Dear Colleagues:

Today, I am very pleased to announce the release of the report of the Administration and Management Review Committee (see: web.uri.edu/amrc). On behalf of all of us, allow me to offer our sincere thanks to Chair Anne Marie Coleman, subcommittee chairs Laura Beauvais, John Kirby, Michael Motta, and Paul Whitney, and all the members of the committee for their dedicated, inclusive, thorough, and thoughtful work for the University of Rhode Island. I hope that you will join me in expressing our collective appreciation for all their efforts.

I also want to express my appreciation to all the members of the URI community who participated in this important effort. I believe that you will see much of the input you provided reflected in this report. It is clear that the Committee has identified many opportunities to potentially improve the quality, effectiveness, and productivity of URI, and it is important to our future together that we strive to take the best advantage of their work.

The final report now posted is being made available to the entire campus concurrently, and reflects solely the findings and recommendations of the Committee as a whole. It is important for all of us to carefully review, analyze, and discuss the report as a community, and as a matter of some urgency. Your further participation is critical to the successful implementation of those recommendations that are ultimately assigned the highest priority. Over the next several weeks we need to make the key decisions on next steps and devise our strategies for implementation and your input is essential to that process.

To facilitate feedback and discussion a website has been set up to collect input from the campus (see: web.uri.edu/amrc). In addition, a discussion forum will be scheduled in January after classes begin. The Strategic Budget and Planning Council will also take up the report at meetings in the spring semester. I look forward to receiving their analysis and recommendations. Our collective goal must be to identify those steps that have the greatest potential to move the university forward, and then to begin implementation as soon as possible in 2014.

Thank you in advance for your contributions to this important effort.

Thank you,

David M. Dooley, Ph.D.
President