 The front side of the Knight Campus in Warwick, designed inBrutalist style. | |
Former names | Rhode Island Junior College (1964–1980) |
|---|---|
| Type | Publiccommunity college |
| Established | September 24, 1964; 61 years ago (1964-09-24)[1] |
Academic affiliations | Space-grant |
| President | Rosemary Costigan[2] |
Academic staff | 300 |
| Students | 16,007 (2022)[3] |
| Location | Warwick (Knight Campus),Lincoln (Flanagan Campus),Providence (Liston and Downcity Campuses),Newport (Newport County Campus),Westerly (Satellite Campus) ,, |
| Newspaper | The Daily Squire |
| Colors | Green and Yellow[4] |
| Mascot | CCRI Knight |
| Website | www.ccri.edu |
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TheCommunity College of Rhode Island (CCRI) is apubliccommunity college inRhode Island. It is the only community college in the state and the largest community college inNew England. The college's primary facility is located inWarwick, with additional college buildings throughout the state.
It was founded asRhode Island Junior College, "RIJC", in 1964 with 325 students studying at the Henry Barnard School inProvidence, Rhode Island. In 1965, a portion of the nearby former Brown & Sharpe manufacturing facility was converted into classroom space and served as the college's primary facility until 1972. The Knight campus inWarwick, Rhode Island, built on the donatedKnight Estate, opened in 1972 as the school's first permanent building and flagship campus. It was followed by three additional campus and two satellite locations.
TheMargaret M. Jacoby Observatory, located on the Knight Campus grounds, was opened in 1978. The school was renamed the Community College of Rhode Island in June 1980.
Presidents of the college have included:
| President | Life | Tenure | Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | William F. Flanagan | ?–1984 | 1964–1979 | First president. Headed the construction of the first two campuses: Knight and Flanagan.[5] |
| 2. | Edward J. Liston | 1931–2013[6] | 1979–2000 | Added the Liston campus.[5] |
| 3. | Thomas D. Sepe | c. 1942– | 2000–2005 | Record low graduation rates and terrible performance with minority students.[7] |
| 4. | Ray Di Pasquale | 1950–2024[8] | 2006–2016 | Record highest enrollment numbers and earned accreditation from theNew England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) until 2024.[9] |
| 5. | Meghan Hughes | 1966– | 2016–2023[10] | First female president. Led the school to its highest graduation rate in nearly two decades.[11] |
| 6. | Rosemary Costigan | c. 1958– | 2023–2025 (interim) 2025–present | First alumna president.[12] |
The college's primary facility is located inWarwick, with additional college buildings throughout the state.
The college's flagship Knight building in Warwick was designed by the Chicago and New York architecture firm ofPerkins & Will, in conjunction with Providence firmsHarkness & Geddes andRobinson Green Beretta.[14] The campus was designed to house all academic, social, and recreational functions in a single building.[14] The building itself is an enormous concrete structure which terminates in a semicircle, and ranges in height from four to six stories.[14] The design is a notable example ofBrutalist architecture, and was heavily influenced by the philosophy ofLe Corbusier.[14] The building was hailed by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission as "one of the most striking and innovative contemporary structures in the state" when it opened in 1972.[14]
Over time, the Brutalist style generally lost its appeal and became seen as "drab," "hulking," and "bureaucratic," associated with large-scale mass-planning.[15] In 2019, the Knight campus building made local news after being named "eighth ugliest college campus in the United States" by a lifestyle blog.[16]
The college offers the following degrees:
Several one-year certificates are also awarded.
The school's student newspaper isThe Unfiltered Lens, which began publication in 2007. It replaced theKnightly News, which had been active in the 1980s, but had become defunct several years prior to theLens' founding.
The college athletics teams are nicknamed the Knights.
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41°52′05″N71°23′13″W / 41.868087°N 71.386899°W /41.868087; -71.386899
