Spring Break
Ram Tours offers affordable destinations for URI students
Chris Curtis
Issue date: 9/9/08 Section: News
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Upcoming events for the fall semester include trips to a Boston Red Sox game, the Big E, Six Flags amusement park, and day trips to Boston and New York. A long-weekend ski trip to Quebec is also planned, as well as a week in Panama during Spring Break.
Ram Tours started out as a Student Life program under the direction of retired Dean of Students Fran Cohen. After two years, the program was transferred to the Student Involvement Office.
With day trips to destinations such as Boston and New York City, the program has become increasingly popular, with trips routinely selling out well in advance, said Ram Tours Coordinator Bonnie Turano.
Turano said she is often able to get group rates for trips, and tries to use any available
funding to offset the ticket costs of other trips. However, tickets for some events, such as the Sept. 14 Red Sox game, are sold at face value. Some organizations do not offer group discounts, and funding for the program is limited, Turano said.
While the majority of funding for the program comes from ticket sales, Ram Tours is partially subsidized by the offices of Housing and Residential Life, Student Involvement and Student Life. The total funding from these sources comes to about $26, 000 for the academic year. Most of this sum goes to cover the cost of bus rentals, the program's single greatest expense, as well as advertising, printing costs and the payroll of the part-time graduate assistant employed by the program. Any remaining money goes to subsidize the cost of expensive tickets to popular events.
The office of Student Life is partially funded through a portion of substance abuse fines that it collects.
Vice President of Student Affairs Tom Dougan, who has been in charge of the Student Life office since Dean Cohen's departure, said he believes support of the Ram Tours program is a good use of the funds.
"We want to promote activities for our students that don't involve alcohol," Dougan said. "We also get concerns expressed periodically that there's not enough to do on weekends, bingo ... we have some dollars that we generate, and we think that's a good purpose for them."
