Roger Williams University Opens New Global Heritage Hall

Newly-built campus academic center focuses on global community and encourages cultural awareness

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Global Heritage Hall

BRISTOL, RI (09/23/2009)(readMedia)-- After a nearly six-year financial planning process, 10 months of design and a 12-month construction period, Roger Williams University opened the doors today to its Global Heritage Hall, a premier state-of-the-art learning center and the "hub" of global research, scholarship, study and collaboration for the Roger Williams University community.  Destined to become a hallmark of the RWU Bristol campus, the 52,000 square foot, four-story facility boasts a three-story atrium, outdoor terrace area for teaching and a light-filled, technology-rich learning center. The Global Heritage Hall is home to:

  • The departments of History; Communication and Graphic Design; Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition; English and Creative Writing; and Foreign Languages, Philosophy and Classics
  • The Peggy and Marc Spiegel Center for Global & International Programs
  • The Donald C. McGraw Foundation Communications Labs
  • Multimedia Communications Studio and Newsroom
  • The Robert F. Stoico/FIRSTFED World Languages Center
  • Seven Heritage Classrooms that serve as a gateway to the world for the RWU community. With one still to be assigned, the following six heritages each have a devoted classroom in the Global Heritage Hall: African-American, Bristolian, Italian, Latino, Native American, and Portuguese.

The Global Heritage Hall is the latest in a string of significant capital projects completed by the University in 2009. The new North Campus Residence Village and the new University Alumni & Admissions Center are some of the recent construction projects enhancing RWU's Bristol campus. Funded through a $1 million Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the University also completed the expansion of its Marine & Natural Sciences Building that is home to RWU's Center for Environmental and Economic Development.

Members of the media are welcomed to tour the Global Heritage Hall by contacting Kathleen Lowe, director of Media and Marketing Services by calling (401) 254-5206.

About RWU: Roger Williams University is a leading independent, coeducational liberal arts university at which students live and learn to be global citizens. With 40 academic programs and an array of co-curricular activities on its Bristol, R.I., campus, RWU is committed to its mantra of learning to bridge the world. Under the leadership of President Roy J. Nirschel, Ph.D., the University has achieved unprecedented academic and financial successes. In 2009, U.S. News & World Report named RWU the seventh-ranked baccalaureate college in the north.