Engineering Transfer Program Advisory Board Meeting 10/31/25

CCRI Engineering Transfer Advisory Board Meeting
Date: October 31, 2025
Location: CCRI Warwick Campus, Room 4090
Program Context: CCRI AS / URI Engineering BS, Transfer Program (2+2)

Meeting Attendees:
CCRI - Christine Turenius-Bell, Matthew Rieger, Paula Arruda, Chris Carruba, Roger Hart, Kelly Korzeniowski, Basile Panoutsopoulos, Emmanuel Tsangarakis
URI - Kathleen Maher, Sigrid Berka, Haibo He, Darko Ljubic,
Former CCRI Students - John Wait, Jasmine Morales
Members of Industry/Former CCRI Students - Jamie Gagnon, Daniel J. Schultheis

Program Status:
Dean Kathleen Maher reported URI’s most recent audit: 35 CCRI students represented > 50% of URI engineering transfer students.
Discussion Themes:

  1. URI Only Courses – Scheduling and Access
    • Need for consistent / predictable schedule for URI only courses (important for future CCRI block scheduling)
    • Remote delivery of URI courses would reduce travel barriers and increase access
    • CCRI has simplified initiation paperwork via DocuSign; still desire a more streamlined Inter-Institutional process
    • Investigate Potential/Considerations: faculty compensation complexity: URI faculty teaching URI only courses at CCRI facilitates schedule alignment & collaboration
    • URI can potentially give CCRI faculty block permission numbers for high demand courses (e.g. ISE 240 / 241)
  2. Engineering Transfer Students’ Math Readiness
    • Shared agreement: this is a core barrier across both institutions
    • URI’s Level Up pilot success: 19/20 students reached Calculus placement threshold
    • CCRI faculty interest in “Math for Physics” model to improve readiness
    • CCRI also pointed to existing Online Workshop & engineering success video series (Daniel Schultheis)
    • Concern: CCRI students may self-declare engineering without Calculus readiness → causes misalignment + frustration
    • Possible solution: Pre-Engineering pathway that guides them intentionally while prerequisites are completed (needs to be inclusive / non-exclusionary)
  3. Student Orientation and Communication
    • Proposal: CCRI run Engineering orientation + maintain engineering specific Blackboard LMS as central info hub + Q&A digital space.
  4. Institutional Connection
    • Chemical Engineering track outreach offered by URI (Ljubic)
    • Explore URI engineering club access for CCRI students
    • Existing interactions: CCRI ESA visits URI Fascitelli, URI Engineering Week hosts CCRI transfer
    • Internships broadly promoted (RI-SURF, UMass Dartmouth, RITBA IYAI+, US Army SPICE, etc)
  5. Advising / Course Registration
    • Strong Advising = highest leverage variable
    • ENGR 1020 gives program structure overview + transfer steps but CCRI advisors are not consistently fluent in Engineering pathway
    • CCRI faculty cannot advise officially (constraint)
    • Value identified in dedicated engineering advisor role
    • URI Transfer Day in June is critical advising touchpoint (supports IEP planning and 5-year sequencing)
  6. Student Feedback / Former CCRI Students
    • Need stronger advising + clearer communication throughout transfer pipeline
    • Want more project based / hands-on experiences at CCRI to be internship competitive
  7. Action Items
    • Explore the use of URI block permission numbers for ISE 240/241 by polling students during the current registration cycle
    • Develop proposal for CCRI “Pre-Engineering Pathway” concept
    • Evaluate viability of “Math for Physics” CCRI module
    • Plan CCRI Engineering Orientation through dedicated Blackboard space
    • Explore allowable mechanism for dedicated engineering advisor at CCRI
    • Pilot formalizing a resume-ready project/teamwork summary artifact (based on the existing ENGR 1020 project) to support internships + interview readiness.
Top