"Roger Williams University takes its name from the founder of Rhode island, a 17th century free-thinker who was not satisfied with the status quo of his day. Neither are we," says the university's admissions guide.
In fact, RWU prides itself on being a dynamic organization. In its 77-year history, the institution has grown from an extension program at the Providence YMCA to a full-fledged university.
Its president, Anthony J. Santoro, points out that only 25 years ago the university was operating out of rented quarters: Today, it owns a beautiful 125-acre campus overlooking Mt. Hope Bay.
The university is home to the state's only law school, one of the premiere architectural programs in New England, a well-known marine biology program; a newly renovated business school; and a soon-to-be-built $8 million science, technology and economic development center.
"In less than three decades, this institution went from essentially a two-year college to a four-year university with a five-year architecture school and a post-baccalaureate law school," Santoro points out.
In addition, the market value of the university's endowment soared Ñ from a modest $200,000 (in 1977) to the current $13.5 million.
In fact, most of the development has come within the past 10 years. Roger Williams was still a college in 1992, the year it started its law school (the law school received "provisional accreditation" from the American Bar Association in 1995; full accreditation is expected in 1997).
"We think that our short history represents a set of achievements of which our students, faculty and administration can be proud," Santoro points out. Few other American institutions can point to that kind of growth in only 25 years.
At a time when most schools are struggling to hold onto their enrollments, applications to Roger Williams are up 50 percent (since 1991). Today, the university has about 4,000 students, 2,200 of which are full-time undergraduates, many of whom come from abroad.
In addition, the school's progress can be measured in other ways:
Two new majors have been added to the business school, which has been renamed the Gabelli School of Business after Mario Gabelli, one of Wall Street's most respected money managers and a university trustee.
Using a $2 million federal grant, the university is building an $8 million Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED) to deal with issues affecting the East Bay region of the state. The Center's mission is to serve as a training site for workers in such emerging fields as aquaculture, waste management, marine technology and environmental engineering. Santoro sees CEED as a way of rejuvenating the workforce in the East Bay, which has been hit hard by defense cutbacks and depletion of fishing stocks.
The school's curriculum fuses the two professional schools with a sound liberal arts undergraduate program. Its Continuing Education Division takes care of another 1,500 part-time students. Average class size is just 20 students.
Leading this recent growth is Santoro, a man who came to the institution to help found the law school (he had helped four other law schools start up) and be its first law dean. He was selected as its new president in 1993 from a list of 175 candidates.
Santoro expresses what, to many, is becoming the obvious: "Roger Williams University is no longer the best kept secret in Rhode Island. What we do, we do extremely well."