Hello Campus Partners,
I write to provide an important update on our upcoming admission yield events and to seek your help.
You may have heard that each of the Welcome Day events, which attract 3,000+ attendees, have been suspended. As you can imagine this creates a unique challenge for the Office of Admission as we approach May 1.
In order to make sure that admitted students have all the information they need to make an informed decision, we have broken down the Welcome Day offerings and we are considering ways to provide these opportunities in a variety of platforms.
Tours and Information Sessions:
Admitted Students: We are still holding our daily campus tours and information sessions for admitted seniors. We are limiting attendance to comply with the University’s mandate of no gatherings larger than 100. Visitors will be informed that classes are not currently running and campus will be quieter than usual. Please discourage those asking to visit campus on days that have already reached capacity. Self-guided tours will be available if visitors want to come to campus, but do not want to be on a guided tour.
Prospective Students: All on-campus recruitment for prospects who are not seniors will be suspended including individual shadow days and group tours. They will receive an email informing them of this policy and we will include other ways they can learn more about URI in the coming months.
Distance Travelers:
For students who were planning to come from a distance (plane travel) for the previously scheduled Welcome Days, we will be holding small Admitted Student Events on 3/29, 4/4, 4/18. These events will be invite only. The offerings on these days will be much smaller than our Welcome Days and will essentially be scaled-up versions of our daily visit options.
Accepted Student Days:
We will be offering numerous, small themed, on-campus Accepted Student Day events with invites going out (ideally) on Friday 3/13. These events will be limited to less than 100 visitors.
Like a Ram:
The Like a Ram events on 3/18 and 3/23 will still run but will not include a live class component.
Combo Visits:
Combo Visits will be suspended. Juniors who were registered will be encouraged to visit in the fall. Seniors will be directed to participate in an Accepted Student Day.
Multicultural and First Generation Overnight Programs:
The overnight aspects of the Multicultural Overnight Programs and the First Generation Overnight Programs will not be offered. On the days the visiting students would have attended (3/30, 4/3 and 4/17), we will instead host an Accepted Student Day with specific programming for First Generation Students and Multicultural Students.
Women in Engineering:
The Women in Engineering event will be scaled back and offered as an Accepted Student Day on 4/3.
Welcome Center:
For this week (March 16–21) we have canceled all campus tours and information sessions for all visitors.
Additionally, we have made the decision to temporarily close the Robert J. Higgins Welcome Center out of an abundance of caution and in the best interest of our guests and staff members. Visitors coming to campus can access maps and self guided tours from the box outside of the building. Parking passes are available on the Transportation and Parking website. Our staff will be available via phone at 401-874-2133 to provide visitors any assistance.
Questions about bookings can be directed to welcomecenter@etal.uri.edu.
Virtual Options:
We will be offering several virtual options for students and their families to sign up for including webinars and chats. Finally, we will also have opportunities for admitted students to engage with us via social media (Instagram) as well as text and calling campaigns. Remind visitors that we have a virtual tour if they are asking for ways to see campus without coming to Kingston.
Deposit Deadline:
Our deposit deadline will remain May 1.
Visitor Questions:
If students are asking you or your departments questions about anything that isn’t addressed above, please let us know. You can also transfer phone calls from students with questions about visit options to: 401-874-5351.
Campus Partner Opportunities:
We want to connect with you to discuss creative ways in which we can partner together in these newly redesigned programs. In the next day or two, we will be reaching out with specific opportunities including dates and times for your review.
In the meantime, please begin to think of ways you and your department would like to assist us in this endeavor. This may include, but is not limited to, participating in the small admitted students days, presenting information during webinars, answering questions in chats, participating in call campaigns and providing content for social media or emails.
Thank you in advance for your flexibility during this unprecedented time. Our goal is to make sure all students have all the information they need to make an informed decision about URI and we appreciate all you do to help make this happen.
Best of luck as you work extremely hard to ensure our current students are taken care of during this time. If there is anything we can do to assist you, please let us know.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Erin Earle
Director, Campus Visit Experience