PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Two dozen professors staged an informational picket at the front gates of Rhode Island College Thursday, saying that they are underpaid and that the institution is underfunded compared to Rhode Island’s other two public colleges.
“It’s time that RIC and its faculty and students get the respect we deserve,” said Michalia Arthur, a sociology professor. “Our students represent the future of Rhode Island. It’s not fair to them that they are so underpaid or that they have been left out of Rhode Island Promise.”
Now in its second year, Rhode Island Promise, an initiative of Gov. Gina Raimondo, offers two years of free tuition to students at the Community College of Rhode Island provided they are recent college graduates, attend full-time and maintain a C-plus average. This is a last-dollar scholarship, meaning that students have to tap federal grants and other forms of financial aid first.
Read the rest of the piece from the Providence Journal here.