Ram Tours offers affordable destinations for URI students
Chris Curtis
Issue date: 9/9/08 Section: News
Chip Yensan, director of Housing and Residential Life, said that his office's support for the program stemmed from the failure of a similar program in which individual residence halls sponsored day trips for their residents.
"There was a considerable amount of redundancy in those tours and ... it wasn't the most cost-effective way to do it ... so we just looked at a way to bundle this so that all residence students could have equal access to the program, as well as any other students that are interested, and we've been a partner in that program ever since," Yensan said.
As an auxiliary enterprise, Housing and Residential Life is funded largely by housing fees and tuition.
Ram Tours offers a Spring Break trip that Turano said she sees as an alternative to the "hard partying" option.
"I thought to myself, well let's give students an alternative to the Spring Break that they typically do, which is go to an island and be drunk and stupid for a week," Turano said. "There are students out there that don't want to go and do that kind of Spring Break. They want to go and experience something that they're going to remember for the rest of their life."
Participating students last year visited Rome during Easter week. This year's program will take students to Panama, chosen as a comparable, yet cheaper alternative to Costa Rica.
Turano tries to think of new and different activities for students each year, but does most of the trips on a regular basis because they have proven popular over time.
Among the new trips Turano said she is looking forward to this year is the ski trip to the Canadian ski resorts of Mt. Sainte-Anne and Le Massif.
"It's reasonably priced and the mountains are awesome, and kids are into snowboarding," she said.
"Then on the other hand I think too, Canada ah, you know, they think they can come to Canada just to drink, but if you're going to be skiing all day or snowboarding it's kind of hard to be drunk, it's a long day on the mountain the next day."
Tickets this semester range from $1 for last weekend's trip to the Providence place Mall, to $1,890 for the Spring Break trip, and are available through the Memorial Union box office.
While only URI students are permitted to purchase tickets, students are allowed to purchase two tickets for most events, meaning that they can bring a non-student friend if the wish.
"There was a considerable amount of redundancy in those tours and ... it wasn't the most cost-effective way to do it ... so we just looked at a way to bundle this so that all residence students could have equal access to the program, as well as any other students that are interested, and we've been a partner in that program ever since," Yensan said.
As an auxiliary enterprise, Housing and Residential Life is funded largely by housing fees and tuition.
Ram Tours offers a Spring Break trip that Turano said she sees as an alternative to the "hard partying" option.
"I thought to myself, well let's give students an alternative to the Spring Break that they typically do, which is go to an island and be drunk and stupid for a week," Turano said. "There are students out there that don't want to go and do that kind of Spring Break. They want to go and experience something that they're going to remember for the rest of their life."
Participating students last year visited Rome during Easter week. This year's program will take students to Panama, chosen as a comparable, yet cheaper alternative to Costa Rica.
Turano tries to think of new and different activities for students each year, but does most of the trips on a regular basis because they have proven popular over time.
Among the new trips Turano said she is looking forward to this year is the ski trip to the Canadian ski resorts of Mt. Sainte-Anne and Le Massif.
"It's reasonably priced and the mountains are awesome, and kids are into snowboarding," she said.
"Then on the other hand I think too, Canada ah, you know, they think they can come to Canada just to drink, but if you're going to be skiing all day or snowboarding it's kind of hard to be drunk, it's a long day on the mountain the next day."
Tickets this semester range from $1 for last weekend's trip to the Providence place Mall, to $1,890 for the Spring Break trip, and are available through the Memorial Union box office.
While only URI students are permitted to purchase tickets, students are allowed to purchase two tickets for most events, meaning that they can bring a non-student friend if the wish.
