Professor runs for state legislature, aims to reassess grant matching funds
Bridgette Blight
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: News
|
"In the state legislature, there are alums" of Rhode Island universities, Rice said. "A lot of them are from [Providence College] and Brown University." There aren't many representatives from URI, he added. He would fight to get more state funds for URI.
Rice is already working on legislation first introduced in 2001 that would require the state to match funds that URI professors receive from federal grants in cash.
However, Rice said something must be done. URI's focus on research "makes us a flagship university of the State of Rhode Island," he said. It makes us different from RIC. It makes us more of an elite institution in some respects."
Currently, the state of RI matches funds using "legal accounting techniques," Rice said. The time that faculty spend working on federally funded research comes out of their salaries, making it a part of payroll instead of a separate form of funding from the state.
The bill, H5230, would require the state to provide matching funds as cash, "separate from any funds regularly appropriated to the university."
Rice said this change is necessary to provide more resources to the URI community. Professors doing research on federal grants "are not teaching classes, not advising," he said.
Rice was not always interested in politics, though he said, "there's politics in just about everything."
Rice discovered that Pat Shanley, the current representative for District 35, was planning on retiring two years ago, and his friends convinced to fill the spot.
Mary "Polly" Eddy, President of the South Kingstown town council and widow of Edward Eddy, president of URI from 1983 to 1991, told Rice that he had to run for District 35 representative.
"She called all the people that needed to be called, and here I am," Rice said.
Rice grew up and attended college in California. He came to Rhode Island in 1987 after working for the Peace Corps in the Philippines and getting his Ph.D from the University of California in Irvine. In 1992, he became active in local politics, serving on South Kingstown's conservation commission, which he now chairs. Rice also served as Chairman of URI Faculty Senate during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years.
