At Installation Ceremony, UMass Amherst Chancellor Calls for Developing New Revenues as Buffer Against Budget Reductions

Oct. 2, 2009

Contact:

Daniel Fitzgibbons 413/545-0444

AMHERST, Mass. – Marking the occasion of his installation as the 29th leader of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Robert C. Holub said the campus must pursue a different course and develop new sources of revenue to support its aspiration to be among the best public universities in the nation.

In his address during the fifth annual convocation honoring outstanding professors, the chancellor cited an extensive list of faculty and student accomplishments and noted the strong academic credentials of this year’s entering class, regarded as the best in campus history, as well as increases in first-year and transfer student applications. He also commended efforts to maintain diversity in the student body, contain costs and expand financial aid, which has grown by $11 million over the past five years.

Holub also praised the growth in faculty research support and noted the addition of several new facilities on campus, including the Studio Arts Building, Integrated Sciences Building and the state-of-the-art Central Heating Plant.

Despite its many accomplishments over the past year, said Holub, UMass Amherst needs to take greater control of its destiny by finding new sources of support. He said an infusion of new funds will help protect the campus from the vagaries of state support, which has declined over the past few decades. While federal stimulus funds blunted some of the impact of state budget cuts this year, he said, the coming year poses greater financial challenges.

“We did reduce our base budget by around $14 million this year and last year, and those reductions will no doubt be felt across the campus,” he said. “But the real impact of the economic crisis will not hit us fully until next year, when the absence of stimulus money and the low level of current state support will force us either to conduct ourselves in a different manner or to slash budgets to the point that the campus will no longer resemble the institution we cherish.”

Holub vowed to continue to press state leaders for support.

“What I tell legislators regularly is that we are not asking for a handout or for charity; we believe that we are a sound investment for the state and its citizens, and we have the data to prove it,” he said. “But past experience tells me that if we focus solely on the legislature and the executive branch, hoping for adequate funding, we will be disappointed.”

The chancellor challenged the faculty to consider a different path for the future.

“My message today is simple: if we do not change the way we do things on the campus, we will be unable to fulfill the goals we have set for ourselves,” he said. “I propose that we use this grace year to develop additional revenue sources. There are many opportunities we have yet to exploit, and we need to look at them all. Every dollar we receive in additional revenue means one less dollar that we have to eliminate in budget reductions.”

Along with greater central campus support, fundraising and overhead recovery, Holub proposed several specific areas where UMass Amherst can generate additional revenue:

• “Many state schools of equal or lesser quality are able to support themselves more fully on revenues received from out-of-state students. There is no reason that we cannot do the same. We will not abandon our responsibility to students from Massachusetts; indeed, we will plan to keep the number of resident students at the same level. But if we are successful in attracting additional out-of-state undergraduates to Amherst, we will not only increase our geographical, cultural, and ethnic diversity, but also provide ourselves with a more secure funding base going forward.

• “We can also do more with our summer session, both in the area of distance education and in residential offerings. We now have some great facilities on campus that are largely unused from June through August; we can take advantage of our beautiful natural setting in Western Massachusetts and our stellar faculty to attract students to us during the summer months.

• “On many campuses in select disciplines faculty members buy out their research time with grant monies. We have very little participation in such activities at Amherst, but we could save significant amounts of base funding with a fair and fairly regulated program of faculty buy-outs.

• “We have developed programs in continuing and professional education in some areas, but we can do more by including other sectors of the campus, and by revising our operations to help incentivize units and faculty members to participate.

• “On many campuses five-year Master’s programs are attractive alternatives for students and revenue generators for the campus. We have not been as active in this area as we could be, and we should begin immediately to explore the potentials of new MA programs, especially in professional schools.”

Urging the audience to be open to new ideas, Holub said “the faculty is an essential part of any change that will occur” and that he will rely on their “creativity and resourcefulness” in the months ahead.

“We have the future of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in our hands; we control our own destiny, and we have an obligation to the past and a responsibility to the future. We could choose to wallow in the worst of times, lament our misfortune, and seek to blame others and each other for this fate,” he said. “The alternative is that we reinvent ourselves, breaking out of familiar patterns, and find ways to cope with our needs and to move forward together.”

The convocation ceremony also featured the presentation of the Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity to seven nationally recognized faculty members: Martin Espada, English; Naomi Gerstel, sociology; Sheldon Goldman, political science; Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor of geosciences; J. Eliot B. Moss, computer science; Robert N. Pollin, economics; and Stephen G. Sireci, educational policy, research and administration. Forty-three UMass Amherst faculty members have been recognized with the award since its inception in 2005.

E-mail story to a friend Printer-friendly version