URI students plan to wear purple, celebrating life of deceased student

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — University of Rhode Island students are being asked to wear purple Friday in memory of Dominique Franco, a nursing student who died in her sorority room over the weekend.

"This Friday will mark the first day of class [Franco] will not be with us, and I will have an empty seat next to me" nursing student Tyler Fritz wrote on Facebook. "I want to keep everything full of life, just like her, and what better way to do it than to wear her favorite color."

Fritz, in his Facebook post, described Franco as "one of the kindest souls I had the privilege of knowing. This Friday, I ask if you can fish something purple out of the bottom of your drawers or ask a friend to borrow a shirt if you don't have one and please, please, please wear it to class to honor our former classmate Dominique Franco."

Franco was found unresponsive in the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority house in the early hours of Feb. 16. She was taken to South County Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.