Campus Updates

March 29, 2002
Memorandum for: The University Community
From: Jo Ann Gora, Chancellor
Subject: Campus Updates

The Budget

By now everyone knows that the downturn in the national economy and in state tax receipts has resulted in a cut to the university budget this year and one is promised for next. The magnitude of the cut, this year’s and also next year’s if it remains at about the same level, is serious but not the disaster that it has sometimes been portrayed.

Many people on campus have expressed their concerns to me about the budget for the next fiscal year, concerns that have been amplified by depressing headlines regarding state finances, reports on what other campuses are doing, and by lack of information about what we are planning for on this campus. We have no final answers as we are also uncertain about what budgetary steps our state leaders will be taking in the next few months. However, we have a plan, described below, that will preserve our core academic functions and maintain course availability and retention of certificate and degree programs.

An additional issue which I am sure is of great concern to the campus is the impact of early retirements on the budget and also, more importantly, on the quality of education offered to our students. We are likely to lose as many as 75 faculty members to early retirement on June 15. While I hope and expect that a number of these faculty will finally decide to stay with us for a few more years, it will be a challenge to continue to provide the quality instruction and scholarship that these members of our community have given to us during their years of service. I want to assure the campus community that we will not let our core academic mission suffer and that we will continue to provide the level of course availability that we have offered to our students in prior years. To do this next year, we will need to utilize part-time faculty and temporary lecturers to a greater extent than we have in the past. However, I pledge that over the next three years, we will rehire at least 80 percent of the retiring faculty with full time faculty.

Our best estimate is that our budget is likely to be $12 million out of balance for the next fiscal year, prior to the implementation of budget solutions. This estimate is predicated on a number of assumptions, including the implementation of previously negotiated collective bargaining salary increases without any additional state funds to pay for them. Other assumptions include further state cutbacks, the need to fill a structural deficit, and the need to provide additional funds for graduate student stipends, the library, facilities renewal projects, and debt service for construction projects like the garage renovations.

We believe we will be able to plug $4.8 million of the budget gap with new revenue, by taking measures which include the recently approved fee increase of $650 above the current year for full-time students. Thus, it becomes our task to find $7.2 million in budget savings to balance next year’s budget. To this end, I established the Committee on Budget Reallocations to examine how the campus does its business and recommend reductions that will not impact our core functions. The committee has made recommendations that would result in savings valued at $2.2 million. I have evaluated them keeping in mind the following principles:

• Protect the Academic Core of the Campus. We should protect the availability of courses, and certificate and degree programs for our students.
• Maintain as Lean an Administrative Structure as Possible. We will find acceptable ways to reduce the number of administrative positions.
• The Consumer Pays. Where we provide public service programs to the larger educational community, we will seek to increase revenues to match program costs so that these activities are self-supporting.
• Introduce Policies to Mitigate Costs and Raise Revenues. We will seek to increase our revenues from the Division of Corporate, Continuing & Distance Education and other entrepreneurial activities. Academic and administrative policies to increase efficiency will be introduced.
• Minimize Use of Across-the-Board Cuts. We will reduce but probably not eliminate the need for across-the-board cuts, which hurt the ability of all areas of the campus to function.
• Replace as Many of the Early Incentive Retirees as Possible. For faculty, we will replace at least 80 percent of the early incentive tenure track retirements over the next three years. For non-faculty, we will replace as many critical positions as necessary and not be limited to an artificially low percentage.

Upon review of the committee’s recommendations, I believe we can achieve about $1.8 million of savings within these guidelines.

We have also identified another $3.4 million in other adjustments that would not affect spending by campus departments. Hence, we are left with the need to find a further $2.0 million in savings to balance the budget for next year. This $2.0 million, although a burden, will be less than the 3.8 percent and 7.0 percent reductions discussed at budget hearings I have held with the deans and vice chancellors. The reductions will need to be shared widely across the campus. Discussions about them have begun with deans and directors of administrative units, and decisions will be made over the next month in order to reduce the budget by, ideally, August. We will continue to follow the principles outlined above in making these decisions.

These are difficult financial times for public higher education. However, we have been there before and are more experienced in responding to them. We will find ways to protect our core academic functions and move forward creatively. We can take note of the good signs in the economy and we will continue to expound the role of higher education in the modern economy, the economic logic in supporting it, and the need to keep short-run adjustments in line with those long-run goals.

Buildings, New and Old

Construction on the Campus Center continues ahead of schedule. Steelwork on the western part of the building is complete and is now being put in place on the east side, the curved part of the building. Floors are being poured and the brick wall at the plaza level between Wheatley and the Center has been taken down.

Repainting of the classrooms in McCormack will begin in April and will likely be complete by the end of July. Most of the work will take place nights and weekends so as to minimize disruption to classes. Prep work is more flexible in its scheduling than the actual painting, which is done only at certain times so that the paint odor is not too strong on Monday when classes for the week begin.

New carpeting is being installed in several locations around campus. The work has been completed in the Admissions area in Quinn and in the University Club. Carpeting has been ordered and will be installed when it arrives for the Quinn elevator lobby, lower level, the McCormack lobby, the chapel, the theatre lobby, Student Advising and Academic Support Services. This summer, when working conditions allow, carpet will be installed in Health Services, Healey Library and some other areas.

Carpeting in the University Club is part of a more extensive makeover, with a new paint scheme and new chairs achieving a certain relaxed elegance. A first-rate audio-visual system will be installed in several weeks. In this way the room is being made into a space more suitable both for dining with important university guests and larger, public events. At the same time we hope it will become increasingly attractive as a place to meet and talk with colleagues over lunch. Even after completion of the Campus Center, there will be demand for space of this kind.

Our new exterior signage on campus buildings-the 15-inch resinous material that looks like stainless steel and is impervious to salt sea air-is receiving much favorable comment, and improvements to signage around campus continue to be made. In the McCormack and Wheatley cafeterias new pictures are up showing faculty and students around the campus. Steadily and surely we are starting to look more like the university that we are.

Movement-freedom, ease and confidence of movement-can be one of the pleasures of life, and I take special satisfaction that the steps leading from the plaza to the library are now again usable.

The Campus Community Team

In my informal conversations with students I often ask what one improvement to UMass Boston would they put at the top of their list. The answer more often than not is to improve the sense of community. We know that new dorms will make a difference, but they are only one of a number of steps we are looking at. For a broad look at campus community, Stephanie Janey, Dean of Student Affairs, is heading up the Campus Community Team. The group has already met three times.

One of the first items the CCT is addressing is the question of how students receive information about what’s happening at UMB. The CCT is preparing a survey of how students hear about events, how they would like to receive information, do they attend-and why and why not. Often students are not aware that things of interest to them are going on. Sometimes the information is available if one searches it out, but with the incredibly busy schedules our students have, information on events needs to be systematically and easily accessible. The survey will be administered sometime during SpringFest, which comes on April 24-26.

Professor Raymond Lieu’s class in market research and data analysis will be collaborating on the survey, its analysis, and the resulting report. I expect the Campus Community Team will have a major impact on the campus community over the months and even years to come, and I invite you to make your thoughts and suggestions known to Dean Janey or other CCT members, who include the following:

Joan Arches, faculty, CPCS
Robert Comerford, student senator
John Conlon, faculty, Theatre Arts
Michael D-Agostino, President of the Student Athlete’s Advisory Board
Shino Ito, member of the Graduate Student Assembly
Michael Mahan, Coordinator for International Student Services
Jennifer Norins, President of Golden Key
Jane Ruviditch-Higgins, Coordinator of the Office of Service
Learning and Community Outreach
Charlie Titus, Director of Athletics

CD Party

A celebration in honor of the newly released CD made by UMass Boston music groups will be held on Wednesday, April 17, 2:30-4:30 in the University Club, top floor of Healey Library. The CD, “Live at the Millennium,” is a compilation of performances by the university chorus, jazz ensemble, chamber orchestra and chamber singers. Jon Mitchell, chair of the Music Department, will talk about the production of the CD and the chamber singers will give a selection from it. Join me on this festive occasion to share our pride and pleasure at the truly outstanding quality and range of music produced by UMass Boston students-and come see the University Club in its new spring finery.

Music in the Plaza

Jon Mitchell, chair of the Music Department, has arranged for Musical Showcase concerts on the Plaza during May. The concerts are scheduled for Wednesdays, beginning at 2:30. So far, the following events are scheduled:

May 1: James McKenna, a folk-singer who has released two albums, and a UMB music major
May 8: The UMass Boston Chamber Singers
May 15: The Chester Brezniak Quartet, a professional jazz group headed by UMass Boston clarinet instructor Chester Brezniak
May 22: Finals - no event
May 29: Blown Fuse, a professional fusion group headed by Steve Hunt. Steve has given lecture-presentations to the Jazz Band and others at UMass Boston

We will be holding another series in the fall and thereafter both spring and fall, making use of our interior courtyard, which has the potential to be an exceptional space, lively, inviting and beautiful, especially during the good days of spring and fall.

Commencement

Our climactic ceremony, Commencement, comes Saturday, June 1, barely more than two months away. The speaker this year will be Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and widely regarded as the dean of American television news journalists. Also receiving an honorary degree will be Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s best known writers, and we have strong indications that Bill Russell, one of the half dozen most important athletes in the history of this sports city, will accept an honorary degree. Achebe’s works have been translated into more than 50 languages, and his novel, Things Fall Apart, has the distinction of being taught in five different departments at UMass Boston. Russell, star center on early Celtic teams that won 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons, remains a national figure for his thoughtful comment on television and in print on sports, business, and life, and as the athlete, bar none, who symbolizes what can be achieved through team play.

New University Publications

In my conversations with community leaders downtown and elsewhere off campus, I regularly see that they are not aware of the quality and quantity of research done on campus and its bearing on things that matter to the Commonwealth. As one step in addressing this situation, early this year we launched UMass Boston Research, a publication with professional graphics and design, intended for a lay audience and featuring research of particular interest to policy makers, public-spirited citizens and our general public. It has been sent to legislators, community leaders, corporate executives, and the faculty.

To keep our name before this influential audience, a monthly Research Bulletin, a four-page newsletter, has been designed as a follow-up to UMass Boston Research: Working for Boston and the Commonwealth. The first issue came out this month, with a cover article on Alan Clayton-Matthews and his work on the Massachusetts economy, which is well known to legislators because of his testimony on Beacon Hill. The newsletter generally will include articles on three research projects, notice of conferences taking place on campus open to the public, and a list of selected faculty publications. I intend to increase the number of names of UMass Boston researchers who are well known to downtown and statewide policy makers.

New Video About UMass Boston

"UMass Boston: On the Move" is a new video produced both to introduce the university to new audiences and update old friends. The 10-minute video is narrated by alumnus Dan Rea, a longtime news reporter of WBZ TV 4 Boston. "On the Move" highlights university research, public service, and the achievements of our students, faculty and alumni, and will be updated yearly.
The video was launched with a luncheon at One Beacon Street to members of the legislature and media. We are following up with showings to alumni in law, business and politics all through March and April. UMass Boston staff working on the video put great skill and effort into the project, and the result is professional, engaging, and worth your viewing if you get the chance.

Enrollment Events

There are two upcoming events sponsored by Enrollment Services as part of their recruiting efforts that need your support.

Chancellor's Reception for newly admitted high achieving students: On Monday, April 1, I will host 25 to 30 of the Fall 2002 newly admitted students who have demonstrated a strong academic performance in high school or community college. The evening will introduce these prospective students to UMass Boston, our honors programs, college deans and a number of faculty in order to encourage them to consider enrolling with us in September.

Welcome Day: This program for newly admitted students for Fall 2002 will be held on Saturday, April 6 to offer them a more in depth view of UMass Boston and encourage them to choose us as the right place to begin their education in September.

This event is important in our efforts to achieve a high acceptance rate among applicants we have admitted. Faculty, staff or students who would like to come talk to prospective students are warmly invited to contact Patrick Dwyer in the Admissions Office.

Research Data Base

aculty can now access a research data base and add, delete or modify information on their research projects and those of their students. To access this service and learn more about it, go to www.faculty.umb.edu/research.

Additional information is available at www.faculty.umb.edu/features.html.
The data base can be searched from those addresses or directly via the main campus Web site, www.umb.edu/research.

Information currently in the data base comes from the graduate research publication of a few years ago and data given to us by the Honors Program in regard to undergraduate research, so faculty may want to check the data base for entries that need updating.

We hope that the data base will serve to increase scholarly contact among researchers on and off campus, and in due course make UMass Boston’s research better known to many audiences.

Technology Needs Assessment

My thanks to all of you who responded to the technology needs assessment survey. The BIT Council has been charged with developing an information technology strategic plan by December, 2002, and these data are critical to its planning process.

I am grateful for your participation.

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