Office of the Chancellor

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Family Weekend 2009

September 26, 2009

Good morning students, parents, and families! On behalf of the campus, its administration, and its faculty, I want to extend to all of you a warm welcome to campus today. It’s great to see you here in Amherst, the nation’s number one college town.

We did not need external confirmation that we’re the cornerstone institution in a terrific college town, but it was satisfying to see the public recognition Amherst received recently -- first by MSN.com and second by a national travel group. Of course, in the Pioneer Valley, in the Western part of the Commonwealth, and throughout Massachusetts it’s long been known that Amherst is a great place to live and learn.

Nicely coinciding with Family Weekend is tomorrow’s parade celebrating Amherst’s 250th anniversary. It will be the town’s largest parade ever and will feature the award-winning UMass Minuteman Marching Band. The parade will end here on campus, where there are many more things worth celebrating. UMass Amherst is the foremost public research institution in New England, and we are on our way to take our place among the very best in the country. It’s an exciting time to be here, as we continue marching forward as a university.

The excellence of our campus starts with our students. Last fall’s freshmen had record-breaking academic indicators, and this year’s class is even more impressive. Our entering class of 2013, which by the way is our sesquicentennial class, was selected from a record-high number of applicants and is very special. These 4,100 students are the best and brightest in our history, in terms of their SAT scores, high school grade point averages, and class rankings.

We expect they will continue a trend of UMass Amherst students winning prestigious national scholarships and fellowships. Last year, our students won more of these awards than ever before, including a Goldwater Scholarship, a Truman Award, a couple of National Science Foundation awards, and eight Fulbrights. These awards and other opportunities available through UMass Amherst allow our students to do remarkable things with their education. For example, one of our Fulbright winners, a political science student, is now in Morocco working with local women on an economic development project. These award-winning students are very impressive, indeed, but we believe the best is yet to come.

We recognize that the most worthwhile educational experience our fine students can have is putting knowledge into practice. And so, we are planning to implement programs that will enable every undergraduate student to conduct research alongside our stellar faculty. I’ll name just a couple of the many exemplary undergraduate research projects undertaken last year: One student worked with an entomology professor to research the causes of Lyme disease. A second student used the archives of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library for original research on American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

This commitment to undergraduate research is one of the goals we put forward in the spring in a document we call our Framework for Excellence. We have outlined where we want UMass Amherst to be in 2020 and how we propose to get there. We will build upon our high quality undergraduate education, outstanding graduate programs, and internationally recognized research to attain these goals.

Our undergraduate initiatives include working more collaboratively to provide advising and career services to all students. Our alumni office is reaching out to harness the knowledge and connections of thousands of UMass Amherst graduates for the benefit of students. On October 6th, there will be an event on the library lawn called “Fall Into Success.” Any student can stop by and videotape a five-minute elevator pitch for prospective employers, make an appointment for resume help or a mock interview, and learn about the many career services programs offered across campus throughout the year. It’s never too early to start thinking about a career, and we encourage all students to take advantage of these tremendous resources.

Another goal in our Framework for Excellence is to enhance students’ first-year experience at UMass Amherst. Faculty and staff are working together closely to ensure a fantastic first year. We are aligning the residential and academic sides of life on campus more effectively to produce a coordinated experience for our newest students. For example, you probably know about resident assistants who build community and keep the peace in residence halls. At UMass Amherst we also have peer mentors in our residence halls who offer something extra for first-year students. Our new peer mentors have an academic focus and help fellow students succeed in class and with the transition to college.

Another way we help ease students into the world of college is through our first-year seminars. These are small classes on a variety of topics that allow a student to develop a close relationship with an instructor. This year, we added a new twist to this idea -- what we call Faculty First-Year Seminars. In these seminars some of our most distinguished and experienced faculty have the opportunity to connect with first-year students and share their passion for their work. For example, professor of history Daniel Gordon leads a seminar on “Supreme Court Cases and Religious Freedom” and professor of kinesiology Brian Umberger is exploring with his students “The Limits of Human Performance.”

I decided that I should participate in this pilot year of the program too. So I am teaching a Faculty First-Year Seminar to 17 undergraduates on a famous and controversial German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Together we are reading one of his most celebrated works, Beyond Good and Evil, which outlines, as Nietzsche writes in the subtitle, a “philosophy of the future.” I’ve taught this book as a first-year seminar many times: at Berkeley, where I was a faculty member for 27 years, I offered the course at least a dozen times, and in my two years as Provost at the University of Tennessee, I also taught it on several occasions. So I think now I’ve got it down pat now, and I’m enjoying the seminar tremendously. The students are wonderful, bright and motivated, and since the course is taught on a pass/fail basis, there’s no pressure for grades, just the pure joy of exploring the strange and challenging ideas of one of the world’s most interesting and celebrated thinkers.

You may have also heard that we are re-envisioning our General Education courses here at UMass Amherst. Now more than ever these courses are essential to prepare students for a diverse and rapidly changing world. Our goals are to stretch students’ minds and broaden their experiences. Gen Ed courses prepare students for their careers and productive lives. They lay the groundwork for a lifetime of learning.

Laying the groundwork for the future of our campus, we have made a substantial investment in new buildings -- $660 million over the last five years. Our new structures include a beautiful Studio Arts Building at the southeast entrance to the campus. Skinner Hall has been completely renovated for our highly respected Nursing School. We opened the new University Transit Center in the spring and will break ground on a long-awaited Band Building in a few weeks. Later in the fall, we’ll start building a new home for the campus police department, an important investment in the safety of our community.

We celebrated the grand opening of our Integrated Sciences Building earlier this month; students already started classes there in the spring. It’s a state-of-the-art facility, and I hope many of you took the opportunity to see it. The Integrated Sciences Building forges a new model for science teaching and research on campus, focusing on the connections among the life, chemical, and physical sciences. It’s just the first phase in the development of a new life science complex on campus. Next spring we plan to break ground on a second and third building, adjacent to the ISB, and these new buildings, once completed, will form the core of our life science teaching and research, so vital for the future of the state, the country, and the world. These facilities will bring us a giant step closer to our goal of becoming one of the nation’s very best public research universities.

On Wednesday, our newest building on campus will open. The Recreation Center has weight-training and fitness facilities, a three-court gym, three multipurpose rooms, a juice bar, and lounge space. It’s free to all students who want to work out, take exercise classes, or use the gyms. It’s a great space that our students have wanted for a long time, and we’re thrilled it’s now ready for them.

The students may not have been quite as excited about the opening of our new, award-winning Central Heating Plant last spring, but that was a very important project for our campus. It’s one of the cleanest burning plants in the nation and has vastly cut back our greenhouse gas emissions – by 75 percent in fact. It has reduced our carbon footprint by 30 percent and, by using grey water, it conserves 65 million gallons of drinking water annually. As a co-generational facility, it not only heats the campus, but produces 80% of its electricity as well.

The Central Heating Plant is a major step in the transformation of our campus into a showcase of environmentally progressive initiatives. Our campus is bursting with green projects from biofuels and cutting-edge hydrogen fuel-science, to solar and wind energy, and the economics of green jobs. We are at the forefront in efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. And, there will be many opportunities for students to learn from and work alongside our faculty on these green initiatives.

To keep all this exciting momentum going, our campus administration will continue to work very hard to advocate for support from the state and federal governments. We confront unprecedented challenges as a result of the economic downturn, and so we have taken several steps to reduce expenditures on campus. We have formed a budget planning task force composed of faculty, students, and staff. We have made $13.7 million in budget reductions for fiscal 2009 and 2010. We have initiated a zero-based budget process for all administrative functions on campus. And we continue to expand our energy-savings programs. You can rest assured, therefore, that the campus leadership is doing everything in its power to continue providing a quality education to its students.

We are proud of the fact that on the UMass Amherst campus a student receives more value for the educational dollar than anywhere else in the state. That’s the reason why Smart Money magazine ranked UMass Amherst so high in return on investment, ahead of such institutions as Harvard, Yale, Swarthmore, Dartmouth, and the University of Michigan. You’ve made not only a wise educational choice in coming here or in sending your sons and daughters or loved ones here, you’re made one that makes monetary sense as well.

The other good financial news is that in this academic year, to ensure continued access to the university, UMass Amherst has dedicated $28 million in financial aid to its students, which roughly doubles campus funding for financial aid compared to just six years ago. Also, as you know, with increased federal stimulus funding, we’ve been able to rebate $1,100 of the $1,500 fee increase made necessary by cuts in our state allocation. Every in-state student will find on the next bursar invoice a reduction in the charges for student fees.

To help bring UMass Amherst to greater heights, we are increasing our fundraising efforts with a goal of doubling our endowment and annual fund in the next decade. Private giving is vital for our success, and we hope at some point you will contribute to our efforts. We will be launching our first comprehensive fundraising campaign among the faculty and staff in a few days. And, in the coming months, students will be calling to ask you to give to the UMass Amherst Parents Fund. You can designate a gift to the school, department, program, sport, or campus club of your choice. These gifts help make your child’s educational experience as rewarding as possible. Last year generous UMass Amherst families donated more than $1 million. I sincerely thank those of you who have already given to the Parents Fund, and I encourage others to do so.

A public research university like ours is a special place — where ideas reign supreme and where what you know and the ideas you generate are the most important things you bring to our community. We are blessed to have a wonderful faculty who are committed to the life of the mind, and a staff that recognizes service as a true calling. Our diverse, welcoming community understands and embraces the idea that the work of a university is learning and discovery, and that our work here on the Amherst campus is essential for our communities, the Commonwealth, and the nation.

We are thrilled to integrate new students and their loved ones into our UMass Amherst family and to welcome returning students and their families back. We are excited to anticipate the success of your sons, daughters, and loved ones and look forward to doing our part in helping them reach their goals.

Along the way, students and families will confront normal anxieties and problems. The campus’s Office of Parent Services is a great resource to help you through this. On their website they have a list of recommended books for parents and families of college students. One, written from the parental point of view, is called “You’re On Your Own, but I’m Here If You Need Me.” Another, written from the students’ perspective, also sounds very useful. It’s entitled “Don’t Tell Me What To Do – Just Send Money.” These books are in the campus store if you need them.

My message to you today is a simple one: UMass Amherst is a university on the rise, rising to meet the challenges, and we are delighted that you are part of our ascent.

Thank you again for taking the time to be with us today. Enjoy the rest of your visit to the campus. And go UMass!