University of Rhode Island

The bill passed the House 59-10 in a vote Tuesday, moving to the Senate. It would require members of local planning boards and commissions take classes on rising sea levels every two years. Training would last two hours and would also teach planners about developing in flood plains.

Gov. Gina Raimondo hosted a media conference call with Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam Thursday. It’s the latest move in Democrat Raimondo’s efforts to rally support for her plan to provide two years of free tuition at the state’s public institutions.

The University of Rhode Island begins construction of a $125 million engineering complex Monday.

The complex is URI’s biggest construction project. Voters approved the new building, and a bond to pay for it, in 2014.

The University of Rhode Island and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport are partnering up to help small Rhode Island defense businesses.

The University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch is asking for volunteers to help monitor local waterways.  The citizen scientists are trained and provided the equipment to gather data on over 200 lakes, streams, and coastal waterways.

As the NCAA Division I basketball tournaments begin, a handful of teams from New England will be in action.

The heads of three Rhode Island universities join a growing list of leaders at higher learning institutions opposing President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Students at Rhode Island College reacted to Governor Gina Raimondo’s free tuition plan this week. The governor’s higher education proposal would cover the cost of tuition for in-state students for the first two years at the Community College of Rhode Island, or the last two years at the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College.

Governor Gina Raimondo is poised Monday to announce a major education initiative that would make the first two years of public higher education tuition-free for Rhode Island high school graduates enrolled at the state’s three public colleges – the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College, according to Statehouse sources.

Hundreds of Brown University students walked out of classes Wednesday, shouting “Our existence is resistance,” and “Whose campus? Our campus.”

The protest was one of many popping up on college campuses across the nation, in the wake of Republican Donald Trump’s election as president.

At the University of Rhode Island, students and some faculty held a demonstration earlier this week. At Brown, demonstrators called for the school to provide safe harbor for undocumented immigrants and minority groups who report feeling unsafe after the election.