 2,000 students in 20 different academic fields.
The campus’s official address is One John H. Chafee Blvd., in recognition of the late U.S. senator who facilitated the land donation that first made the project possible – and who, as governor four decades ago, established the Rhode Island Junior College.
Accepting the recognition on behalf of his family, the senator’s son Zechariah wondered if his father could’ve imagined how successful the college would be.
“How thrilled he must be now,” Chafee said.
