Nancy Carriuolo, president of Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island, since July 2008, has announced that she has agreed to step down after next spring’s graduation ceremony on May 21. Rhode Island College is a public, four-year institution with enrollments of more than 8,000 students. Women make up two thirds of the undergraduate student body.
The Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education stated that “certain differences have arisen between and Council and the president relating to the operation of Rhode Island College.” As a result President Carriuolo was “terminated without cause.”
In a statement to the campus community, President Carriuolo said the “we are all aware, recently the campus community has voiced a very public mixture of support and criticism of my time at Rhode Island College. I cannot ignore the fact that the college community is divided. Consequently, for the sake of the college, the Postsecondary Council and I have agreed that I will step down as president.”
Under the terms of the agreement President Carriuolo signed with the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education, she will be able to reside in the president’s house on campus until July 1 and will continue to be paid through the end of 2016.
Dr. Carriuolo served as interim vice president for academic affairs before being named the ninth president of Rhode Island College in 2008. Earlier, she was deputy commissioner and chief academic officer at the Rhode Island Office for Higher Education. Dr. Carriuolo holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the College at Brockport and a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo, both campuses of the State University of New York System.