The High Profile focus for the March issue is schools and universities. Here is a short preview:
Welcome to Providence!
by Annie Newman
Annie Newman
Greeting to all attendees (and potential attendees) of the 2015 SCUP North Atlantic Regional Conference! If you are not yet a member of SCUP, I certainly hope that the quality of the program at this conference will entice you to join. SCUP is a wonderful organization and a great resource for those of us charged with planning our campuses.
I am so excited that Providence is the host city for this conference. A native Rhode Islander, I loved Providence even in its dark and dirty days in the ’70s. Thanks to some terrific urban planning, the city has been transformed. I hope that you have signed up for one of our tours, or take some time to explore the city on your own. Home to the main campuses of four higher education institutions and extension campuses of several others, Providence is a city that thrives in part because of the students, faculty, and staff who learn, teach, and work here.
Our conference theme, “Plans Within Plans: Campus Planning in Context,” was selected as we all plan in context. The city or town our campus is located in may have a master plan; the higher education system we may be a part of will have system-wide plans we need to respond to. Our campus may be in a historic district, and we have to deal with zoning ordinances and neighborhood groups. There are a myriad of other external forces that also are engaged in planning that affects us. Coordination of our planning efforts can only strengthen the planning we all do.
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD, pronounced “riz-dee”) and Brown University, both situated on College Hill, are your cohosts for this event. While our main conference activities will take place at the Omni Hotel downtown (our conference is so successful we have outgrown most campuses), both schools are offering campus tours at the start and end of the conference.
Here are some things I like to tell people about Providence and its colleges:
• The motto of the city is “What Cheer?” a shortened version of “What cheer, netop?” (A 17th-century version of “What’s going on, friend?”), reportedly how the Narragansetts hailed Roger Williams when he landed here after his banishment from Massachusetts.
• Rhode Islanders call water fountains “bubblers” (or “bub-lahs” in the local dialect) and milkshakes “cabinets” (don’t ask, no one really knows).
• Both H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe used to hang around the Athenaeum, an independent membership library opened in 1836.
• Roger Williams founded the congregation of the First Baptist Church in America.
• Brown University is part of the Ivy League.
• RISD was founded by a group of women who had $1,675 left over from fundraising for the 1876 Centennial Exposition.
Well-known alumni:
• RISD: Seth McFarlane, Shepard Fairey, Jenny Holzer, Nicole Miller, James Franco, Jemima Kirke, Gus Van Sant, Dale Chihuly, Roz Chast, David Macaulay, Chris Van Allsberg, and members of the Talking Heads.
• Brown University: Jeffrey Eugenides, Bobby Jindal, Janet Yellen, Ted Turner, Laura Linney, Emma Watson, Ira Glass, Ira Magaziner, and a slew of royalty.
• Providence College: Janeane Garofalo, John Hurley, Richard M. Daley, Ray Flynn, John E. Fogarty, Patrick Kennedy, and a lot of NBA, NHL, and track and field athletes.
• Johnson & Wales: Tyler Florence, Emeril Lagasse, and several competitors on America’s Top Chef.
Enjoy the conference!
Annie Newman is SCUP North Atlantic Regional Chair and Director of Campus Planning at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.
