The College of Business Administration welcomes the University’s top-ranked textiles program!

URI’s top-ranked department of Textile Marketing and Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design (TMD) has now joined the College of Business Administration as part of a university-wide academic restructuring initiative. This is a natural fit for undergraduate and graduate students as the global textiles and fashion industries continue to grow and change.

URI’s programs cover every aspect of the textile and fashion industry supply chain, and prepare students for a wide range of careers. It is one of very few to offer the B.S. degree in Textiles Marketing in collaboration with an accredited College of Business. The perspectives of business, art and design, science, sociology/anthropology and history are all threaded through TMD classes and research.

Professor and Department Chair Susan Hannel has been amazed at the warm reception by the College of Business Administration team. The accomplished author, educator and leader said the business courses, previously taken at the CBA, were always important to TM and TMD students. There are about 350 students in the department, including those enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs. These students will become the designers, buyers, merchandisers and scientists for the textile and fashion industry of the future. With its eight full-time and seven adjunct faculty, the department will continue to be based in Quinn Hall, where its state-of-the-art apparel studio, CAD system for apparel design and manufacture, inkjet fabric printing system and the historic textile collection are maintained.

Globally, consumers spend over $2 trillion annually textiles and fashion apparel. Across the supply chain, the U.S. textile and apparel industry directly employs more than 4 million people, including sourcing managers, wholesalers, retailers, merchandisers, buyers, creative and technical designers, and marketing professionals. The United States is the fourth largest textile exporter in the world. The University of Rhode Island will continue to bring its remarkable talents to the runways from the College of Business Administration.

Facts about TM/TMD

• Historic Textile and Costume Collection: The collection houses more than 20,000 items including artifacts dating from ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Peruvian periods, up to late 18th/19th century American pieces. Historians, researchers and other interested parties are invited to use the collection-when it is not being used for teaching, research or exhibition at URI.
• Collaboration: TMD students and faculty are innovators. For example, a project with Propel LLC and the U.S. Navy explores innovation in stitches and seam technology. Faculty member Karl Aspelund is on the research team of the ‘100 Year Starship’ initiative, a non-profit seed-funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), tasked to assemble the knowledge needed to enable human spaceflight out of the solar system by 2112.
• Creating Jobs: Each year TM and TMD graduates are hired by such businesses as: Hasbro, Ralph Lauren, QVC, Banana Republic, CVS Health, and TJX. They may also be recruited by government agencies like the Department of Labor and Training, U.S. Customs, and the Governor’s Workforce Board.

CBA is delighted to welcome TMD students, faculty and staff to the College of Business Administration team.