Professor runs for state legislature, aims to reassess grant matching funds

10/07/08 - Fisheries, animal and veterinary sciences professor Michael A. Rice wants to get more state money allocated to the University of Rhode Island. He is running as a Democrat for the Rhode Island House of Representatives in District 35, which covers South Kingstown. "In the state legislature, there are alums" of Rhode Island universities, Rice said. "A lot of them are from [Providence College] and Brown University." There aren't many representatives from URI, he added. He would fight to get more state funds for URI.

Rice is already working on legislation first introduced in 2001 that would require the state to match funds that URI professors receive from federal grants in cash.

However, Rice said something must be done. URI's focus on research "makes us a flagship university of the State of Rhode Island," he said. It makes us different from RIC. It makes us more of an elite institution in some respects."

Currently, the state of RI matches funds using "legal accounting techniques," Rice said. The time that faculty spend working on federally funded research comes out of their salaries, making it a part of payroll instead of a separate form of funding from the state.

The bill, H5230, would require the state to provide matching funds as cash, "separate from any funds regularly appropriated to the university."

Rice said this change is necessary to provide more resources to the URI community. Professors doing research on federal grants "are not teaching classes, not advising," he said.

Rice was not always interested in politics, though he said, "there's politics in just about everything."

Rice discovered that Pat Shanley, the current representative for District 35, was planning on retiring two years ago, and his friends convinced to fill the spot.

Mary "Polly" Eddy, President of the South Kingstown town council and widow of Edward Eddy, president of URI from 1983 to 1991, told Rice that he had to run for District 35 representative.

"She called all the people that needed to be called, and here I am," Rice said.

Rice grew up and attended college in California. He came to Rhode Island in 1987 after working for the Peace Corps in the Philippines and getting his Ph.D from the University of California in Irvine. In 1992, he became active in local politics, serving on South Kingstown's conservation commission, which he now chairs. Rice also served as Chairman of URI Faculty Senate during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years.

University politics are intense, Rice said. "URI is a microcosm for the entire state."

Rice said if he were elected he would work toward getting money for the university.

URI President Robert L. Carothers' suggestion that the university might be forced to privatize because of a lack of state funding is "the logical conclusion," Rice said. Carothers estimated that if the percentage of state funding to URI keeps decreasing at its current rate, URI will receive no state money by the year 2020. If URI no longer receives funding from the state, it would become a semi-private institution like T.F. Green Airport, Carothers said earlier this year.

With no state appropriations, URI would switch to a single-tuition model instead of providing subsidized tuition to R.I. residents. There would also be a state grant system to subsidize the cost of attending R.I. colleges and universities.

Privatizing URI would make the cost of attendance more expensive, Rice said. "There will be less of a focus on talented people with lesser means," saying that the state must step up to the plate and help to maintain its flagship university.

Rice said he does not foresee a problem with managing his work for the legislature and URI if he wins the election on Nov. 4.

"Campaigning is probably more work than actually being in the legislature," he said, adding that he campaigns every weekend and has been "teaching more this semester than my entire 21 years [at URI]" because of faculty retirements.

He is optimistic about his chances of becoming the new representative for House District 35.

"They tell me that if I work hard, knock on lots of doors [and] don't be lazy, I'll win," Rice said.