Roger Williams University

Roger Williams University (RWU) is a private university in Bristol, Rhode Island. Founded in 1956, it was named for theologian and Rhode Island cofounder Roger Williams. The school enrolls over 5,000 students and employs over 480 academic staff. History The university’s operations date to 1919, when Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, opened a branch campus in the YMCA building in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1940, the YMCA board of directors began directing the school, and the YMCA Institute granted its first associate's degrees in 1948. In 1956, the institute received a state charter to become a two-year, degree-granting institution under the name of Roger Williams Junior College. During the 1960s, the school began granting bachelor's degrees, and–in 1967–it subsequently adopted a new, shorter name: Roger Williams College. Needing a larger campus, the college purchased of waterfront land and moved its main campus to Bristol in 1969. (RWU continues to operate a branch campus in Providence.) In 1989 new president Dr. Natale A. Sicuro initiated the Roger Williams Plan for the 1990s, and became concurrently the president of the newly established Roger Williams School of Law and, in 1992, led the name change of Roger Williams College to Roger Williams University. RWU celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006. Ioannis Miaoulis was appointed the eleventh president of Roger Williams University in 2019. Miaoulis previously served as both the president and director of the Boston Museum of Science since 2003 and brings a STEM philosophy to the university as he seeks to guide the university's mission and commitment in providing education through community-engaged learning and civic scholarship.