A year and $5.5 million worth of renovations have transformed [Rhode Island College's] Alger Hall into the sort of modern, high-tech facility that today’s business schools require: highly computerized, with top-notch audio and video; Wi-Fi-enabled; and with plenty of versatile gathering spaces.

The quality of RIC’s business education facilities is particularly important for Rhode Island because, unlike most other colleges in the state, RIC caters primarily to local residents, and its graduates tend to stay in the area. RIC is also the most affordable four-year college here, with a year’s in-state tuition for 2005-06 costing only $3,888.

For the usually cash-strapped RIC, making this kind of improvement is a huge step, and it took years of planning and lobbying to get the money. Even then, while the college splurged where it mattered – technology, security, good design – it also squeezed the most out of its pennies, commissioning all the furniture from Correctional Industries, and recycling everything from a conference room table, to file cabinets.