PROVIDENCE — The Community College of Rhode Island is proposing a $62.9 million general revenue bond that, if approved, would finance long-overdue renovations to its campuses.
According to CCRI’s request, which the R.I. Board of Education approved at its quarterly meeting Nov. 13, the bulk of the bond, $30 million, would finance core building infrastructure upgrades at all four of the college’s campuses – the Knight Campus in Warwick, the Flanagan Campus in Lincoln, the Newport County Campus in Newport and the Liston Campus in Providence.
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Learn MoreThe Knight and Flanagan campuses are CCRI’s oldest campuses as they were first built in 1972 and 1976, respectively.
CCRI also plans to upgrade and refurbish its buildings with the bond in the following means:
- $8.6 million to modernize academic and student-support spaces.
- $6 million to upgrade student service and common areas.
- $5.9 million to improve campus parking and traffic flow.
- $5.5 million to improve campus energy efficiency.
- $4 million to expand campus technology.
- $2.9 million to improve access to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We know that when students have access to easy-to-navigate and modern spaces to learn, the learning outcomes are better,” CCRI spokesperson Amy Kempe said in an interview Tuesday. “There needs to be significant upgrades. Different campuses have different needs, but every campus would benefit [from this bond].”
She also said the last general obligation bond that was approved for CCRI was in 2000, which supported the construction of the Newport County Campus. The bond would need to be approved by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, the R.I. General Assembly and the voters in November 2020.
Kempe also said CCRI’s percentage of higher-education general obligation bonds from the last two decades is less than 2%, so the bond to refurbish the campuses would go a long way for the college to further achieve student success.
The college’s facilities master plan, which will include the design and uses of all the spaces at the campuses, is currently being finished up and will be done by the end of this year, Kempe said.
James Bessette is the PBN special sections editor. Email him at Research@PBN.com.
Why voters have to weigh in on a subject they have little knowledge about is a mystery. The fact that very few states fund higher education investment via this route says much about its general inadequacy. Add to this the fact that Rhode Island has ranked for decades near the bottom of all states in higher education spending is further evidence of how far behind the State is in achieving a fresh and modern approach to governance.