URI will invest approximately $5.3 million to fill 55 new faculty positions by 2019, expanding teaching, research and engagement across all disciplines and at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

The new faculty will teach a student body that has grown significantly over the past 15 years. Enrollment at URI increased by approximately 4,000 students between the late 1990s and 2010. Growth then leveled out, but this year is up again: the University just announced the largest freshman class in its history, at 3,270, and largest-ever total enrollment.

URI is seeking a student to faculty ratio of 16.5:1, designed to increase our competitive advantage in the public research university marketplace. URI is already attracting a greater percentage of high school graduates from the Northeast—where demographic shifts mean high school classes are shrinking—and becoming correspondingly more academically competitive and racially and culturally diverse.