January 24, 2007
Boston State College Celebration,
Bringing Together A Community of Educators, Learners, and Achievers
Speaker: Chancellor Michael Collins, MD
Good evening and welcome to UMass Boston. I hope that you are enjoying tonight’s event. I’d like thank members of the steering committee and also recognize “Darrel Loud Said So,” whose music you heard earlier—the band consists of one current UMass Boston student and four alumni. My thanks to them and to all of the UMass Boston students helping out with tonight’s celebration.
Our gathering this evening is a tremendous opportunity to celebrate the living memories and timeless values of Boston State College. For so many years, Boston State provided an excellent, affordable education and a welcoming, dynamic urban campus where students from all walks of life could come together and learn. It was a place that was “of” this city, a place where people formed lasting relationships. We see tonight how many of those relationships have continued over the years.
In many ways, Boston State was a “neighborhood college”—the place where the sons and daughters of Boston’s working class families came to become professionals. It provided an excellent, affordable education to a diverse student body in a vibrant urban setting and engendered political awareness and civic engagement. Our Boston State alumni, such as those in the room tonight, and those featured in the video we will see later on, are everywhere throughout our city and the Commonwealth—teachers, lawyers, police officers, public servants of all kinds—the list goes on and on.
And like its alumni, who loom so large in this city and beyond, Boston State is a landmark institution in our collective history. We cannot celebrate Boston State, however, without acknowledging the reality that, twenty-five years ago today, what some refer to as “the Boston State merger” took place.
To the dismay of dedicated faculty, hardworking staff, and talented students, Boston State College closed that day. Jobs were eliminated. Students and alumni felt a sense of loss as their beloved faculty were let go and the doors of their cherished institution were closed to them. Tonight, as we mark this date, we remember all that Boston State College meant and continues to mean to everyone in this room.
Boston State was an excellent institution of public higher learning serving the city of Boston and beyond—and today, UMass Boston is just that type of institution.
UMass Boston espouses the timeless values of Boston State. Like Boston State, we are a committed community of learners. We provide an excellent, affordable education to the most diverse student body you will find at any university in New England.
We provide what we like to call a real education for our students, offering them a robust exposure to the liberal arts in an environment that is an established common ground for the free exchange of ideas. We create rich opportunities for civic engagement in a place where inspiring minds inspire lives.
Our UMass Boston faculty, like those who taught at Boston State, are committed to helping our students realize their aspirations. They extend themselves by serving our students—over half of whom are the first in their families to attend college.
I can assure you that one of the most powerful moments I have experienced since becoming chancellor occurred at commencement when I invited our graduates who were the first college students in their families to rise and be recognized.
Many who attended Boston State were the first in their families to attend college, as Boston State provided critical access to education. If you attended Boston State and were the first in your family to attend college, please stand and be recognized. Boston State made a difference in the lives of its students. That’s what we do at UMass Boston: provide an excellent, affordable education that makes a difference in the lives of our students.
It is my sincere hope that all of you will see that, although Boston State was closed on that day twenty-five years ago, the spirit of Boston State continues. That spark, which transformed the lives of so many of you who are here tonight, continues in the lives of our students.
The values of Boston State are reflected in the values of UMass Boston.
The spirit of Boston State is very much alive here on Columbia Point. Boston State is a cornerstone of our university.
I would like to take a moment now to ask all of the Boston State faculty and staff members—those who continued on at UMass Boston and those who did not—to please stand and be recognized. Your hard work and example set the foundation for so much of what we do here at UMass Boston. The Boston State faculty who came to UMass Boston made significant contributions. In years past, I know, so many Boston State faculty served as department chairs, deans, and in executive staff positions. Currently Dr. Winston Langley is Associate Provost and Dr. Terry Mortimer is Vice Provost for Academic Support Services.
All of us at UMass Boston truly appreciate the contributions and commitments of all those who were dedicated to Boston State. As a university, we are mindful of the past while also focused on the future. We are currently involved in a strategic planning process that aims to renew and rebuild UMass Boston, to make us bigger, better, and more engaged. We hope to build a new academic building on campus, to improve the learning spaces for our students, and to increase the number of students we serve. We are Boston’s great public university, and we want to honor the legacy handed down to us from Boston State. As most of you know, I became chancellor in June of 2005. I don’t know if this has been done before, but if it hasn’t, please allow me to invite all of you who are Boston State alumni, former faculty, and staff into the UMass Boston family. I want to thank you for laying the strong foundation upon which we build.
We want you to feel at home here on our campus. We want you to feel that UMass Boston is a place that holds your values, Boston State values. I know that the Boston State website is already up and running [www.umb.edu/bsc/]. Later this year, we will dedicate a brand new Boston State Room here in the Campus Center, which will feature photos and memorabilia from the Boston State days. It will be a special place that will help us all to remember the legacy of Boston State.
Thanks to all of you for being here tonight, for being willing to witness the living memories and envision the timeless values that our institutions share.