Newman's best-known works on education reform were the 'Newman Reports' of 1971 and 1974, formally the 'Report on Higher Education' and 'The Second Newman Report: National Policy and Higher Education'. For nine years he served as the eighth President of the
University of Rhode Island (1974–1983). He resigned his position at the University of Rhode Island to take up a Presidential Fellowship at the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 1985, Newman was a co-founder with the presidents of Stanford University, Brown University, and Georgetown University, of the organisation
Campus Compact. At the time of its founding, the Futures Project was based at Brown University's Center for Public Policy and American Institutions and was funded by the
Pew Charitable Trusts. Also in 1999, he was elected an alumni trustee of Brown University's Brown Corporation. He was also a Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at
Brown University. On 13 May 2003, Newman testified before the
United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce. ==Honours and tributes==