University Of Massachusetts–Boston
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The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
US-based
research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
. It is the only public research university in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
and the third-largest campus in the five-campus
University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...
system. The university is a member of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities and the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. It is
classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...
among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research spending and doctorate production".


History


Origins (pre-1964)

The University of Massachusetts System dates back to the founding of
Massachusetts Agricultural College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...
under the
Morrill Land-Grant Acts The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally owned land, often obtained from Native American tribes through treaty, cessi ...
in 1863. Prior to the founding of UMass Boston, the Amherst campus was the only public, comprehensive university in the state. As late as the 1950s, Massachusetts ranked at or near the bottom in public funding per capita for higher education, and proposals to expand the University of Massachusetts into Boston was opposed both by faculty and administrators at the Amherst campus and by the private colleges and universities in Boston. In 1962, the 162nd Massachusetts General Court expanded the UMass System for the first time to
Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
with the creation of the
University of Massachusetts Medical School The UMass Chan Medical School is a public medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is part of the University of Massachusetts system. It consists of three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biom ...
. In 1963, UMass President John W. Lederle informed the General Court that more than 1,200 graduates of Boston area high schools qualified to attend the University of Massachusetts were denied admission to the Amherst campus due to lack of space, and endorsed expanding the system with a commuter campus in Boston. At the time, there were 12,000 freshman applications to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst with only 2,600 slots, yet the majority of the applicants lived in the
Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...
area. In 1964,
Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...
Majority Leader Maurice A. Donahue and State Senator George V. Kenneally Jr. introduced a bill to establish a Boston campus for the UMass System. The bill was opposed by several private colleges and universities in the area, including
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
,
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
, and
Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...
(who argued that the state would be better off subsidizing the existing private institutions in the city), as well as by
Boston State College Boston State College was a normal school from 1852 to 1872 and a public university from 1872 to 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was merged into the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1982. History Boston State College's roots ...
(who argued for expanding its campus on
Huntington Avenue Huntington Avenue is a thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. It is signed as Massachusetts Route 9 (forme ...
instead). However, the Huntington Avenue building of Boston State College could not be expanded to accommodate a 15,000-student campus, and the local news media and public opinion generally favored creating the new Boston campus for the UMass System.


1964–1974: Park Square campus

In June 1964, with a $200,000 appropriation, the legislation establishing the University of Massachusetts Boston was signed into law. UMass President John W. Lederle began recruiting freshmen students, faculty, and administrative staff for the fall semester of 1965 (with goals of 1,000 students and 80 faculty members), and appointed his assistant at the Amherst campus, John W. Ryan, as UMass Boston's first chancellor. Ryan recruited tenured faculty members from the Amherst campus to relocate and form the UMass Boston faculty, and appointed Amherst's history professor Paul A. Gagnon and Amherst's provost and biology professor Arthur Gentile to hire the humanities and natural science faculty members respectively. Serving as the new university's first provost, Gagnon became the most important faculty member in defining the curriculum and academic focus of the university, saying in June 1965 that "The first aim of the University of Massachusetts at Boston must be to build a university in the ancient tradition of
Western civilization Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompasses the social no ...
." Gagnon would be the principal architect of the university's brief attempt to create a
Great Books A classic is a book accepted as being exemplary or particularly noteworthy. What makes a book "classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read the Cl ...
program called the "Coordinated Freshman Year English-History Program", which was dismantled by the end of the 1960s. Freshman classes started for 1,240 undergraduate students in September 1965 at a renovated building located at 100 Arlington Street in
Downtown Boston Downtown Boston is the central business district of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston was founded in 1630. The largest of the city's commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; city, c ...
, formerly the headquarters of the Boston Gas Company (which had leased the building to the university). Virtually the entire entering class were residents of Massachusetts, with the great majority living in the
Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...
area. By the fall of 1968, the number of applications to UMass Boston for the fall semester had risen from 2,500 for fall 1965 to 5,700, and total enrollment had risen to 3,600. In the late 1960s, UMass Boston students on average were 23 years old, typically white and male, working part- or full-time, and either married or living with others in an apartment. UMass Boston also reportedly had the largest population of Vietnam War veterans of any US university and the largest population of African American students of all universities in Massachusetts. In February 1966, the 164th Massachusetts General Court appropriated funds for the university to purchase the building at 100 Arlington Street. Over the next three years, the university also leased the Sawyer Building on Stuart Street, the Salada Buildings on Columbus Avenue, a part of the Boston Statler Hotel for faculty and departmental office space, and the Armory of the First Corps of Cadets (which was converted into the university's library). The student newspaper, ''The Mass Media'', published its inaugural issue on November 16, 1966, and the Founding Day Convocation for the university was held December 10, 1966. In 1968, a group of students started the
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
radio station
WUMB-FM WUMB-FM (91.9 FM) in Boston, Massachusetts, is the radio station of the University of Massachusetts Boston. It broadcasts a mix of Americana, blues, roots, and folk hosted by its staff weekdays. On weekends the station concentrates on traditio ...
. In the summer of 1968, inaugural Chancellor John W. Ryan resigned and was succeeded by historian Francis L. Broderick. Chancellor Broderick oversaw the reorganization of the university into separate colleges (College I and College II), along with the establishment of the College of Public and Community Service, and presided over the university's first graduation ceremony on June 12, 1969 (where 500 of the original 1,240 students received diplomas). By early 1967, some younger professors were holding
teach-in A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific tim ...
s and encouraging their male students to burn their draft cards in protest of "American corporate imperialism." The
Young Socialist Alliance The Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) was a Trotskyist youth group of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United States of America. It was founded in 1960, although it had roots going back several years earlier. It was dissolved in 1992. The ...
and the
Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...
both had chapters on campus, and in April 1969, the latter group rallied more than a hundred students protesting the decision to move the university campus to
Columbia Point Columbia Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colora ...
. The following month, a student group called the "Afro-American Society", staged an occupation of summer school registration, demanding the immediate hiring of more Black faculty members and the admission of more Black students. In March 1970, a group of thirty students occupied the chancellor's office after a popular "radical" female professor in the Sociology Department was denied tenure.Such activism led Chancellor Broderick to approve the formation of a task force led by sociology professor James Blackwell – the university's only tenured African American faculty member – and English professor Mary Anne Ferguson that recommended the hiring of a university affirmative action officer to ensure the equal consideration of minority and woman faculty candidates, and by the mid-1970s, for the UMass Boston Sociology Department to have one-third of its members be black and 40 percent be women – higher ratios than were typical of a university that was neither
historically black Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...
nor a
women's college Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male st ...
. Blackwell and Ferguson would go on to play leading roles in establishing the Black and Women's Studies Departments as well.
Following
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
's announcement of the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
's
Cambodian campaign The Cambodian campaign (also known as the Cambodian incursion and the Cambodian liberation) was a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia in mid-1970 by South Vietnam and the United States as an expansion of the Vietnam War ...
on April 30, 1970, and the subsequent shooting of anti-war protestors at Kent State University on May 4, like hundreds of other universities across the United States, UMass Boston administration suspended regular business operations while the campus became consumed by protests. In 1972, Chancellor Francis L. Broderick resigned, and was succeeded by
Carlo L. Golino Carlo Luigi Golino (1913–1991) was an Italian American who taught Italian literature at many colleges in the United States. Golino received his B.A. from City College of New York (1936); an M.A. (Italian literature) from Columbia University (1 ...
in 1973. During Golino's tenure before the move to
Columbia Point Columbia Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colora ...
, the university began awarding its first
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
s in English and
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
.


1974–1988: Columbia Point campus and BSC merger

On January 28, 1974, the university opened its new campus on the
Columbia Point Columbia Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colora ...
peninsula. In 1975, enabled by the move to Columbia Point, Chancellor Carlo L. Golino oversaw the opening of the College of Professional Studies (later renamed the College of Management), and in 1976, supervised the merger of College I and College II into a single College of Arts and Sciences. Golino resigned as chancellor in 1978, was succeeded in the interim by
Claire Van Ummersen Claire Van Ummersen (July 28, 1935 – September 29, 2021) was an American scholar and academic administrator, who served as President of Cleveland State University from 1993 to 2001. She was also national leader in career flexibility in higher e ...
, and succeeded permanently in 1979 by Robert A. Corrigan. In October 1979, a dedication ceremony was held for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on a 10-acre site adjacent to the university campus. In 1980, the 171st Massachusetts General Court voted to establish the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education with the authority to consolidate resources for public higher education in the state, and in 1981, the board decided to merge UMass Boston and
Boston State College Boston State College was a normal school from 1852 to 1872 and a public university from 1872 to 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was merged into the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1982. History Boston State College's roots ...
by 1984. Such a merger (including the
Massachusetts College of Art and Design Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...
as well) had been proposed in the state legislature in 1963 when UMass Boston was initially founded. Though the 1981 merger had allowed both schools a three-year
grace period A grace period is a period immediately after the deadline for an obligation during which a late fee, or other action that would have been taken as a result of failing to meet the deadline, is waived provided that the obligation is satisfied duri ...
to ease the transition, a large cut in the state's higher education budget forced the board of regents to require a "
shotgun wedding A shotgun wedding is a wedding arranged in response to pregnancy resulting from premarital sex. The phrase comes from the figurative imagining that the relatives of the pregnant bride threaten the reluctant male groom with a shotgun in order to ...
" merger to happen by September 1981 (although the board did allow for it to be delayed until January of the following year). Boston State College's largest programs—its
teacher's college Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) is the graduate school of education affiliated with Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, Teachers College has been a part of Columbia University since ...
, nursing and police administration—transferred over to UMass Boston fully intact, and formed the basis of the College of Education, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and the Criminal Justice program in the Sociology Department respectively. Despite the Boston State College students having a similar demographic profile to UMass Boston students, many students expressed opposition to the merger. Many of Boston State College's undergraduate academic departments and programs that had equivalents at UMass Boston were disbanded, and as fewer of the Boston State faculty had
PhDs A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
than the UMass Boston faculty did, the board of regents also decided to terminate the employment of hundreds of faculty and staff at Boston State College. The merger boosted enrollment at UMass Boston by 38 percent in one year (from more than 8,000 in 60 areas of study in 1981 to more than 11,000 in 100 areas of study by 1983), and as Boston State College had more graduate programs than UMass Boston did at the time of the merger, most of Boston State College's graduate programs made the transition and tripled the graduate student enrollment at UMass Boston. By 1995, graduate students accounted for 21 percent of the university's total enrollment, and in 2011, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences was the ninth largest and was ranked as the 50th best undergraduate nursing program in the United States (and third best in
New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
) by '' U.S. News & World Report''. In 1988, Chancellor Robert A. Corrigan resigned. Besides the opening of the Clark Athletic Center and the
Boston State College Boston State College was a normal school from 1852 to 1872 and a public university from 1872 to 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was merged into the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1982. History Boston State College's roots ...
merger, during his tenure, he oversaw the authorization of the university's first
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
program (in environmental science), the opening of the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs and the Urban Scholars program for talented
Boston Public Schools Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts. Leadership The district is led by a superintendent, hired by t ...
(BPS) students in 1983, as well as the opening of the
William Monroe Trotter William Monroe Trotter, sometimes just Monroe Trotter (April 7, 1872 – April 7, 1934), was a newspaper editor and real estate businessman based in Boston, Massachusetts. An activist for African-American civil rights, he was an early opponent o ...
Institute for the Study of Black Culture in 1984.


1988–2007: Penney, Gora, and Collins Chancellorships

In 1988, historian Sherry A. Penney succeeded Robert A. Corrigan as chancellor. Her tenure was initially marred by an economic downturn in Massachusetts, to which Governor
Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...
responded by ordering all state agencies to cut their budgets in the 1989, 1990, and 1991
fiscal year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...
s. In response to the budget cuts, Chancellor Penney began initiating major fundraising efforts, and despite the decline in state support, implemented multiple research programs, PhD programs, and oversaw a reorganization of the school's colleges. In 1989, Chancellor Penney oversaw the opening of both the Urban Harbors Institute and The Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, and later oversaw the separation of the College of Arts and Sciences into the College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Liberal Arts. In 1990, the university launched
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
programs in
clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well ...
,
gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, culture, cultural, psychology, psychological, cognitive, and biology, biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Ancient Greek, Greek ('), meaning "o ...
, and environmental biology. In 1993, the College of Public and Community Service established the Labor Resource Center and the College of Liberal Arts established the Institute for Asian American Studies, the College of Education began its partnership with The Mather School, and the
Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...
Program for Women and Government moved to UMass Boston. Despite Chancellor Penney's efforts, many programs were consolidated or closed, such as the College of Education's undergraduate education degree. In 1994, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education classified UMass Boston as a Master's Comprehensive University I. By 1998, the university had four main research areas that accounted for three-quarters of the university's research funding: Environmental Studies, Psycho-Social Functioning of At-Risk Populations, Education, and Health and Social Welfare. In 2000, the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is a U.S.-based education policy and research center. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress. Among its most not ...
upgraded UMass Boston's designation to a Doctoral/Research University, Intensive, and UMass Boston now offered seven doctoral programs in
public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...
,
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
,
nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
, and
education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
, in addition to clinical psychology, gerontology, and environmental biology. In the 1990s, the university gained campus chapters of
Alpha Lambda Delta Alpha Lambda Delta () is an honor society for students who have achieved a 3.5 GPA or higher during their first year or term of higher education. History Alpha Lambda Delta was founded in 1924 by the Dean of Women, Maria Leonard, at the Universi ...
and the
Golden Key International Honour Society The Golden Key International Honour Society (formerly Golden Key National Honor Society) is an international collegiate honor society and non-profit organization based in the United States. It was founded in 1977 to recognize academic achievement ...
. Enrollment steadily increased during Chancellor Penney's tenure to 12,482 total students and 2,866 graduate students by 2000, and the university went from one in twelve students who were minority or female in 1988 to one in three by 2000. The percentage of Black faculty rose from 13 percent in 1988 to 20 percent in 2000, and the percentage of women faculty rose from less than one-third in 1988 to 41 percent in 2000. In 2000, Chancellor Penney resigned. She was succeeded in the interim in 2000 by David MacKenzie, and permanently in May 2001 by Jo Ann M. Gora. During Gora's tenure, the McCormack Institute of Public Affairs became the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies in 2003, and the
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
program in
green chemistry Green chemistry, similar to sustainable chemistry or circular chemistry, is an area of chemistry and chemical engineering focused on the design of products and processes that minimize or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Wh ...
, the first in the world, was launched under the direction of chemist and UMass Boston alumnus
John Warner John William Warner III (February 18, 1927 – May 25, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term United States Republican Party, Republican United Stat ...
in 2004. Gora resigned as chancellor in 2004 and was succeeded in the interim by J. Keith Motley. During Motley's interim tenure, the university established a partnership with the Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in 2005. On April 2, 2004, a new Campus Center next to Wheatley Hall was opened. Construction for the facility began on July 20, 2001, and was completed during the tenure of Chancellor Gora. It became the new entrance for the campus and was the first building constructed since the Clark Athletic Center was completed in 1979. Unlike the original Columbia Point campus buildings, which were uniformly built of brick and faced inward, the Campus Center was designed such that its glass front would look out onto
Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, located adjacent to Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States. History 17th century Since its dis ...
, and the offices, food court, event space, student clubs, and activities space gave the campus a center of cohesion that was often lacking in the older buildings. In 2005, Chancellor Gora was permanently succeeded by Michael F. Collins.


2007–present: Motley and Suárez-Orozco Chancellorships

In early 2007, Chancellor Collins resigned, and he was succeeded by J. Keith Motley, the university's first Black chancellor. In 2007, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences began the GoKids Boston program to counter
childhood obesity Childhood obesity is a condition where excess adipose tissue, body fat negatively affects a child's health or well-being. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on Body mass index, BMI. ...
, and in 2008, the Graduate College of Education renamed itself the College of Education and Human Development. In 2010, the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is a U.S.-based education policy and research center. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress. Among its most not ...
upgraded UMass Boston's designation a second time, now to a Doctoral/Research University with High Activity. In 2013, the university established its School for Global Inclusion and Social Development (the first of its kind in the world), its University Honors Program as a separate Honors College, and its School for the Environment and launched an interdisciplinary Nantucket Semester Program. In 2014, research activity at the university had climbed to $60 million, and the university began work on its HarborWalk Improvements and Shoreline Stabilization project. By the fall semester of 2014, total student enrollment had grown to 16,756 with 4,056 graduate students. The number of doctoral students had increased from 230 in the fall of 2000 to 614 in the fall of 2014. In 2014, UMass Boston celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, and in 2015, the
University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
published the school's first history about its founding and growth, entitled ''UMass Boston at 50''. In 2015, the College of Management enrolled close to one-sixth of all students and more than half of the undergraduate students earning degrees in a
STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...
field were minority or female. By 2015, UMass Boston students came from 140 different nations and spoke 90 different languages. On January 26, 2015, the university opened its first new academic building since the Columbia Point campus was built, a research facility named the Integrated Sciences Complex. On March 30, 2015, the dedication ceremony for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate was held. On January 25, 2016, the university began a phased opening of its second new academic facility, University Hall. In September 2016, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked UMass Boston within the first tier of national universities on its Best Colleges Ranking for the first time in the university's history, tied at number 220. On March 3, 2017, Barry Mills was appointed the university's deputy chancellor and chief operating officer. On April 5, 2017, university officials announced that Chancellor J. Keith Motley would resign at the end of the academic calendar year. UMass System President
Marty Meehan Martin Thomas Meehan (born December 30, 1956) is an American academic administrator, politician, and attorney. Since July 2015, Meehan has served as the President of the University of Massachusetts after serving as Chancellor of the Universi ...
stated Deputy Chancellor Mills would serve as interim chancellor "until niversityfinances are stabilized and the university is positioned to attract a world-class chancellor through a global search", specifically to address the university's 2017 operating budget deficit of $30 million. UMass Boston faculty publicly expressed concern that Motley was being scapegoated for the university's budget deficit while
Boston City Council The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year ...
ors
Tito Jackson Toriano Adaryll "Tito" Jackson (October 15, 1953 – September 15, 2024) was an American musician. He was a founding member of the Jackson 5 (later known as the Jacksons), a group who rose to fame in the late 1960s and 1970s with the Motown la ...
and
Ayanna Pressley Ayanna Soyini Pressley (born February 3, 1974) is an American politician who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019. This district, which was once re ...
, Massachusetts State Senator
Linda Dorcena Forry Linda Dorcena Forry (born 1973) is a former Democratic member of the Massachusetts Senate, who represented the 1st Suffolk district from June 2013 - January 2018. She previously represented the 12th Suffolk District in the Massachusetts House o ...
, and Massachusetts State Representative Russell Holmes called upon System President Meehan to reject Motley's resignation. On April 8, 2017, at a UMass System Board of Trustees meeting, UMass Boston faculty and students protested decisions by university administration to cut offerings of courses (many required for graduation) in the upcoming summer semester, as well as other programs and to make expense adjustments which reduced the deficit to approximately $6 million or $7 million. On July 1, 2017, Barry Mills became interim chancellor after Keith Motley's resignation. A coalition of UMass Boston administrative staff, faculty, and students formed (called the "Coalition to Save UMB") and issued a report authored by faculty calling on Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and the Massachusetts General Court to increase state funding to assist the university to service its debt from its campus renewal construction projects and increase capital investments for the university. In November 2017, an
audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing al ...
commissioned by UMass System President Marty Meehan found that faulty
record keeping Records management, also known as records and information management, is an organizational function devoted to the management of information in an organization throughout its life cycle, from the time of creation or receipt to its eventual dispos ...
, a lack of discipline in its budgeting process, and a failure on the part of UMass Boston administration to appreciate the cost of the campus renewal construction projects on the university's
operating budget The operating budget contains the revenue and expenditure generated from the daily business functions of the company.Edriaan Koening (N.D.What is Corporate Budgeting? chron.com It concentrates on the operating expenditures — the cost of goods ...
led to the university's $30 million budget deficit, and in the same month, the university
laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing an organization ...
36 employees after laying off about 100 non-tenure track faculty earlier in the year. In April 2018,
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
and
Mount Ida College Mount Ida College was a private college in Newton, Massachusetts. Its campus is now part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst In 2018, the University of Massachusetts Amherst acquired the campus and renamed it the Mount Ida Campus of UMas ...
administrators announced that the former school would acquire the latter's campus in
Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: People * Newton (surname), including a list of people with the surname * ...
after the latter college's closure. The acquisition was immediately opposed by UMass Boston faculty and students due to inadequate consultation with the Boston campus faculty, the Boston campus' budget deficit, and that because of the proximity of the Mount Ida campus to the Boston campus, the faculty contended that the new campus would compete with the Boston campus. As of April 2018, the UMass Boston campus remained the sole campus in the UMass system with a
majority-minority A majority-minority or minority-majority area is a term used to refer to a subdivision in which one or more racial, ethnic, and/or religious minorities (relative to the whole country's population) make up a majority of the local population. Term ...
enrollment. In May 2018, following the approval of the sale by the office of
Massachusetts Attorney General The Massachusetts attorney general is an elected constitutionally defined executive officer of the Massachusetts government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The officeholder ...
Maura Healey Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 73rd governor of Massachusetts since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she served as Massachusetts Attorney Ge ...
, the UMass Boston Faculty Council passed a
motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...
in UMass System President Marty Meehan and the UMass System Board of Trustees. Ten days after three finalists for the UMass Boston chancellor position were named, on May 21, 2018, all three finalists withdrew from consideration after faculty members questioned the qualifications of the candidates. On June 20, 2018, UMass System Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Katherine Newman was appointed as the university's interim chancellor. In September 2018, students moved into UMass Boston's first dormitory, and the university opened the free-standing parking garage adjacent to the Integrated Sciences Complex. In February 2019, university campus employees protested an administration decision to increase the daily parking fee from $6 to $15 to cover the costs of the garage operation and other expenses. During the 2018–2019 academic year, UMass Boston was ranked by multiple publications as being among the best universities in the United States for veteran students. In May 2019, the
Pioneer Institute Pioneer Institute is a free-market think tank based in Boston, Massachusetts. The organization was founded in 1988 by Lovett C. Peters. Pioneer's stated mission is "to develop and communicate dynamic ideas that advance prosperity and a vibrant ci ...
released a
white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...
co-authored by former Massachusetts State Representative Gregory W. Sullivan that concluded that Chancellor Keith Motley and other UMass Boston administrators were scapegoated for the 2017
fiscal year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...
$30 million budget deficit and that instead the approval by the System Board of Trustees of an accelerated 5-year capital spending plan in December 2014 and an error to a 5-year campus reserve ratio estimate were the cause of the $26 million in budget reductions implemented by interim Chancellor Barry Mills and that the reductions were made at the direction of the UMass Central Office. Additionally, the white paper states that the 2017 audit was not conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards or reported in accordance with
auditing standards An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing al ...
, and that the purchase of Mount Ida College in April 2018 was conducted by a
wire transfer Wire transfer, bank transfer, or credit transfer, is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or entity to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account, or through a transfer of cash at a cash ...
from the UMass System for $75 million without being included on the previously approved university capital plan at the time the UMass Central Office ordered the budget reductions rather than UMass Amherst purchasing the Mount Ida campus with
loanable funds In economics, the loanable funds doctrine is a theory of the market interest rate. According to this approach, the interest rate is determined by the demand for and supply of loanable funds. The term ''loanable funds'' includes all forms of credit, ...
to be repaid with
interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct f ...
. The following month, interim Chancellor Katherine Newman issued a press statement disputing the findings of the white paper. In September 2019, the UMass Boston Faculty Staff Union President addressed the UMass System Board of Trustees to protest the potential offering of equivalent programs at the Mount Ida campus that are already offered at the Boston campus. The following December, the UMass Boston Faculty Staff Union President presented the board with a petition from the Boston campus faculty reiterating their concerns about the Mount Ida campus and requesting more input into its planning. In February 2020, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco was unanimously appointed as the new permanent chancellor of the university. In September 2021, the UMass System Board of Trustees Chair announced that a $15 million endowment would be established for the UMass Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences as part of a $50 million personal donation to the UMass System (the largest in its history) by the System Board of Trustees Chair and his wife. In January 2023, the Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences received $3 million in federal funding for a
home care Homecare (home care, in-home care, care at home), also known as domiciliary care, personal care, community care, or social care, is health care or supportive care provided in the individual home where the patient or client is living, generally focu ...
digital and simulation lab. In July 2023, UMass Boston and
Mass General Brigham Mass General Brigham (MGB) (formerly Partners HealthCare) is a not-for-profit, integrated health care system that engages in medical research, teaching, and patient care. It is the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the United States, ...
announced an agreement to provide $20 million in funding for a workforce pipeline program in the Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences. In December 2023,
New Balance New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), doing business as New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Su ...
announced a $10 million grant to expand a sports leadership program at the university into a full institute on the campus that the company provided a $5 million grant to create in 2018. Pursuant to a report issued by the
Boston Public Health Commission The Boston Public Health Commission, the oldest health department in the United States, is an independent public agency providing a wide range of health services and programs. It is governed by a seven-member board of health appointed by the May ...
, Chancellor Suárez-Orozco and Boston Mayor
Michelle Wu Michelle Wu ( zh, t=吳弭, first=t; pinyin: ''Wú Mǐ''; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the mayor of Boston, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, since 2021. She is the first woman and the first person ...
announced a $2.5 million partnership between the university and the Boston Public Schools in March 2024 to create a behavioral health training program to place 263 UMass Boston students in district schools and create a workforce pipeline for BPS students seeking behavioral health careers. In September 2024, university administration announced a new admissions and
transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies * ...
program in partnership with
Bunker Hill Community College Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a public community college with multiple campuses in the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1973 in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, BHCC provides higher education and j ...
.


Campus

UMass Boston is located off
Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
and within one mile of JFK/UMass station, which is served by the Red Line and three
MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA's) transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track on 12 lines to 142 stations. It ...
lines. A shuttle is available from the MBTA station to campus.


1960s campus siting controversy

Where UMass Boston would locate its campus permanently was a contentious dispute during the university's early history in the 1960s. The conflict emerged in 1965, not long after the university was initially founded: UMass President John W. Lederle had insisted upon a campus inside the city limits of Boston, while
Boston Mayor The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a may ...
John F. Collins John Frederick Collins (July 20, 1919 – November 23, 1995) was an American lawyer who served as the mayor of Boston from 1960 to 1968. Collins was a lawyer who served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1947 to 1955. He and his children caug ...
publicly asked Chancellor John W. Ryan not to consider a permanent site in
Downtown Boston Downtown Boston is the central business district of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston was founded in 1630. The largest of the city's commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; city, c ...
, as a disproportionate amount of the valuable real estate there was already owned by many colleges and other non-profit institutions exempt from the city government's
property taxes A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net we ...
. In 1954, only one new private office building had appeared on the city skyline since 1929, one in five of the city's housing units were classified as dilapidated or deteriorating and the city was ranked lowest among major cities in building starts, while the only growing industries in the city were government and universities (leading to a narrowing tax base) and the city already had a higher number of municipal employees per capita than any major city in the United States. In addition to Mayor Collins, the Boston business community, the
Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court, formally the General Court of Massachusetts, is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts located in the state capital of Boston. Th ...
, WBZ radio, the editorial board of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'', and residents of the South End were also opposed to a permanent downtown campus. Nonetheless, when the university purchased the building at 100 Arlington Street in 1966, many faculty and students interpreted the transaction as a signal that the university intended to settle permanently in Park Square. A proposal popular among students and faculty to build a high-rise academic building overlooking the
Massachusetts Turnpike The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially the "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a controlled-access toll road that runs concurrently with Interstate 90 (I-90) in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It the longest Interstate Highway in Massachu ...
in
Copley Square Copley Square is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Squ ...
was cancelled when the John Hancock Insurance Company purchased the land and built
John Hancock Tower The John Hancock Tower, colloquially known as the Hancock, is a 60-story, skyscraper in the Back Bay neighborhood of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The pinnacle height (including antennas) is . Designed by Henry N. Cobb of the firm I. M. Pe ...
there instead. Another proposal for a campus in the Highland Park area of Roxbury also met with opposition from residents. Other proposals to locate the permanent campus near
Fenway Park Fenway Park is a ballpark located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home field of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantia ...
, or
South Station South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan I ...
and
Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
, or on golf courses for sale in
Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: People * Newton (surname), including a list of people with the surname * ...
, were considered but rejected by Chancellor Ryan due to insufficient space or commuting concerns. In 1967, the
Boston Redevelopment Authority The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial de ...
(BRA) published a study, titled ''An Urban Campus by the Sea'', which proposed building the campus on the
Columbia Point Columbia Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colora ...
peninsula. The site was a former
landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...
, adjacent to the largest and poorest
public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
complex in
New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
, and a mile from the
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
's Columbia station. The proposal was deeply unpopular among the faculty and students; 1,500 of them subsequently organized a rally in November 1967 on
Boston Common The Boston Common is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by five major Boston streets: Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street, Charl ...
demanding a downtown location in
Copley Square Copley Square is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Squ ...
. In April 1969, when the Students for a Democratic Society organized its opposition rally, the student leaders denounced the university as "a 'pawn' masking the Boston Redevelopment Authority's plan to remove poor people from Columbia Point" and that "the university is planning a prestigious dormitory school with high tuition which students from low- and moderate-income families–whom the university was designed to serve–will not be able to attend." Chancellor Ryan also opposed the Columbia Point proposal, who before he resigned in February 1968, made a counterproposal for a 15-acre campus south of where
John Hancock Tower The John Hancock Tower, colloquially known as the Hancock, is a 60-story, skyscraper in the Back Bay neighborhood of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The pinnacle height (including antennas) is . Designed by Henry N. Cobb of the firm I. M. Pe ...
was being built that the BRA rejected. Architectural consultants of the university also scouted land near
North Station North Station is a commuter rail and intercity rail terminal station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines – the Fitchburg Line, Haverhill Line, Lowell Line, and Newburyport/Rockport Line – and the Amtr ...
and adjacent to the
Boston Garden The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928, as "Boston Madison Square Garden" (later ...
that was immediately opposed both by the ownership of the Boston Garden-Arena Corporation that owned the
Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...
(who threatened to move the team out of the city) and
Boston Mayor The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a may ...
Kevin White. In August 1968, after Francis L. Broderick was appointed the university's chancellor, now
Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives This is a list of speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The Speaker (politics), Speaker of the House presides over the Massachusetts House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority par ...
Robert H. Quinn,
Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...
Majority Leader Kevin B. Harrington, and State Senator George Kenneally all urged the UMass Board of Trustees to accept the Columbia Point proposal, while Chancellor Broderick asked the board to delay its decision at an October 1968 meeting by one month so that he might be able to deliver a final counterproposal (while another rally at the
Massachusetts State House The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the List of state capitols in the United States, state capitol and seat of government for the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, lo ...
of 2,500 faculty and students still demanded a
Copley Square Copley Square is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Squ ...
or Park Square location). In November 1968, Chancellor Broderick proposed a scattered-site campus of office buildings situated along the MBTA's Green Line in the South End that would be jointly owned by the university and businesses while retaining the original Arlington Street building. However, while the UMass Board of Trustees and UMass President John W. Lederle argued instead for a unified campus on Columbia Point, they allowed a task force an additional month to more fully study Broderick's proposal. In the end, after reviewing the task force's
white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...
at a meeting in December 1968, the UMass Board of Trustees voted 12 to 4 to accept the Columbia Point proposal.


Initial construction and MBM scandal

Beginning in 1970, the construction of the Columbia Point campus was the largest public capital construction project in the history of Massachusetts (exceeded only later by the
Big Dig The Big Dig was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the then elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel and built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Massachusetts Turnpike, Interstate 90 to Logan I ...
). The state government hired a single construction management firm, McKee-Berger-Mansueto (MBM), to supervise six other architectural firms and construction companies to complete the project by September 1973. The construction had multiple delays: the
Boston Edison Company The Boston Edison Company (BECo) was incorporated as the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston in 1886.; citing: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 12. St. James Press, 1996. It was one of the earliest electric utility com ...
had not finished its electrical work, and because the site was a former landfill (that had only been closed since 1963), a concrete and brick substructure (where all of the campus mechanical systems would run conduits) undergirded by hundreds of driven piles needed to be constructed before the buildings, but pile driving released
methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...
from the former landfill, requiring construction workers to halt production while each release of methane dispersed. The Columbia Point campus was originally composed of five buildings connected by a series of
skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of Cover ...
s on the second floors of the buildings: McCormack Hall, Wheatley Hall, the Science Center, the Healey Library (which was designed by
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
modernist architect
Harry Weese Harry Mohr Weese (June 30, 1915 – October 29, 1998) was an Americans, American architect who had an important role in 20th-century modernism and historic preservation. His brother, Ben Weese, was also a renowned architect. Early life and educat ...
), and the Quinn Administration Building. To transport students from Columbia station, the
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
concluded that constructing a skyway from the station to the campus would be too expensive, and the university administration set about planning a shuttle bus system, funded by parking fees. Campus facilities would rise from the bottom of the substructure and the bottom of the substructure would provide entry to a parking garage with 1,600 spaces. Because the campus was surrounded on three sides by a
bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...
, exposed to
sea breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is a wind that blows in the afternoon from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is a wind that blows in the night from a landmass toward or onto a large ...
and
winter storm A winter storm (also known as snow storm) is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental and subarct ...
s, the
salt water Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish wate ...
in the atmosphere and the
road salt Road salt (also known as de-icing salt, rock salt, or snow salt) is a salt used mainly as an anti-slip agent in winter road conditions, but also to prevent dust and snow build-up on roads. Various kinds of salts are used as road salt, but calciu ...
carried from automobiles would eventually damage parts of the substructure beyond feasible and cost-effective repair. Because the university was underneath flight paths arriving at
Logan International Airport General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport — also known as Boston Logan International Airport — is an international airport located mostly in East Boston and partially in Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States. Covering , it has ...
, all of the original Columbia Point campus buildings were soundproofed, and because of this, the classroom and offices in the buildings were designed as interior spaces with no windows, and the entrance to every building faced inward onto the campus plaza. Due to the campus being uniformly built of brick and the campus positioned above the landscape, the campus became known as "The Fortress", "The Rock", or "The Prison" colloquially. The buildings were rumored to have been designed by architects familiar with the architectural design of prisons (such as Weese, who designed the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center), but also designed so that the plaza could easily be occupied by the
National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...
to suppress demonstrations and protests. In 1974, the $350 million capital construction budget for erecting more buildings on the campus was frozen due to the
1973–1975 recession The 1973–1975 recession or 1970s recession was a period of economic stagnation in much of the Western world (i.e. the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) during the 1970s, putting an end to the overall post–W ...
, halting any further expansion of the campus. Construction for the Clark Athletic Center (that included an ice hockey arena, swimming pool, and basketball courts) broke ground in 1978 and was completed in 1979. In 1977, McKee-Berger-Mansueto, Inc. (MBM), the company contracted to supervise the construction of the campus, came under public scrutiny after its contract with the Commonwealth was criticized in a series of newspaper articles for being abnormally favorable towards MBM, and a special legislative committee (led by
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
President John William Ward) was formed to investigate the contract. A scandal erupted after it was learned MBM paid
Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...
Majority Leader
Joseph DiCarlo Joseph J. C. DiCarlo (March 21, 1936 – October 22, 2020) was an American politician who served in both houses of the Massachusetts General Court. He was expelled from the Senate in 1977 after he was convicted of extortion. He is the first Massac ...
and State Senator Ronald MacKenzie $40,000 in exchange for a favorable report from the committee. DiCarlo and MacKenzie were convicted of extortion. Newspaper columnist Charles Pierce summarized the careless and negligent quality of MBM's construction projects unearthed by the Ward Commission's investigation as follows:
Besides the
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...
jail with the cells that did not lock, there was the auditorium at
Boston State College Boston State College was a normal school from 1852 to 1872 and a public university from 1872 to 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was merged into the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1982. History Boston State College's roots ...
in which the stage was not visible from a third of the seats and the library at
Salem State College Salem State University (Salem State or SSU) is a public university in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1854, it is the oldest and largest institute of higher education on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore and is p ...
in which the walls were not sturdy enough to bear the weight of the books. At the UMass-Boston campus, ground zero of the scandal, school officials were forced to erect barricades to keep passerby from being brained by the bricks that kept falling off the side of the library. Unsurprisingly, a completely corrupt system had produced completely shoddy buildings that the taxpayers, already fleeced once, would have to pay to repair.


Campus renewal

On July 19, 2006, Chancellor Michael F. Collins ordered the immediate and permanent closure of the substructure parking garage, causing a loss of 1,500 parking spaces. Two days later, an article in ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' summarized the deterioration of the facility:
The University of Massachusetts at Boston has closed an underground parking garage that has been decaying for decades. ... Over the years, the garage has become a dreary labyrinth, with walls and floor so eroded from the salty environment that they look like a coral reef. Nets hang from the ceiling to catch fragments of falling cement, a problem linked to the use of low-quality concrete in the construction.
Chunks of concrete had been falling from the garage ceiling since the 1990s, and when Chancellor Collins ordered the closure, 600 spaces had already been lost due to ongoing repairs and rerouting of passenger and vehicular traffic. Because of the salt water atmosphere and the road salt from vehicles, the steel reinforcing bars embedded in the campus substructure concrete walls and ceiling became severely degraded, and because all of the campus mechanical systems had run conduits through the substructure, many of those systems could not be repaired and the damage was causing outages of the computer, electrical, heat, and air-conditioning equipment. An engineering report indicated that to repair the garage such that it would be safe for parking would cost $150 million. On October 2, 2006, the university began the process of creating a master plan to renew the campus. In 2010, a 385-pound section of the garage ceiling below Wheatley Hall fell. By December 14, 2007, Chancellor J. Keith Motley presented a 25-year master plan to the UMass System Board of Trustees, who accepted the plan in full. Included in the 25-year master plan was the proposal to erect the university's first residential facilities that would accommodate 2,000 students, but not with the intention of changing the character of the university from a commuter school to a residential school. Eight months later on August 7, 2008,
Massachusetts Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...
Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African Americans, African-American Governor of Massachusetts and the first Democratic Pa ...
signed a higher education bond bill with $100 million directed towards the construction of a new integrated sciences complex at the
Morrissey Boulevard Morrissey Boulevard is a six-lane divided coastal road in the Dorchester, Boston, Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned and maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). ...
entrance of the university's campus, a second $100 million directed towards constructing a general academic building, and the following week,
U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1962 to his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party and ...
from Massachusetts announced that he would accelerate his plans to construct the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate on Columbia Point next to his brother's presidential library. In December 2009, a report prepared for the state government on the 25-year master plan was released outlining future campus development and construction projects. By 2013, with the construction of the EMK Institute underway on April 8, 2011, the construction of the Integrated Sciences Complex underway on June 8, 2011, renovations to the Clark Athletic Center's gymnasium from March to December 2012, construction for a second academic building (University Hall) underway on February 27, 2013, and a utility corridor and roadway network project begun in the spring of 2013, the university's campus became "a multi-site construction zone." Other completed or current projects include: *A $2.8 million project begun the previous summer to stabilize an
eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is disti ...
800-foot segment of the Dorchester Bay shoreline with 3,200 tons of stone (including a significant amount of granite unearthed by the Big Dig that was donated by the
Massachusetts Department of Transportation The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) oversees roads, public transit, aeronautics, and transportation licensing and registration in the US state of Massachusetts. It was created on November 1, 2009, by the 186th Sessio ...
), pave a new walkway along the
Boston Harborwalk Boston Harborwalk is a public walkway that follows the edge of piers, wharves, beaches, and shoreline around Boston Harbor. When fully completed it will extend a distance of from East Boston to the Neponset River. History The Harborwalk is a c ...
in between the JFK Presidential Library and the Harbor Point Apartments with new benches, lighting, gathering spaces, and an artwork display area that was completed in July 2015; *A $164 million project to develop a new utility corridor and roadway network led by BVH Integrated Services, Inc. and built by Bond Brothers that was completed in 2019; *A $45 million project managed by
Hill International Hill International, Inc., a member of the Global Infrastructure Solutions, Inc., family of companies, is a global construction consulting firm. Founded in 1976, the company's corporate headquarters is in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, U.S. Hill pro ...
, designed by
CannonDesign CannonDesign is a global architecture, engineering and consulting practice that provides services for a range of project types, including hospitals and medical centers, corporate headquarters and commercial property, commercial office buildings, ...
, and built by Consigli Construction to renovate Wheatley and McCormack Halls, the Quinn Administration Building, and the Healey Library to relocate programs from the original Science Center (to facilitate its demolition) that was completed in January 2020; *A $78 million project to repair the substructure parking garage that was completed by February 2023; *A $137 million project managed by Hill International and designed by
NBBJ NBBJ is an American global architecture, planning and design firm with offices in Boston, Columbus, London, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Pune, San Francisco, Seattle and Shanghai. NBBJ provides services in architecture, interiors, planning ...
to demolish the original Science Center, the university swimming pool building, the majority of the campus substructure and plaza adjoining those facilities, and to construct a campus quadrangle and 300-space parking lot in their place, which began in July 2020 and was completed in 2024; *A second general-purpose academic building (General Academic Building No. 2), which received $100 million in state funding in 2012 and that is to be built next to Wheatley Hall in between University Drives South and East and the Campus Center bus stop; *A project to restore the Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex and to construct a mixed-use facility on an adjacent 10-acre site for which the UMass Building Authority issued a
request for information A request for information (RFI) is a common business process whose purpose is to collect written information about the capabilities of various suppliers. Normally it follows a format that can be used for comparative purposes. An RFI is primarily ...
in January 2020, received eight proposals in response by the following September, and issued a request for proposal in July 2021. In June 2021, Chancellor Suárez-Orozco initiated the development of an updated campus master plan. In October 2018,
Boston Mayor The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a may ...
Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and trade union official who served as the 58th mayor of Boston from 2014 to 2021 and as the 29th United States Secretary of Labor from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Democr ...
announced a comprehensive
climate change adaptation Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to the effects of climate change, both current and anticipated.IPCC, 2022Annex II: Glossary
Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, located adjacent to Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States. History 17th century Since its dis ...
coastline from coastal flooding">flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civi ...
. In October 2020, the Walsh administration released a 174-page climate change adaptation report for the Boston Harbor coastline in Dorchester with a section on Columbia Point and Morrissey Boulevard.


Columbia Point buildings

* Calf Pasture Pumping Station – Originally built and designed by Boston Architect George Albert Clough in 1883, the sewage treatment plant is currently being evaluated by UMass Building Authority for redevelopment. * Healey Library – Original Columbia Point campus building opened in 1974. Named for Joseph P. Healey, UMass System Board of Trustees Chair (1969–1981). * McCormack Hall – Original Columbia Point campus building opened in 1974. Named for John W. McCormack, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1962–1971). * Quinn Administration Building – Original Columbia Point campus building opened in 1974. Named for Robert H. Quinn,
Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives This is a list of speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The Speaker (politics), Speaker of the House presides over the Massachusetts House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority par ...
(1967–1969) and UMass System Board of Trustees Chair (1981–1986). * Science Center – Original Columbia Point campus building opened in 1974. The facility was demolished as part of a $137 million project to construct a campus quad and 300-space parking lot in its place that began in July 2020. * Wheatley Hall – Original Columbia Point campus building opened in 1974. Named for Revolutionary War-era and first-published African-American female poet
Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly ( – December 5, 1784), was an American writer who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Gates Jr., Henry Louis, ''Trials of Phillis Wheatley: ...
. * Clark Athletic Center – Broke ground in 1978 and completed in 1979. On October 3, 2000, hosted the first debate between
Texas Governor The governor of Texas is the head of state of the U.S. state of Texas. The governor is the head of the executive branch of the government of Texas and is the commander-in-chief of the Texas Military Forces. Established in the Constitut ...
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
and
Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
during the 2000 U.S. presidential election. * Campus Center – Broke ground in 2001 and completed in 2004. The building was designed by the Boston-based architectural firm
Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Kallmann McKinnell & Wood is an architectural design firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1962 as Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles by Gerhard Kallmann (1915-2012), Michael McKinnell (1935–2020), and Edward Knowles. Hi ...
and built by the Suffolk Construction Company at a cost of $80 million. * Integrated Sciences Complex – Broke ground in 2011 and completed in 2015. The building cost $182 million to construct, was designed by the Boston-based architectural firm Goody Clancy, and was constructed by Walsh Brothers. * Monan Park – Broke ground and completed in 2015. The construction was supported by a $2 million gift from the Yawkey Foundation, was built with the exact dimensions of
Fenway Park Fenway Park is a ballpark located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home field of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantia ...
, and was named for Boston College President
J. Donald Monan J. Donald Monan, SJ (December 31, 1924 – March 18, 2017) was the chancellor of Boston College from 1996 to 2017 and its 24th president from 1972 to 1996—the longest such tenure in the university's history until it was surpassed by his succes ...
, SJ. Jointly owned with
Boston College High School Boston College High School (also known as BC High) is an all-male, Society of Jesus, Jesuit, Catholic Church, Catholic College-preparatory school, college-preparatory day school in the Columbia Point, Boston, Columbia Point neighborhood of Dorche ...
. * University Hall – Broke ground in 2013 and opened in 2016. The building cost $130 million to construct, was designed by the Boston-based Wilson Architects, and was constructed by the Gilbane Building Company. * Motley Residence Hall – Broke ground in 2016 and opened in 2018. The 1,077-bed residence halls cost $120 million to construct, was led by Capstone Development Partners, built by Shawmut Construction, and designed by
Elkus Manfredi Architects Elkus Manfredi Architects is an architectural firm based in Boston, Massachusetts founded in 1988 by David Manfredi and Howard F. Elkus, both fellows of the American Institute of Architects. History In 2022 Elkus Manfredi was the largest archite ...
. In April 2023, university administration dedicated the dormitories in honor of former Chancellor J. Keith Motley and his wife. * Parking Garage West – Broke ground in 2017 and opened in 2018. The 1,400-space free-standing parking garage cost $69 million to construct, was managed by
Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. It was established in 1887 as a concrete product manufacturer. History Aktiebolaget Skånska Cementgjuteriet (Scanian Cement Casting Ltd) was established i ...
, built by the Suffolk Construction Company, and designed by Fennick McCredie Architecture.


Off-campus facilities

UMass Boston's Institute for New England Native American Studies and Institute for Community Inclusion (UMass Boston's joint program with
Boston Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital (formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2013) is the main pediatric training and research hospital of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. It is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children ...
that is part of the national Association of University Centers on Disabilities) have their main offices on the fourth floor of the Bayside Office Center at 150 Mount Vernon Street, which is adjacent to the former
Bayside Expo Center Bayside Expo Center (also known as the Bayside Expo and Conference Center) was a convention center located in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Originally opened as a shopping mall called Bayside Mall in the 1960s, the mall later failed and the conven ...
and down the street from the main campus. UMass Boston's Early Learning Center that is accredited by the
National Association for the Education of Young Children The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a large nonprofit association in the United States representing early childhood education teachers, para-educators, center directors, trainers, college educators, families o ...
is located at 2 Harbor Point Boulevard in the Harbor Point Apartments complex adjacent to the campus. UMass Boston's Biology Department and School for the Environment also have a field station on
Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...
. In 2009, the Bayside Expo Center property was lost in a foreclosure to a Florida-based real estate firm, LNR/CMAT, and on May 19, 2010, the university purchased the property to use as campus facilities and to recoup 1,300 parking spaces after the closure of the campus substructure parking garage in 2006. In January 2018, the UMass Building Authority put the university's
Bayside Expo Center Bayside Expo Center (also known as the Bayside Expo and Conference Center) was a convention center located in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Originally opened as a shopping mall called Bayside Mall in the 1960s, the mall later failed and the conven ...
property up for sale. In February 2019, the UMass System Board of Trustees unanimously approved a 99-year final
lease agreement A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
for the Bayside Expo Center with Accordia Partners for $192 million to $235 million.


Academics

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 The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) is one of seventeen colleges and professional schools at the University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public un ...
, 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 Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...
and the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
. The university maintains a partnership with the
University of International Relations The University of International Relations (UIR; ) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. The Institute for International Relations, later translated into English as Institute ''of'' International Relations, was established in 1949 ...
, a university with ties to the
Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China The Ministry of State Security (MSS) is the principal civilian intelligence and security service of the People's Republic of China, responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and defense of the political security and honor of th ...
. In the 2017–2018 academic year, the five most popular majors at the university were
Management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...
,
Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
,
Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
, Exercise and Health Sciences, and
Nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
. Within the College of Liberal Arts, the five most popular majors were Psychology,
Criminal Justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...
,
Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
,
Communication Studies Communication studies (or communication science) is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differ ...
, and English. Within the College of Science and Mathematics, the five most popular majors were Biology,
Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
,
Biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...
,
Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, and
Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
. Within the College of Management, the five most popular concentrations were
Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...
,
Finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...
,
Marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
,
Information Technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...
, and International Management. The five most popular minors at the university were Psychology,
Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
, Economics, Criminal Justice, and English (tied with Biology).


Accreditation

UMass Boston is
accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
by the
New England Commission of Higher Education The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evaluation and accreditation of public and private universities and colleges in the United States and othe ...
. Additionally, the College of Management is accredited by the
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is an American professional and accreditation organization. It was founded as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business in 1916 to provide accreditation to busines ...
(AACSB), and the College of Nursing and Health Services holds accreditation from the
National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
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).


Faculty

In 2016, UMass Boston's faculty of 1,243 consisted of 182 tenure-track and 210 non-tenure-track professors. 96 percent of the faculty held the highest degree in their fields and the student-teacher ratio was 16:1. It includes poet
Lloyd Schwartz Lloyd Schwartz (born November 29, 1941) is an American poet, and the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was the classical music editor of ''The Boston Phoenix'', a publication that is n ...
(who was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by C ...
in 1994 and co-edited the
Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published more than 300 volumes by authors ...
's ''
Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...
: Poems, Prose, and Letters'' in 2008), and Jill McDonough, translator and Slavic philologist Diana Lewis Burgin, linguist Donaldo Macedo, author Padraig O'Malley, feminist scholar Carol Cohn, economists Julie A. Nelson and Randy Albelda, philosophers Lynne Tirrell and Lawrence Blum, political scientists Leila Farsakh and Thomas Ferguson (academic), Thomas Ferguson, psychologist Sharon Lamb, Claude Monet, Monet expert Paul Hayes Tucker, biologist Kamaljit S. Bawa, and physicist Benjamin Mollow, discoverer of the Autler–Townes effect, Mollow triplet. Former faculty members include biblical scholar Richard A. Horsley, chemist
John Warner John William Warner III (February 18, 1927 – May 25, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term United States Republican Party, Republican United Stat ...
, evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden, feminist writers Beverly Smith and Christina Hoff Sommers, politician Mary B. Newman (namesake of the Mary B. Newman Award for Academic Excellence), historians Edward Berkowitz, James Green (historian), James Green, Peter Linebaugh, William Andrew Moffett, Mark Peattie, and James Turner (historian), James Turner, literary scholar
Carlo L. Golino Carlo Luigi Golino (1913–1991) was an Italian American who taught Italian literature at many colleges in the United States. Golino received his B.A. from City College of New York (1936); an M.A. (Italian literature) from Columbia University (1 ...
(who served as the university's chancellor from 1973 to 1978), mathematicians Amir Aczel, Victor S. Miller, and Robert Thomas Seeley, computer scientist Patrick O'Neil, neurologist M. V. Padma Srivastava, novelists Jaime Clarke, Elizabeth Searle, and Melanie Rae Thon, philosopher Jane Roland Martin, poets Martha Collins (poet), Martha Collins and Sabra Loomis, political scientists Jalal Alamgir and Kent John Chabotar, clinical psychologist David Lisak, social psychologist Melanie Joy, and sociologists Benjamin Bolger and Robert Dentler.


Institutes and centers

The following free-standing institutes and centers are administered by the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. *Center for Social Development and Education *Center for Survey Research *Institute for Asian American Studies (a member of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Research Consortium) *Institute for Community Inclusion *Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration *The Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy *Urban Harbors Institute *Venture Development Center *William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences *
William Monroe Trotter William Monroe Trotter, sometimes just Monroe Trotter (April 7, 1872 – April 7, 1934), was a newspaper editor and real estate businessman based in Boston, Massachusetts. An activist for African-American civil rights, he was an early opponent o ...
Institute for the Study of Black Culture The following university-wide institutes and centers are operationally managed by collective leadership teams appointed by the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. *Center of Science and Mathematics in Context *Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy (a collaborative venture with the Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center) *Confucius Institute *Developmental Sciences Research Center *Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation *Institute for International and Comparative Education *Paul English Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute *Sustainable Solutions Lab The following institutes and centers are administered by their college or department. *Adult Literacy Resource Institute *Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research *Broadening Advanced Technological Education Connections *Center for Coastal Environmental Sensing Networks *Center for Collaborative Leadership *Center for Environmental Health, Science, and Technology *Center for Governance and Sustainability *Center for Green Chemistry *Center for Innovation and Excellence in eLearning *Center for Innovative Teaching *Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development *Center for Portuguese Language – Instituto Camoes *Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters *Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging *Center for Social Policy *Center for Sustainable Enterprise and Regional Competitiveness *Center for the Study of Gender, Security, and Human Rights *Center for the Study of the Humanities, Culture and Society *Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy *Center for World Languages and Cultures *Center on Media and Society *China Program Center *Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management *Entrepreneurship Center *Gerontology Institute *GoKids Boston Youth Fitness and Training Center *Institute for Learning and Teaching *Institute for New England Native American Studies *Labor Resource Center *New England Resource Center for Higher Education *Osher Lifelong Learning Institute *Pension Action Center *The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center & Minority Business Center


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 (NCAA), Division III. UMass Boston, known by their nickname: the Beacons, has teams competing in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, ECAC, the Little East Conference, Little East Conference, and New England Hockey Conference 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. 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.


Student activities

UMass Boston's independent, student run and financed student newspaper, newspaper is ''The Mass Media''. Other student publications include the yearbook, ''Watermark'' arts and literary magazine, and ''The Beacon'' monthly humor magazine. UMass Boston also owns and operates
WUMB-FM WUMB-FM (91.9 FM) in Boston, Massachusetts, is the radio station of the University of Massachusetts Boston. It broadcasts a mix of Americana, blues, roots, and folk hosted by its staff weekdays. On weekends the station concentrates on traditio ...
(91.9), a 24-hour, public, noncommercial radio station that broadcasts folk music programs and produces the award-winning public and cultural affairs program, ''Commonwealth Journal''. National student societies or professional organizations with active local or student chapters at UMass Boston include
Alpha Lambda Delta Alpha Lambda Delta () is an honor society for students who have achieved a 3.5 GPA or higher during their first year or term of higher education. History Alpha Lambda Delta was founded in 1924 by the Dean of Women, Maria Leonard, at the Universi ...
, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College Democrats of America, Delta Sigma Pi, WE Charity, Free the Children, the
Golden Key International Honour Society The Golden Key International Honour Society (formerly Golden Key National Honor Society) is an international collegiate honor society and non-profit organization based in the United States. It was founded in 1977 to recognize academic achievement ...
, the National Student Nurses' Association, Phi Delta Epsilon, the Public Interest Research Group, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the Society of Physics Students, and Young Americans for Liberty. The American Chemical Society had a student chapter at UMass Boston, but as of the Fall 2016 semester it is inactive.However, the American Chemical Society still certifies the Bachelor of Science in Chemistry degree at UMass Boston.


Notable alumni

*Joseph Abboud, B.A. 1972, International Men's Fashion Designer. *Amsale Aberra, B.A. 1981, Celebrity Wedding designer. *Paul Anastas, one of the founders of
green chemistry Green chemistry, similar to sustainable chemistry or circular chemistry, is an area of chemistry and chemical engineering focused on the design of products and processes that minimize or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Wh ...
, now faculty at Yale *Cory Atkins, (B.S. 1979), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1999–2019). *Panayiota Bertzikis, B.A. 2010, Humanitarian. *Daniel E. Bosley, (M.S. 1996), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1987–2011). * Edward Scott Bozek (1950–2022), Olympic épée fencing, fencer *William Bratton, B.A. 1975, Boston Police Department, Boston City Police Police commissioner, Commissioner (1993–1994), New York City Police Commissioner (1994–1996; 2014–2016), Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Police Department Chief (2002–2009), Member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (2011–Present). *Phillip Brutus, B.S. 1982, Member of the Florida House of Representatives (2001–2007). *Christine Canavan, (B.S. Nursing (summa cum laude) 1988), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1993–2015). *Ken Casey, bassist for the punk rock group the Dropkick Murphys. *Lenny Clarke, (did not finish), comedian/actor. *Tim Costello (labor advocate), Tim Costello (1945–2009), labor and Anti-globalization movement, anti-globalization advocate and author. *Paul Donato, List of mayors of Medford, Massachusetts, Mayor of Medford, Massachusetts (1980–1985), Member of Massachusetts House of Representatives (2001–Present), Second Assistant Majority Whip of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (2009–Present). *Paul M. English, B.A. 1987 and M.S. 1989 (both in Computer Science), co-founder and CTO of Kayak.com. *Jennifer Flanagan, Jennifer L. Flanagan, (B.S. Political Science, 1998), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (2005–2009), Member of the
Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...
(2009–2017). *Jovita Fontanez 1984, head of Boston Election Commission, member of Massachusetts Electoral College. *Beth Harrington, filmmaker and musician *Robert L. Hedlund, Member of the Massachusetts Senate (1991–1993; 1995–2016), Mayor of Weymouth, Massachusetts (2016–Present). *Patricia D. Jehlen, (M.A. History), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1991–2005), Member of the Massachusetts Senate (2005–Present). *John F. Kelly, B.A. 1976, general in the United States Marine Corps, commander of United States Southern Command, U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) from 2012 to 2016. Former senior military assistant to the Secretary of Defense, former commander of Multi-National Force-West, Iraq, United States Secretary of Homeland Security, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (January–July 2017), White House Chief of Staff (July 2017–January 2019). *Joseph P. Kennedy II, (B.A. 1976), current president of Citizens Energy Corporation and former member of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives (1987–1999). *Dennis Lehane, (did not finish), author. *Ron Mariano, (M.Ed., 1972),
Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives This is a list of speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The Speaker (politics), Speaker of the House presides over the Massachusetts House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority par ...
(2020–Present), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1991–Present), Majority Leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (2011–2020). *Juana Matias, state representative *Gina McCarthy, (B.A., 1976), Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2013–2017), White House National Climate Advisor (2021–2022) *Michael J. McGlynn, (B.A. Political Science/History, 1976). Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1977–1988), List of mayors of Medford, Massachusetts, Mayor of Medford, Massachusetts (1988–2016). *Thomas Menino, (B.A. Community Planning, 1988). Mayor of Boston (1993–2014),
Boston City Council The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year ...
President (1993), Member of the Boston City Council (1984–1993). *Janet Mills B.A. 1970, Maine Attorney General (2009–2011; 2013–2019), List of Governors of Maine, 75th Governor of Maine (2019–). *Michael Moran (Massachusetts politician), Michael J. Moran, (B.A. Economics, 1995), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (2005–Present). *Eileen Myles, B.A. Author. *Kelly Overton (activist), Kelly Overton, Activist. *Stanzi Potenza, actor, comedian, and TikTok personality *Joe Rogan, (did not finish), comedian, actor, "NewsRadio" and "Fear Factor". *Jeffrey Sanchez (politician), Jeffrey Sánchez, (B.A. Legal Education), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (2003–2019). *Debra Saunders, B.A. 1982, conservative columnist, White House Correspondents' Association, White House Correspondent of the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal''. *Biz Stone, (did not finish) Co-founder of Twitter. *Steve Sweeney (comedian), Steve Sweeney, B.A. 1974, Comedian. *John M. Tobin, Jr., (B.A. Political Science), Member of the Boston City Council (2002–2010). *Harry Trask, B.A. 1969, (1928–2002) 1957 Pulitzer Prize in Photography (for a photograph of the SS Andrea Doria sinking). *Robert Travaglini, B.S. 1974. President of the Massachusetts Senate (2003–2007), Member of the Massachusetts Senate (1992–2007), Member of the Boston City Council (1984–1992). * Samuel Urkato, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Ethiopia. *Bill Walczak, B.A. 1978. former CEO Codman Square Health Center and candidate for Mayor of Boston. *
John Warner John William Warner III (February 18, 1927 – May 25, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term United States Republican Party, Republican United Stat ...
, B.S. 1984, one of the founding fathers of Green chemistry, Green Chemistry; founded first PhD program in Green Chemistry. * Georgette Watson, B.A., anti-drug activist * Jane Welzel, (1955–2014), pioneering long-distance runner *Dana White, (did not finish), current president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).


Notes


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

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External links

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Athletics website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massachusetts Boston, University Of University of Massachusetts Boston, University of Massachusetts campuses, Boston Public universities and colleges in Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts Boston Universities and colleges in Boston Business schools in Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1964 Columbia Point, Boston 1964 establishments in Massachusetts Brutalist architecture in Massachusetts