2021 -- H 6463

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

CONGRATULATING DR. DAVID DOOLEY ON HIS RETIREMENT AS THE PRESIDENT

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND ON JULY 31, 2021, AFTER TWELVE YEARS

OF EXEMPLARY SERVICE TO THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

     Introduced By: Representatives Shekarchi, Fogarty, McEntee, Tanzi, Blazejewski,
Abney, Craven, Phillips, McGaw, and Caldwell

     Date Introduced: June 23, 2021

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, In his twelve years of distinguished service as the President of the

University of Rhode Island, Dr. David Dooley has worked tirelessly to increase the prominence

and impact of the state’s chief research university. Thanks to Dr. Dooley’s leadership and

guidance, the national reputation and stature of the University of Rhode Island has been

significantly elevated; and

     WHEREAS, President Dooley holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the

University of California in San Diego, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of

Technology. He began his admirable public service career in 1978, when he attained a position as

an Assistant Professor within the Department of Chemistry at Amherst College. He subsequently

served as an Associate Professor in 1984, and became a full Professor in 1989. He also served as

Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at Amherst College from 1986 to 1989, and from 1991

through 1993; and

     WHEREAS, Dr. Dooley served as a Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology in 1981, and as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford in 1982. He was an Associate Faculty

member of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program at the University of Massachusetts from

1984 to 1986, and with the Graduate Faculty of the same department from 1986 to 1993. Dr.

Dooley then served as the Head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Montana

State University from 1993 to 1999, as the Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic

Affairs at Montana State University from 1999 to 2001, and was chosen in 2001 as the

University’s permanent Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs; and

     WHEREAS, To the good fortune of the people of the State of Rhode Island, Dr. Dooley

was selected in 2009 to be the University of Rhode Island’s 11th President. His esteemed tenure

as President has included numerous important and significant achievements. Thanks to his stellar

leadership, a record number of applications and enrollments have taken place over the past seven

years and student selectivity and diversity has improved each year. Currently, the University of

Rhode Island places in the “Top 100 Best Value Schools” and in the top 45 percent of National

Universities, according to the US News & World Report rankings; and

     WHEREAS, The University of Rhode Island also engenders national respect for many of

its schools and departments. The URI School of Nursing ranks number one in New England for

federal research funding received from the National Institutes of Health, and has risen to 37th in

the nation for such funding. Nationally, the College of Pharmacy ranks 8th out of 143 programs

in total research funding and is the only New England school to make the top twenty. Also, URI’s

undergraduate business program is nationally ranked in the top 30 percent by US News & World

Report; and

     WHEREAS, Dr. Dooley has managed to maintain URI’s status as being one of the most

affordable Universities in the Northeast while simultaneously obtaining the resources to invest

$834 million in capital and campus improvements over the past twelve years. Thanks in part to

his advocacy, $313 million in general obligation bonds were approved by Rhode Island voters to

fund construction and major rehabilitation of campus buildings and facilities including the Fine

Arts Center, the Narragansett Bay Campus Phase 1 Renewal, Phase 11 of the Engineering Bliss

Hall Renovation and expansion, the Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, and the Richard

E. Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences (Chemistry) Building; and

     WHEREAS, Another success for Dr. Dooley and the University of Rhode Island

occurred when the National Science Foundation (NSF) chose the East Coast Oceanographic

Consortium, led by the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, to

operate a new oceanographic research ship, one of only three in the nation. This Regional Class

Research Vessel is expected to enter service in 2023 and be home-ported at URI’s Narragansett

Bay Campus; and

     WHEREAS, Additional achievement’s reached during Dr. Dooley’s tenure include being

recently added to the National Science Foundation’s prestigious list of CyberCorps Universities,

having the URI Digital Forensics and Cyber Security Center be designated as the National Center

of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education and Research by the National Security

Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The University of Rhode Island was also the

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first education institution in the nation to build a freestanding Gender and Sexuality Center and to

implement a Board of Trustees for the University; and

     WHEREAS, When Dr. Dooley came aboard as the President of the University of Rhode

Island, he set ambitious transformational goals for the future and has made significant progress

towards creating a 21st century learning environment that will better prepare students to excel and

lead. He has also worked towards increasing the scope, prominence, impact and magnitude of

URI’s Research scholarship and creative work, in order to better internationalize and globalize

the University, and build a community that highly values the important principles of equity and

diversity; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

congratulates Dr. David Dooley on his retirement as President of the University of Rhode Island

after twelve years of exemplary and distinguished service to the State of Rhode Island; and be it

further

     RESOLVED, That the secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Dr. David Dooley, President of the University

of Rhode Island.

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