Chancellor Penney Reflects on Twelve Years At UMass Boston
Chancellor
Penney Reflects on Twelve Years At UMass Boston
UMass
Boston First Celebrates Early Victory
Years
of Service Reception Honors 152 Employees
Sherry
H.Penney Endowed Professorship in Leadership
Situation
Critical:
UMass Boston Releases Vital Housing Study
Gordon
Wallace Named Outstanding Faculty Member
Clinical
Psychology Department
Receives Accreditation
by Sherry H. Penney
It has been
a great year for UMass Boston! The highlights have included our new
Carnegie classification as a doctoral/research university; completing
our first capital campaign on target and ahead of schedule; the most
successful year of grants and contracts in our history; the addition
of a national freshman honor society chapter; and international recognition
as host of the first presidential debate of the 2000 campaign.
As I reflect on UMass Boston what comes to the fore is
the crucial importance of contributions from so many people: a brilliant
faculty committed to teaching and research, truly interesting and motivated
students, a dedicated staff, and remarkable alumni. Our success is truly
a collaborative achievement.
UMass Boston’s core strength has always been the
quality of undergraduate teaching and learning, and the excitement that
our student body brings to our campus. Our students increasingly reflect
the diversity of our surrounding community, and we have seen a steady
increase in SATs for incoming freshmen -1001 in the fall of 1997, 1033
last year, and now 1046 this year.
The undergraduate experience is now supported by a newly
revised General Education Program, designed to develop critical thinking
skills and give students more experience in science, technology, and
foreign languages. In March of 2000, the New England Association of
Schools and Colleges evaluating team spoke enthusiastically of the good
principles and innovative quality of GenEd at UMass Boston.
Many of our undergraduates do distinguished work. In 1994,
the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program enrolled 65 students.
Now our university-wide Honors Program boasts nearly 150 students, and
last year it included the university’s first two Fulbright undergraduate
grant winners, Alexander Penna and Colin Ward. A new chapter of the
national freshman honor society Alpha Lambda Delta was also added this
year.
Undergraduate education benefits immensely from strong
graduate programs, and the 1987 long-range plan included the goal of
establishing doctoral programs in areas related to our urban mission.
Since then, eight programs have been added, beginning with clinical
psychology in 1989, and then gerontology, public policy, the biology
track within environmental sciences, higher education administration,
leadership in urban schools, computer science, and nursing . This achievement,
made possible by extraordinary efforts on the part of the faculty, resulted
in the Carnegie Foundation’s reclassification of UMass Boston as
a doctoral/research university earlier this year, which puts us in a
whole new league and makes us eligible for new sources of grant funding.
Accompanying growth at the doctoral level was an expansion
of centers and institutes. We added the Mauricio Gastón Institute
for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in 1991; the Center
for Women in Politics and Public Policy, and the Center for Social Policy
in 1992-3; and the Asian American Institute and the Labor Resource Center
in 1993
Like the doctoral programs, the institutes inform public
policy, bring in outside funds, and demonstrate our excellence in research.
Yet I emphasize especially their contribution to undergraduate education.
They give undergraduates more opportunities to do research and enable
faculty to bring to their classes an increased awareness of the living
edge of knowledge. Moreover, when students see the relation of research
to current public policy issues, they develop a sense that the university
is a leader in the community and that they too can become leaders.
As our original mission statement observed in 1965, UMass
Boston is both of the city and in the city. Three-quarters of our sponsored
research dollars support work on urban issues, including education,
economic development, public safety, health care policy, and the urban
environment. We were a principal founder of the Urban Collaborative
network with community colleges, now a national model for coordinating
admissions, class offerings, advising, and ease of transfer among member
institutions. We sponsor the Forums for the 21st Century, engaging local
leaders in discussion of public issues. We work closely with the Harbor
School, Dorchester High School, and numerous other schools in the city.
These are just a few examples.
We are also part of the Commonwealth’s new technology
economy. We have a distinguished faculty in science and mathematics.
In the past four years alone, the number of our undergraduate science
majors has increased by over 20%. Accompanying this has been growth
in the number of science enrollments overall, with the largest increases
in computer science (66%), earth and geographic sciences (31%), and
biochemistry (29%).
UMass Boston’s success in education, research, and
outreach underlies the success of our fundraising. This year we saw
the completion of our first-ever, $50 million capital campaign one year
early. Our endowment has increased over the last decade from $4 million
to cash and commitments totaling nearly $24 million. Sponsored research
has gone from $7 million in 1988 to $18.2 million in the most recent
fiscal year. Now, with the Carnegie reclassification, that figure should
increase substantially.
The university is a far different place than it was when I joined you in 1988, and its excellence and prominence should make us all proud. I will always treasure my association with a university community that means so much to all those who are a part of it. You have my gratitude for your contributions, my enthusiastic support, and my confidence in the future of the University of Massachusetts Boston.