{"id":60169,"date":"2012-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/on-its-50th-anniversary-uri-alton-jones-director-proud-to-have-reinvented-campus\/"},"modified":"2012-06-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T00:00:00","slug":"on-its-50th-anniversary-uri-alton-jones-director-proud-to-have-reinvented-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/06\/on-its-50th-anniversary-uri-alton-jones-director-proud-to-have-reinvented-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"On its 50th anniversary, 溏心vlog免费B站 Alton Jones director proud to have \u2018reinvented\u2019 campus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tWEST GREENWICH, R.I. \u2013 June 14, 2012 \u2013 Thomas Mitchell has been the man in charge of the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s W. Alton Jones Campus for nearly 25 years, and as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, Mitchell is looking back at how the campus has changed and looking ahead at how to make it even better.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe Warwick resident took over responsibility for the Alton Jones site back when the original buildings \u2013 turn-of-the-century farm houses, summer homes built in the 1930s, and numerous out-buildings — were falling into disrepair and long before the campus became a site for destination weddings.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019m really proud that we\u2019ve totally re-invented the campus in the years since I came here,\u201d said Mitchell. \u201cWe\u2019ve renovated almost every building, we\u2019ve added Sycamore Lodge and a new cabin, and we\u2019ve entered the wedding business.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 2,300-acre property was donated to 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1962 by the wife of oil executive W. Alton Jones, who died in a plane crash. Jones had used the property as a hunting lodge, where he entertained business leaders and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Soon after taking ownership, 溏心vlog免费B站 began offering it to businesses and community groups as a conference center, and an environmental education center was built to offer youth camps and outdoor education programming.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve really changed the culture of the campus to be entirely customer focused,\u201d said Mitchell, noting that campus revenues grew from $230,000 in 1985 when he arrived to $3.4 million last year. \u201cWe\u2019ve really progressed in everything that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tMitchell, who grew up in North Providence, worked at the Urban Education Center at Rhode Island College before taking his first administrative position at the Alton Jones Campus in 1985. His background in educational administration and community planning was a perfect fit.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThere were a lot of reasons that made sense for me to come to Alton Jones,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThe job is somewhat similar to community planning \u2013 take a property and develop it. It\u2019s about strategic planning, adding facilities, building a wedding business and responding to the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe economic environment in recent years has taken a toll, which has forced Mitchell to be creative in positioning the campus to best serve the community.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe have lots of competition, and they all want to do what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a great reputation in Rhode Island, and what we offer is unparalleled in New England \u2013 a former estate where business groups can meet in a distraction-free environment, a beautiful wedding destination, and youth camps that are consistently rated tops in the region.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe challenge is to identify the appropriate next steps to take,\u201d Mitchell added. \u201cHow do we continue to develop and advance what we\u2019ve done? We can\u2019t stay static, we\u2019ve got to keep fresh and make the right investment decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAn avid golfer who has taught an introductory computer science course at the Community College of Rhode Island for many years, Mitchell says he could retire shortly, but he\u2019s having too much fun to make that decision any time soon.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhen you come to Alton Jones, you\u2019re really going to have an experience that you will remember,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be an experience reminiscent of something in your past — the night sky, a nature walk, an activity that you do, something you see. There\u2019s a lot of places you can get food and a room, but the experience here is something special.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI feel good about what I\u2019ve done at Alton Jones. I\u2019ve had a great career at 溏心vlog免费B站, and I couldn\u2019t have asked for more. Most of the good things in my life have come from my affiliation with higher education in Rhode Island. And there\u2019s more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Joe Giblin\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST GREENWICH, R.I. \u2013 June 14, 2012 \u2013 Thomas Mitchell has been the man in charge of the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s W. Alton Jones Campus for nearly 25 years, and as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, Mitchell is looking back at how the campus has changed and looking ahead at how to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}