Office of the Chancellor

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Donor Appreciation Breakfast

November 5, 2011
Student Union Ballroom

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, champions of the cause of UMass Amherst! Happy Homecoming! This is a weekend in which we celebrate the whole life of our campus: past, present, and future all at once. You are all champions of that life. And since this is breakfast, and you are champions… well, you know what that makes this . . .

Immediately after breakfast we will celebrate two building events on campus: we will break ground for the new Commonwealth Honors College, and dedicate the new George Parks Band Building, the permanent home of the Power and Class of New England, our Minuteman Marching Band.

That we are building at a time of economic duress is a sign of not only our belief in our shared vision, but also our will and ability to activate that vision: to commit the energy and great resources required to enact our core values in the world.

Your philanthropy comes at a critical time, not only for this institution as a whole, but for the individual students who make up UMass Amherst, and without whom we would not exist. We are seeing a greater-than-ever need for scholarships and student access to higher education. The number of students who qualify for Pell Grants is larger than ever in our history and has grown rapidly since 2008. Thanks to your help and our institutional commitment to access, financial aid, however, has grown even more rapidly.

But what is truly remarkable is that this increase in the financial need of our students dovetails with other increases that indicate we are indeed an institution on the rise. The students whose educations we aid and endow are the best ever in the history of our university. For three years in a row we have recruited a class that broke the previous year’s record for size and achievement. Four years ago, we received just over 27,000 applications for a first-year class of 4286; this year we had nearly 33,000 applications and a first-year class of almost 4700. The average SAT score of our incoming students has increased 47 points in five years. And our student body is ever more diverse: five years ago, 18.4 percent of our undergraduates were minority students; this year students from ethnic minorities are 22.4 percent of the incoming class.

Not only do these figures indicate a greater quality and depth of education through a richer and more various texture of voices, but pragmatically in the long term, they also make a UMass degree of greater competitive value. External observers verify that we are definitely on the rise: we just jumped five places in the U.S. News and World Report’s National University ranking, to 94th among all institutions, both public and private. And over the past two years we moved up ten places, from 52nd to 42nd, among all public national universities. Such a significant leap is a rare feat indeed, and it means we are going to attract in the future even more remarkable students, who are the future of our Commonwealth and the nation.

So even in a recession, all signs are encouraging. There is a Zen proverb that the obstacle is the path. What the economic challenges of the past three years have taught us is that to find our excellence, we have to rely on our resourcefulness more than ever. State funding is unreliable and can only sustain us at a certain level. But where we want to get to, where we have the potential to be, relies increasingly on our own creativity and enterprise. We have a skillful and capable, as well as a visionary leadership team on campus right now, all of whom are dedicated to leading us to a place where UMass Amherst truly excels as a great public research university. Our move to big-time, FBS football in the Mid-American Conference is also going to raise us to a whole new level of national visibility.

So, get ready! The momentum of building on campus, recruiting stellar faculty with endowed professorships, and creating new opportunities for our students will not cease. The Commonwealth Honors College Complex and the new Academic Classroom Building are going to continue the evolution of the physical and intellectual landscapes of our campus. We are innovating, not only by creating new structures and programs, inventions, breathtaking permaculture gardens, and works of art, but also by opening new pathways in the ways students and faculty are able to think, study, and conceive ideas.

Everyone in this room is a champion of that future, no matter what your level of giving. Remember that one of UMass Amherst’s core values is inclusion. This value applies to philanthropy as much as any other area. Giving is not just the prerogative of the well-heeled. Everyone makes a difference. Everyone has the ability to have the grace of the giver, and to be a benefactor of this campus.

On behalf of the campus I extend to you gratitude and appreciation for all you have made possible in UMass’s life so far, and all that you will make possible. When you consider the capacities and dreams of our students, our potential has no limit.

So, speaking of dreams, the founding dream of the UMass Amherst students who formed the Vocal Suspects was to dazzle people by singing songs completely without accompaniment.  Since the year 2000, they have become an a cappella group fifteen members strong, with one album under their belt and another in production, a repertoire of more than 100 songs, and dates throughout New England. Ladies and gentlemen, the Vocal Suspects!