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September 25, 2007
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Vol. 80 Issue #4
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RIC Marks 50th Year on Mt Pleasant Ave By David Matrisciano Anchor Editor In September of 1957, Rhode Island College of Education (RICE) opened its brand new doors on 600 Mt. Pleasant Ave. Any person who was there to remember the opening remembers it with one word: Mud. The unusually wet months prior to the opening didn’t bode well for the 48 acres of farm land in North Providence that was to become the RICE campus. Rhode Island College was under attack years earlier because they wanted RICE to become a part of URI. William Gaige, the college’s president at the time, was proud of how inexpensive the college campus was to build. The new campus consisted of six buildings and cost $5.6 million to build. The new campus was a no-frill affair; there were absolutely no luxuries involved. Air conditioning systems, landscaping and even professorial offices were not included in the original campus structure. In the fall semester of 2007, Rhode Island College, welcomed the biggest incoming class in the history of the school with 2,218 freshman and transfer students. Rhode Island College has almost 8,000 undergraduate degree students at present. This represents the largest number of students in the history of
the college. Rhode Island College, as the current students know it, is large. There are six Residence Halls. 43 buildings serve over 9,000 students; the Murray Center and the Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts are just two of the more recent additions of the campus. Rhode Island College builds its historic roots on the fact that it is here to educate teachers. It holds the current status of being the largest preparer of teachers in Rhode Island. Many of its students are earning their degrees in secondary, elementary, early childhood and education, as well as music education, and special education. Rhode Island College also has quite a large nursing program and
is beginning in the 2007 fall semester to offer a master’s of nursing. Rhode Island College, as a leading liberal arts college, offers opportunity to all kinds of students. Most of its students are predominately from Rhode Island, but there are some that come from New York, New Jersey, and all over New England, the country, and the world. In 1957, Rhode Island College’s Annual May Day celebration was cancelled and has never been revived. This year, however, will be different. Students and organizations are already working to revive the May Day Celebration, which will be very special on this 50th Anniversary. So, next time you are walking around the campus, whether walking to Donovan to eat, walking to Gaige to go to history, attending an event in the Murray Center, or just having fun walking around the Media Center listening to WXIN, remember that this huge campus started out as a measly 48 acres of farmland and has expanded to more than four times that. We have air conditioning in all of the buildings. We have gorgeous landscaping, a great sports program, great events, and, of course, a solid history that should take us far beyond 50 more years on Mt. Pleasant Ave.
INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT: WORLD S WORST POLLUTED PLACES
By Bienvenue Ndahiriwe Anchor Staff About a week ago, the Blacksmith Institute, a U.S. non-profit organization, made public its yearly and “unranked listing of ten top locations worldwide where polluted air, water, and soils are having a severe impact on human health, particularly the health of children.” The list included cities and towns in countries like Peru, China, India, Russia, Zambia, and some former Soviet Republics. According to the report, pollution affects roughly 12 million people in the top ten sites. The sources of pollution include petrochemical and industrial complexes. What is more, the Blacksmith Institute’s researchers mention that pollutants have numerous side effects; the most recurring being a high percentage of babies born prematurely, stillborn, cancer, premature deaths, genetic defects, respiratory ailments and other chronic diseases. Among the towns and cities listed was Dzerzhinsk in Russia where inhabitants are potentially affected by chemicals and toxic byproducts. In 2003 alone, the Blacksmith
Institute reports, “The death rate was reported to exceed the birth rate by 260 percent.” The report goes on as to say that “in the city of 300,000” the death rate “translates to about 900
extra deaths annually.” Also included in the report was Chernobyl in Ukraine where radioactive dust resulting from the nuclear disaster of April 26, 1986 still potentially affects 5.5 million people two decades later. “From 1992 to 2002 in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine,” the report says, “more than 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer” were recorded, with children and adolescents under fourteen representing the biggest portion. Although the Blacksmith Institute states that polluted sites are only in an alphabetical order, there is no doubt in the minds of those behind the report that its list is comprised of places which are “dangerously polluted.” As for the basis of their criteria, the Institute asserts on its website that it reflects concerns about “the effects of pollution on human health, especially the health of children.” The group holds hope that the publication of a list of world’s worst polluted places will “inspire increased attention and action” about the immediate and deadly effects of pollution worldwide.