'Changing the RIC narrative'

By Ethan Hartley
Posted 7/19/17

By ETHAN HARTLEY -- Imagine you are a freshman student waking up during your second week at Rhode Island College. You rub your eyes and groggily check your phone. But instead of going to Facebook or Instagram, you hit the icon for the official RIC App.

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'Changing the RIC narrative'

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Imagine you are a freshman student waking up during your second week at Rhode Island College. You rub your eyes and groggily check your phone. But instead of going to Facebook or Instagram, you hit the icon for the official RIC App.

Within the first 10 minutes of consciousness, you are made aware of your schedule for the day and every important event happening on campus that week. You can even trace a route to the building you already forgot the location of. Even cooler, you notice that the four events you attended last week netted you 100 student activity points – which you can exchange for a new RIC coffee mug at the book store to help wake up for the rest of the semester.

This is just one element of an educational future that Frank Sánchez is trying to build at Rhode Island College. Now, officially over a year into his new role as the 10th president of RIC, Sánchez is proud of the strides the college has been making towards this future, while simultaneously recognizing areas that still need improvement.

Sánchez believes RIC has the makings of a first-choice college for students in and out of Rhode Island, with the ability to provide top-quality education for the best price around. However, he also feels there are a couple of long-established, cultural perceptions about RIC that are holding them back from their true potential.

“I’ve learned in the last year, one of the challenges we have is that the state narrative of this college, frankly, is inaccurate,” Sánchez said in a recent interview. “We have not done a good job of telling the RIC story...What we’re trying to do is change the narrative so that people can begin to appreciate the quality and the value and the innovation that has been at this institution long before I ever got here.”

That narrative, according to Sánchez, includes the misconception that RIC is simply a college to prepare future teachers and nurses. While the teaching and nursing programs at RIC remain two of their largest, most-touted programs, Sánchez insisted that the RIC schools of business and social work, in accordance with their many arts and sciences programs, add up to much more than just that limiting assessment.

To “change the narrative,” Sánchez talked about focusing on a few key areas, including increasing awareness about RIC’s expanding programming and world-class resources, fostering more student excitement, lessening out-of-pocket expenses for students, utilizing more cutting-edge innovations in technology and modernizing, maintaining and improving the campus’s infrastructure.

The particular idea mentioned in the opening of this article, involving “gamifying” – or incentivizing through a point system – students’ educational experience, was an example of the forward-thinking that Sánchez is bringing to Rhode Island College.

“How do you create drivers for students to be part of clubs, activities or events?” asked Sánchez. “Even if it is incentivized by you getting points, you’re still bringing people together. And the things that are more important in regards to student success, are worth more points.”

Sánchez floated the idea that points could be gained through various means – like joining clubs, taking internships or studying abroad – and spent immediately or saved, translating into things like discounts on books or apparel. He mentioned that perhaps the student with the most points at the end of the year could be awarded a grand prize, such as free tuition for a year.

Tactics like these, along with reducing students’ out-of-pocket expenses by piloting programs such as open-source textbooks – which he mentioned already saved students $100,000 by making just one entry-level biology book available online during his first year – are some of the driving forces that can increase school spirit, encourage student engagement and, ultimately, foster an environment of success.

Sánchez confirmed that the idea for the RIC App is one that is already being crafted into a request for proposals (RFP), and that the point system will be a project for their new Vice President of Student Success, in accordance with the student government.

Sánchez is also already making efforts to increase RIC’s marketability in a more visible way.

“We’re in a campaign to modernize the campus,” Sánchez said, referencing the completed work done to Gaige Hall, which will host a reopening in August, as well as an ongoing renovation of Craig-Lee Hall and a $3.5 million rehabilitation of the college’s residence halls. “As they come onto the campus we will be tough to beat when you look at the quality of our academic offerings for the value we offer.”

Sánchez mentioned that the college is looking into obtaining a bond that could exceed $80 million to continue the investment into improving their buildings, and that he would be looking into adding one additional dorm building to accommodate a goal to increase the out-of-state and international student percentage from its current 15 percent to 20-25 percent of total enrollment.

RIC is also emerging as a leader in environmental awareness, as they have recently installed all LED lighting in their residence halls (saving $2 million in energy costs, according to Sánchez) and plan to change all lights to LEDs in the next year. RIC was invited to Washington D.C. as one of nine higher education establishments in the country to receive the Green Ribbon Schools distinction awarded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Originally from Cheyenne, Wyo., Sánchez spent his first ten years in higher education as the Vice President for Student Affairs at Adams State University (formerly Adams State College), followed by the becoming the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver.

Before landing as president of RIC, Sánchez spent five years as the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at The City University of New York, the nation’s largest urban public university, where he assisted in serving over 500,000 students.

Rhode Island College services about 1,573 students from Warwick, Cranston and Johnston. Sánchez told a story about how a current student who just started at RIC is the descendent of a woman who became the first person in her family to attend college – 87 years ago.

“This college has had a generational impact on the state and we have to do a better job of telling that story,” Sánchez said.

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