Sabitoni is the vice chair of the University of Rhode Island Board of Trustees.

Shekarchi downplayed the idea that the two were meeting about next year’s governor’s race, which the speaker and his $3.1 million (and growing) campaign account can’t seem to avoid being asked about despite his own denials that he is planning a run.

Shekarchi also said he met with lobbyist Lenny Lopes, who earns $5,000 a month to lobby for Meta (Facebook), while in Florida. As you might imagine, Meta opposes Governor Dan McKee’s budget proposal to impose a 10 percent tax on digital advertising.

The bigger picture: If you believe Rhode Island politics weren’t discussed when Shekarchi and Sabitoni met in Florida, I’ve got a bridge in East Providence to sell you.

Sabitoni is precisely the kind of person a Democratic candidate for governor would want in his or her corner, but there’s one hiccup at the moment: Sabitoni has been among McKee’s top supporters since he took office in 2021.

Shekarchi has maintained that he won’t run against McKee, but he hasn’t ruled out entering the race if McKee were to take a look at his middling approval ratings and take a pass on running for reelection next year. McKee has repeatedly said he does plan to run again.

Meanwhile, Democrat Helena Foulkes, who finished second against McKee in the 2022 Democratic primary, has all but formally declared that she is running again next year.

What’s next: All Rhode Island politicians have to report their campaign fund-raising totals on Friday night, and you can expect Shekarchi, McKee, and Foulkes to continue growing their sizable war chests.

In many ways, time is on Shekarchi’s side. While he doesn’t quite have the name recognition as McKee or the personal wealth of Foulkes, he has more power as the speaker than either of them. It has been notable that he has expressed more frustration with McKee’s Department of Housing in recent weeks.

I was up bright and early to discuss today’s edition of Rhode Map on “12 News This Morning.”

This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, links to interesting stories, and more. If you’d like to receive it via email Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.

Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.

Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD) board of trustees announced last week that it has voted against a proposal to divest from Israel presented by the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter (RSJP). The board’s rejection comes in the wake of the group’s three-day occupation of a campus building last May, when it called for the nonprofit college and museum to divest as part of a larger movement across academic institutions in the United States. 

Five RSJP representatives met with the board’s Investment Subcommittee and administrators including President Crystal Williams in October, a spokesperson for RSJP told Hyperallergic. During the meeting, the representatives proposed the institution sever its financial ties to companies linked to Israel’s war on Gaza and other anti-Palestinian violence and discrimination, according to a divestment proposal document shared with Hyperallergic. 

As of June 2023, RISD’s endowment stood at $396 million. A spokesperson for the school declined to comment on the institution’s endowment or disclose what percentage is invested in companies linked to Israeli interests. 

“The reason why we create art and seek to understand it in a thoughtful and complex way is because we collectively believe that it holds a real bearing on global society,” RSJP’s divestment proposal reads. 

“If we as an institution do not put into practice our ability to effect influence as global changemakers, we render hollow RISD’s fundamental value of the power of art and design and the power of an art institution to do good in the world,” the proposal continues.

In a statement emailed to RISD community members and posted on the art school’s website, the board of trustees said RSJP’s proposal did not meet the criteria outlined in its Statement on Divestment. Those criteria, adopted in May 2015, stipulate that while its duty is to “achieve the maximum possible return” on investment, “in rare circumstances … the Board of Trustees may also in its sole discretion take political and social considerations into account.” 

For divestment to occur under these guidelines, a proposal would need to “implicat[e] an issue of importance to RISD as an institution and to its constituents as a whole, and not solely to a segment of its constituents,” and “would be likely to have a meaningful impact on the resolution of that issue.” 

According to the RSJP’s divestment proposal, 800 of the school’s over 2,000 students signed in favor of their demands, including disclosure and divestment, in a petition in fall 2023. The group also called for a third-party student referendum vote. Some universities, including Columbia University and Pomona College, rejected disclosure and divestment demands from students, despite referendum votes indicating that most of them were in favor of such actions. 

In May, the SJP chapter of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and Faculty for Justice in Palestine were successful in pushing the school to commit to a full disclosure of its investments. The school also vowed to create a student-led Ethical Investment Workgroup that would work with the board of trustees to divest from entities connected to human rights abuses. 

During the occupation of the second floor of RISD’s Providence Washington (Prov-Wash) building last May, which RSJP renamed “Fathi Ghaben Place” in honor of the Gazan artist who died after Israeli authorities blocked his travel for medical treatment, students held art-making sessions and teach-ins. The action was disbanded following expulsion warnings. 

RISD’s board of trustees has divested before: Nearly a decade ago, the board unanimously voted to withdraw its investments in fossil fuel industries, two years after, students from the group Divest RISD staged a sit-in, the Portland Press Herald reported.

RSJP’s divestment proposal also calls for the institution to back out of any investment in the “exploitation of natural resources,” referencing the Hague Regulations of 1907, which limits an “occupying state” from using the resources of the “occupied population,” according to Amnesty International. The student organization additionally called for RISD’s divestment from weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies tied to Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank.

In an Instagram post this week, RSJP alleged the administration did not engage with them in good faith, claiming that “several trustees” did not attend on short notice. 

“As long as the administration refuses to divest, they are participants in the violence,” RSJP told Hyperallergic. “We will not rest until our demands are met.”

It seems Donald Trump’s Gulf of Mexico name change is going forward.

Even the Coast Guard is officially calling it “The Gulf of America.”

To me, that’s a sign we’re now allowed to change geographical labels.

Which, of course, got me wondering how we might apply that here.

I’ve long thought that the state’s 39 cities and towns are way too many – maybe now’s the time to consolidate them into a half dozen or so.

I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, if the Gulf of Mexico can be renamed, why not Rhode Island itself?

Frankly, it’s a bit absurd that no one is sure where our name came from.

One theory is that in 1614, Dutch explorer Adriaen Block called it Roodt Eylandt because of the red clay along the Block Island shore. Another is that Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano thought we looked like the Greek island of Rhodes.

Wouldn’t it be better to name us after something more relevant?

From our beginnings, Rhode Island has been known as a contrary state, the first to reject the crown and the last to ratify the Constitution.

So perhaps we should be named Contraria?

Or Rebellia?

I once heard a British visitor say, “Rhode Island is such a funny little state – is it necessary?” Perhaps not, which makes me think we could also be called “Inessentia” or “Afterthoughtica.”

Since there are two Carolinas and Dakotas, we conceivably could be renamed South Massachusetts. But 390 years later, I’m still mad that they kicked out Roger Williams, and I’d rather not be known as their appendage.

We could also be East Connecticut, but why be melded into a state that – how do I put this politely? – does anyone even know what Connecticut is about? Like, what’s nutmeg? At least Rhode Island is distinct, from accent to brash politics – “brash” being a polite word for “occasionally corrupt.”

But I don’t think the name “Corruptia” would help our tourist pitch. This has me thinking it would help if a new state name highlighted our coastal distinction.

So if I had to make a final decision, I’d call us “Beachlandia.”

Meanwhile, let’s get to the idea of compressing the absurd number of 39 Rhode Island cities and towns.

My initial thought was to combine towns by personality – for example putting together East Greenwich, the East Side, parts of Barrington and Newport and call it the town of “Affluence.”

One might also combine Pawtucket and Woonsocket as comparable working-class cities named “Woontucket.”

But I think the towns have to be contiguous. And if we’re going to jettison the absurd number of 39, let’s be serious about making it not much more than a half dozen.

I picture seven.

First, let’s look toward the west – you know, that sea of red in the state’s post-election maps. That would include Burrillville, Hopkinton, Richmond, Exeter, West Greenwich, Coventry, Foster, Scituate and Glocester. As far as I know, there’s only one thing out there in western Rhode Island, so I’d call that town “The Woods.”

Which brings up another Rhode Island region – to the south – also known for one thing. I’d merge Charlestown, South Kingstown, Narragansett, North Kingstown, Westerly and Block Island and call it “The Dunes.”

Now let’s move east across Narragansett Bay. You know how when you ask people from Middletown where they live, they often make it easy on everyone and say, “Newport”? I’m guessing other folks do the same – especially if they’re out of state and someone asks what town they live in.

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So I’d combine Jamestown, Middletown, Portsmouth and even Tiverton and Little Compton, all of which are in the sailing city’s gravitational pull, and name that town, “Le Newport.”

Next, I’m thinking about the wraparounds circling the state’s sole metro area. I’d include Warwick, Cranston, Johnston, North Providence and even East Greenwich.

Of course, those towns all see themselves as distinct, but I’ll bet folks in places like Boston just meld them together as “the land beyond Providence.” I’ll throw West Warwick into that mix because I don’t know where else to put it. And we’ll call that combined town “The Burbs.”

That leaves the state’s urban core – Providence, East Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. I might borrow one of my favorite Rhode Islandisms and call it “Down City.”

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To the southeast of Down City, there’s a necklace of towns that don’t quite qualify as Le Newport, the Burbs or The Dunes. I’m talking about Barrington, Warren and Bristol. We’ll call that town “The Marina.”

That leaves Lincoln, the Smithfields and Cumberland, which aren’t quite The Woods. And Woonsocket which is too far to be Down City or the Burbs. I think that amorphous mix of towns should simply called, “The Rest.”

All seven of these new combined towns would make up the newly named Beachlandia.

Let me know if you have better ideas for a state name.

Meanwhile, someone please alert the Coast Guard.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com