Talking Points

Leadership change announced in Student Affairs and Campus Life

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life Jean Kim today announced that she will be leaving her position at the end of June to pursue other professional opportunities.
 
Enku Gelaye, currently dean of students and associate vice chancellor, will become interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life effective July 1.
 
Subbaswamy said, “I want to thank Vice Chancellor Kim for her service to the university and for her advocacy to establish a caring and supportive environment that fosters student success.”
 
A formal search process to select a permanent vice chancellor

NerdScholar gives campus high marks for mentoring women in STEM fields

NerdScholar, a website that tries to help students make the best decisions about their higher education, recently featured UMass Amherst on its site as one of the nation’s “Best Mentoring Programs for Women” in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
 
“We were very impressed,” says Laura Pereyra, a communications analyst for San Francisco-based NerdScholar. She manages the team’s outreach and marketing efforts to students, universities and other educational organizations. She adds, “We had to include UMass Amherst.

New stadium press box to be named for Jacobson brothers

The new football press and skybox complex at McGuirk Alumni Stadium will be named in honor of alumnus Martin Jacobson and his brother Richard, according to athletic director John McCutcheon.

Marty Jacobson of the Class of 1968 committed $2.5 million to the campus on June 10 at a ceremony with Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy, McCutcheon and football coach Charley Molnar.

Jacobson said the gift is a chance to make an impact during on the campus following the transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision.

“I’ve been a huge proponent that athletics enhance the value of going to a state university,”

Peyton named a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences

Shelly Peyton, assistant professor of Chemical Engineering, is one of 22 researchers who have been named Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The scholarships provide flexible funding to early career scientists researching the basis of perplexing health problems—including diabetes, autism, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer.
 
Pew’s scholars program awards recipients $240,000 over four years to pursue their projects without direction or restriction. To be considered, applicants must demonstrate excellence and creativity in their research.

Campus role in county jail labyrinth project noted in documentary

A new documentary by Northampton Cable Television about the construction of an 80-foot green labyrinth at the Hampshire County Jail notes the role of the School of Nursing and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, which worked with the Sheriff’s Department on the project.

The labyrinth, which is part of the stress reduction regimen at the jail, brought together the efforts of faculty, students, community members and the incarcerated men who built and planted the space, resulting in what is being called a robust and transformative treatment program.

Among those

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