Carothers' Crib: Inside the President's House

02/28/08 - Like many students, University of Rhode Island President Robert L. Carothers lived on campus for a few years and then moved "down-the-line."Carothers lived in the large white and green house next to Green Hall on Upper College Road from 1991 to 2002. Today this house is used for hosting university functions such as fundraisers, luncheons and holiday parties. It also has a small apartment that can house visiting speakers and other guests of the university. Guests over the years have included Coretta Scott King, Bob Hope, Elie Wiesel and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

The house is near Green and Independence halls and mostly hidden by a wall of shrubs. The basement has a tile floor, a fireplace and a small kitchen that Carothers said former URI president Frank Newman (1974-1983) used to entertain students.

It also has asbestos that needs to be removed.

"That's an improvement for a richer time," Carothers said.

Some of the improvements that have been made are on the first floor. The Champlin Foundations donated funds to build a large dining room about five years ago, Carothers said. Before that he had to remove furniture and artwork from the living space to make room for hosting parties.

The living room is the second largest room in the house, filled with Carothers' own furniture and artwork arranged around a central fireplace. It is decorated with an oriental theme, the walls covered with works Carothers brought back from China and India. One prized possession is a Chinese ram statue by the fireplace.

After the dining room was built the house needed a larger kitchen so that Dining Services staff could cook for a larger number of guests during events. Ross Simons Jewelers obliged with the funds.

"I like to tell people I have the only Ross Simons kitchen in the world," Carothers said.

The dining room is connected to a small library that resembles an old-fashioned smoking room.

"This is sort of the man's room, with dark wood and so forth," Carothers said.

The total value of the house is approximately $800,000, not counting the land it's on, said Vice President of Administration Robert Weygand.

The house's square footage and entertaining space were greatly enhanced with the addition of the new dining room and a large back deck, which is used for barbecues in the summer.

"It's a very handsome addition and a much needed improvement," Weygand said.

The upper stories contain bedrooms and the office of the groundskeeper, Cheryl Tefft. She lives in a third floor apartment that housed maids and other servants in the house's earlier days.

Tefft is the house's only full-time resident. She has worked at URI for 21 years and served as groundskeeper for two. Her job is to maintain the house and prepare it before any functions.

"I'm a little bit of everything and a master of none," she said.

Tefft has been coming to the URI campus since she was 10 years old, when her grandmother was a custodian of Woodward Hall (named for a former URI president).

A Rhode Island native from a rural town, Tefft said she enjoys the activity that comes from living on a college campus.

"I'm from the middle of Exeter so this is like a city," she said.

Weygand said that Tefft's job is more difficult than it sounds.

"She's a wonderful woman whose job description really doesn't describe all the things she does to keep the facility in shape," he said.

Tefft has a much simpler description of her job: "I'm a watchdog."

Most days, Tefft is joined by an actual dog, Carothers' eight-year-old Border Collie, Brendan.

Brendan enjoys college life as well, sometimes joining students on the Quadrangle for games of football.

"He knows how to play defense," Carothers said. "He gets down on the line and he tries to knock the ball down. As soon as it's down he gets right back on the line again."

Brendan now lives full-time with the Carothers family in a house off of Route 138 in South Kingstown.

Carothers said he enjoyed his years living on campus and being so close to university events, not to mention his office in Green Hall, a conveniently short walk away.

"I tell people, 'you have your work and your life, but in this job there's no difference. Your work is your life,'" he said.

As much as Carothers enjoyed being so tied into the URI campus, he said it was not the best environment to raise his teenage sons. He and his wife, Dean of University College Jayne Richmond, moved in 2002 for greater privacy.

"[Living on campus] really is a fishbowl situation," he said.

Carothers' contact expires in 2009, the President's House may soon have a new occupant.

"I'm getting the place ready for someone who might want to move a whole family in there," Carothers said.