UMass Boston’s “New Chapter” Opens with Convocation
UMass
Boston’s “New Chapter” Opens with Convocation
September
11: UMass Boston Reacts to National Tragedy
Students
Organize Donation Drive
College
of Management Convocation Features Jack Beatty
McCormack
Institute Senegal Partnership Receives New Support
Gerontology
Institute Studies Elders in Housing
A
New Leader for the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy
A
Best Practice: Biology Advising
University
Welcomes Back Students
Two
Days of Fun at the Boston Folk Festival
New
Life-Long E-Mail Accounts for Students
Arts
on the Point Brings Columbia Point History to Campus
Campus
Center Changing UMass Boston Landscape
By Anne-Marie Kent
At
the September 24 UMass Boston convocation, University of Massachusetts
President William M. Bulger announced that the event marks “a new
chapter in the distinguished history of this campus.” The crowd
of nearly 550 included faculty, staff, students, UMass trustees William
Giblin, Peter Lewenberg, James Mahoney, and student trustee Sandy Karahalis.
Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran joined Bulger in voicing
his enthusiasm for this new era.
For six weeks now, Chancellor Jo Ann Gora has been meeting with UMass Boston academics and administrators, institute directors and community leaders, and students and legislators, and getting their sense of the university’s greatest challenges and strengths. She has also been asking the question, “What constitutes a national model for public urban universities?”
That question can be traced back, says Gora, to the first UMass Boston convocation held in December of 1966. Then Chancellor John Ryan, stated that a model urban university must be integrated with society, measuring its economic, social, and moral health and reflecting its problems, hopes, successes, and failures.
“If we are to become the model of public urban higher education that is our birthright,” said Gora, “then we should have facilities and a campus that also reflect excellence.” Noting that recent renovations, including repairs to roofs, addition of sprinklers, and library brick-replacement— all totaling $21 million—are largely invisible, she announced plans to invest a million dollars in more renovations, including: new paint and carpeting, upgraded meeting areas, and improvements to the Wit’s End Café and the Wheatley student lounge. Inviting the audience to visualize these improvements and the addition of the new Campus Center with its bright, open architecture, Gora presented a vision of a clean, expanded and improved university in the near future. She pointed to the painting of Wheatley Hall interiors, the construction of the Fox Point Pavilion, and the improvements to Lipke Auditorium as signs of things to come.
In
addition to efforts to change the look and feel of the campus, Gora
announced plans to increase use of technology. Currently 300 instructors
use the ten general-use labs, two “smart classrooms” and 50
laptop computers. Thanks to the President’s Office, Gora will fund
ten new “smart classrooms,” and provide faculty with laptops
and Instructional Technology Center training and support.
Outlining the strengths of the university, Gora praised the commitment that “extends throughout all ranks of those who work or study here.” She mentioned dozens of faculty and staff by name, noting that while students raved about professors, professors praised students and university staff.
Another strength she identified was the university’s integration with the community. Gora pointed to schools partnerships such as Joan Becker’s work bringing $3.4 million federal and state dollars into Boston, the Division of Corporate, Continuing and Distance Education’s 800 courses in over 60 disciplines offered at 12 off-campus sites, Hubie Jones’s Columbia Point Community Partnership, and the 132,000 community youth Charlie Titus’s athletics programs serve annually.
She added that UMass Boston’s range of institutes and centers enable the university to speak to community residents, to partner with the school systems, to collaborate with neighborhood organizations, and to provide highly regarded research to undergird public policy analysis and formulation. She said, “This is a role that no other university in Boston plays as well as we do.”
Gora’s convocation address earned high marks. One university staff member praised its candor and strength. Another voiced appreciation for her “can-do” attitude. Freshman Wan Chen said, “It was helpful to hear about the changes planned for the university. It’s going to be great in the future.”
“We must do for ourselves as a university what we do for our students,” Gora concluded. “We meet them where they are, we work to bring out the best in them, we build on their strengths….In the same way, we can build on our strengths—our many kinds of strengths—and go on to become the best urban university this country has ever seen.”