University of Massachusetts Boston

University of Massachusetts Boston
Established 1852 Boston State College
1964 UMass Boston
Type Public
Endowment $51.9 million (2012)
Chancellor J. Keith Motley, Ph.D.
President Robert Caret
Provost Winston Langley, Ph.D.
Academic staff
 800-900
Students 16,756
Undergraduates 12,700
Postgraduates 4,056
Location Boston, Massachusetts, United States
42°18′48″N 71°02′18″W / 42.313432°N 71.038445°WCoordinates: 42°18′48″N 71°02′18″W / 42.313432°N 71.038445°W
Campus Urban, 175 acres (0.7 km²)
Newspaper The Mass Media
Colors      UMass Boston Blue[1]
     White
Athletics NCAA Division III – Little East, ECAC East
Nickname Beacons
Mascot The Beacon
Affiliations UMass System
APLU
AAC&U
AASCU
Urban 13/GCU
CUMU
Website umb.edu

The University of Massachusetts Boston, also known as UMass Boston, is an urban public research university and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system.[2]

The university is located on 177 acres (0.72 km2) on what used to be known as the Columbia Point peninsula in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, but became known as Harbor Point in the 1980s after development. UMass Boston is the only public university in Boston.[note 1] Students are primarily from Massachusetts but some are from other parts of the United States or foreign countries.

History

The University of Massachusetts Boston was established by vote of the state legislature in 1964. Freshmen classes started for 1,227 undergraduate students in September 1965 at a renovated building in the Park Square area of downtown Boston. The Founding Day Convocation was held December 10, 1966, at the Prudential Center in Boston. John W. Ryan was installed as the university's first chancellor.[3] UMass/Boston is part of the Greater Boston Urban Education Collaborative,[4] In 1982 it merged with Boston State College (est. 1852).

In 1974, it opened its new campus at the Columbia Point peninsula on Dorchester Bay. The university originally occupied five buildings: McCormack Hall, Wheatley Hall, the Science Center, Healey Library, and the Quinn Administration Building.

The original Harbor Campus buildings were said to have had sparse and unattractive interiors, with odd mazes of hallways; the campus was known as "the fortress" or "the prison" colloquially.[5] They were rumored to have been designed by architects who were primarily familiar with prisons, although the library had been designed by the Chicago modernist architect Harry Mohr Weese.[6] At one point in his career, Weese had designed the Metropolitan Correction Center in Chicago.

McKee-Berger-Mansueto, Inc. (MBM), the company contracted to supervise construction of the new campus, came under fire after its contract with the Commonwealth was criticized in a series of newspaper articles for being abnormally favorable towards MBM. A special legislative committee was formed to investigative the contract. A scandal erupted after it was learned that MBM paid State Senators Joseph DiCarlo and Ronald MacKenzie $40,000 in exchange for a favorable report from the committee. DiCarlo and MacKenzie were convicted of extortion.[7][8][9]

The Clark Athletic Center was added later, including an ice hockey arena, swimming pool, and basketball courts. It also hosted the first presidential debate between then Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore in 2000. The cancellation of two days of classes in order to create security for the debate resulted in a protest by UMB students, faculty, and staff members at the UMass President's office in downtown Boston.

In 2004, a new Campus Center was opened, designed by the Boston-based architectural firm of Kallmann McKinnell & Wood[10] and built by Suffolk Construction at a cost of $80 million. It houses offices, restaurants in a food court, event space, student clubs, and activities space. It also serves as the new entrance for the campus and was the first major building erected since the original Harbor Campus was built in the 1970s.

The original buildings fell into disrepair, and there are plans for replacement. Allegations of shoddy construction surfaced again in 2006 when the underground parking garage had to be closed because it had become structurally unsound. All parking is now outdoors, except for the Campus Center garage.

On June 2, 2006, Barack Obama addressed his commencement speech at UMass Boston to the graduating students. In his speech, he talked about several things including his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.[11]

In 2007, the university proposed a plan to change the nature of the campus from primarily a commuter campus with many parking lots for cars to a more residential campus with dormitory-style living.[12][13][14]

J. Keith Motley is the university's first African American chancellor.

In 2009, the nearby Bayside Expo Center property was lost in a foreclosure to a Florida-based real estate firm, LNR/CMAT. The University of Massachusetts Boston has acquired the property for future campus facilities.[15][16]

Timeline

(from UMass Boston website,[17] note that this also contains the history of Boston State College)

Campus

Transportation

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is located on Columbia Point next to UMass Boston.

UMass Boston is located off Interstate 93, sited within walking distance of the JFK/UMass MBTA stop on the Red Line. Free shuttles run frequently between the JFK station and campus. The MBTA also operates bus stops on campus.

Academics

The UMass Boston campus

The university confers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, and also operates certificate programs and a corporate, continuing, and distance learning program.

There are eleven schools and colleges at UMass Boston: the College of Liberal Arts, College of Science and Mathematics, School for the Environment, College of Management, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, College of Public and Community Service, College of Education and Human Development, John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies and Global Studies, School for Global Inclusion and Social Development, Honors College, and College of Advancing and Professional Studies (CAPS) .

The university is a member of the Urban 13 universities, alongside schools like Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Institutes & Centers

The following free-standing institutes and centers are administered by the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Accreditation

UMass Boston is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Additionally, The College of Management is accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), and the College of Nursing and Health Services hold accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. The Family Therapy Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Marital and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). UMass Boston is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools and the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools

Faculty

UMass Boston's faculty of more than 1000 consists of roughly half tenure-stream and half non-tenure track ("adjunct") professors. It includes Lloyd Schwartz, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism in 1994, Monet expert Paul Tucker, and physicist Benjamin Mollow, discoverer of the Mollow Triplet. Ninety-six percent of the faculty hold the highest degree in their fields. The student-teacher ratio is 14:1.

Administration

Athletics

Intercollegiate athletics, intramurals, and recreation for the students, staff, and faculty are the primary programs of the UMass Boston Department of Athletics. The department offers 18 varsity sports and is a member of the NCAA's Division III. UMass Boston, known by their nickname: the Beacons, has teams competing in the ECAC, the Little East Conference, and ECAC East Ice Hockey. The Beacons have been named All-Americans 93 times in seven sports. The women's indoor and outdoor track & field teams have won four NCAA team championships and 38 NCAA individual championships.[18] In the years 1999 through 2006 the National Consortium for Academics and Sports named the Department of Athletics at UMass Boston first in the country for community service. The department is also recognized as a leader in community service by NADIIIAA-Jostens Community Service.

Student activities

UMass Boston's independent, student run and financed newspaper is The Mass Media. Other student publications include the yearbook, Watermark arts and literary magazine, and The Beacon monthly humor magazine.

UMass Boston's undergraduates are represented by the Undergraduate Student Government, which consists of the Undergraduate Student Senate, the executive office of the USG President, and the office of the USG Chief Justice. UMass Boston's graduate students are represented by the Graduate Student Assembly. UMass Boston's graduate student employees (teaching assistants, research assistants, and administrative assistants) are represented by the Graduate Employee Organization/UAW Local 1596—UMass Boston Chapter.

The University was once recognized for its advocacy of human and civil rights. UMass Boston works to promote social justice around the world.[19]

The University also has a large waterfront recreation program. The Division of Marine Operations operates the Universities waterfront which supports recreational and Environmental education programs. Full-Time Umass Boston students are offered free sailing lessons and boat rentals, paddleboards, kayaks and harbor cruises. Marine Operations recently developed the U-Sea Fund Grant for UMass Boston Faculty who are interested in developing a classroom component around our ocean environment. Starting Summer 2011 Marine Operations will work in conjunction with B&G, Boating in Boston, to offer a sailing camp for youth up to age 18. Boating in Boston has operated for years in other locations and have shown considerable interest in UMass Boston's grand waterfront.

Notable alumni

In popular culture

UMass Boston was mentioned in Martin Scorsese's 2006 crime drama, The Departed. The exterior of the campus can also be viewed in a scene from the beginning of the film. A character says that the university is in South Boston, and Mark Wahlberg's character ridicules him for the obvious comment. However, this is a common error. UMass Boston is on Dorchester's Columbia Point, and very close to the South Boston line.

Towards the end of the "The Maiden Heist" film, UMass Boston is featured as an art museum in Copenhagen which is exhibiting the painting that the characters were trying to steal.

UMass-Boston was recently featured in an episode of the "Walburgers."

References

  1. ↑ "The UMass Boston Brand Manual". umb.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  2. ↑ Moore, Galen, "The 10 biggest colleges and universities in Mass.", Boston Business Journal, Wednesday, May 30, 2012
  3. ↑ "UMB Founding Day Convocation", The Mass Media newspaper, v. 1, issue 1, November 16, 1966.
  4. ↑ Davidson, Patricia S., "The Greater Boston Urban Education Collaborative", Education, Spring 1998
  5. ↑ "UMass starts design on new science building", The Dorchester Reporter, August 14, 2008. "Now that Gov. Deval Patrick has signed the $2.2 billion higher education bond bill - $125 million of which will go for improvements at the UMass Boston campus - college administrators are hot to trot to begin transforming the 70s-era Columbia Point campus that is often referred to as a 'fortress' or a 'prison.'"
  6. ↑ Cf. "Statements from The Library at University of Massachusetts Boston Harbor Campus published in 1974 when the library opened". "Healey Library -- Opened Spring 1974 -- Architect: Harry Weese. Statements from The Library at University of Massachusetts Boston Harbor Campus published in 1974 when the library opened. Harry Weese, Architect: "The library at the University of Massachusetts' Dorchester campus manages to occupy the central position, not at the end of the axis, but between two structural building continiuums linked by second-story access, facing a plaza. It remains the nexus, the place of quiet, redolent of knowledge."
  7. ↑ Viser, Matt; and Phillips, Frank, "Waves of scandal rattle Beacon Hill", The Boston Globe, November 2, 2008. "The State House was engulfed in scandal in the 1970's over bribes given to legislators by the contractor building the University of Massachusetts' Boston campus. The Senate majority leader, Joseph J.C. DiCarlo of Revere; a ranking Senate Republican leader, Ronald A. MacKenzie; and James A. Kelly Jr., the Senate Ways and Means chairman, all were convicted in federal court and sentenced to jail time."
  8. ↑ Farrell, David (February 20, 1977). "Two senators on trial". The Boston Globe.
  9. ↑ Hogarty, Richard A. (2002). Massachusetts Politics and Public Policy: Studies in Power and Leadership. University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 242–246.
  10. ↑ Kallmann McKinnell & Wood, Architects, Inc., "University of Massachusetts, Boston Campus Center" - architect's description
  11. ↑ Transcript of Barack Obama commencement remarks at UMASS/Boston - University of Massachusetts Boston, June 2, 2006, Boston, Massachusetts
  12. ↑ "Developing a Strategic Plan for UMass Boston", UMASS Boston website, 2008
  13. ↑ "Alternative Campus Concepts", UMass Boston, Master Plan, Needs & Opportunities, Campus Master Plan Workshop, September 24, 2007
  14. ↑ "UMass Boston Campus Master Plan", Master Plan Subcommittee Review, July 12, 2007.
  15. ↑ Forry, Ed, "UMass-Boston seeks to buy Bayside Expo; Motley says no plans for dorms", The Dorchester Reporter, December 16, 2009
  16. ↑ Anderson, Hil, "Boston’s Bayside Expo Site Sold to University", Trade Show Executive News, January 2010.
  17. ↑ "History of UMass Boston"
  18. ↑ UMass Boston Athletics home page
  19. ↑ e.g. Cantor, Paul, "War on Terrorism or Attack on Human Rights", The UMB Human Rights Working Group, UMass Boston Conference, Saturday, May 3, 2003
  20. ↑ Cory Atkins page - State Representative in Massachusetts
  21. ↑ "Litton and Brann Scholarships", UMASS/Boston
  22. ↑ Christine E. Canavan page - State Representative in Massachusetts
  23. ↑ Greenhouse, Steve. "Tim Costello, Trucker-Author Who Fought Globalization, Dies at 64", The New York Times, December 26, 2009. Accessed December 28, 2009.
  24. ↑ "GardaWorld Appoints Former Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans as Managing Director", Reuters, Mon Oct 6, 2008
  25. ↑ "Sally Kelly, Anne Speakman", The New York Times, July 9, 2006
  26. ↑ Harrison, Judy, "Janet Mills takes oath as Maine’s first female AG", Bangor Daily News, January 06, 2009
  27. ↑ Debra Saunders page at San Francisco Chronicle
  28. ↑ "How Do You Start a Tradition?", Mass Media, UMASS/Boston, June 12, 1969
  29. ↑ "Bio: John Warner", learninggreenchemistry.com

Notes

  1. ↑ There are three other public educational institutions in the city of Boston: Roxbury Community College, Bunker Hill Community College, and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. There are also many private colleges and universities in and around the city.

External links

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