About Outreach
Our Mission
UMass Amherst Outreach engages the university with the community in economic, social, cultural, environmental, and educational issues. Outreach applies the teaching, research, and knowledge resources of the university with benefit to the public throughout the Commonwealth, nation, and world.
Who does outreach teaching, outreach research and outreach service at UMass Amherst? The answer is as varied as the many outreach efforts you'll find described in this web site. All of the campus' schools and colleges have an outreach plan and conduct significant outreach work that engages many of our faculty. In addition, many of the campus' other academic units (such as centers, institutes and programs) facilitate external partnerships and conduct extensive outreach programs, often across disciplinary lines and departmental borders. There are a number of entire units based at UMass Amherst that are devoted completely to external constituencies. Examples of those are the Continuing & Professional Education and UMass Extension. You'll find links to the web sites of those units in the "Outreach Units" section.
Use of the word 'outreach' in an academic context is relatively recent but the concept is as old as our public universities themselves. The federal Morrill act of 1862 created the so-called "land-grant" universities by awarding each state an allotment of land to fund a new public university. That legislation described the nature of the beneficiary as a kind of student different from those of the private institutions of the time. The Morrill Act supported "one college where the leading object shall be . . . to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and mechanic arts…in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life…" "We exist to serve the Commonwealth, to educate its citizens, to conduct research relevant to its needs, to engage in public service to address its challenges." By fostering outreach at the University of Massachusetts, we fulfill the intention of our mission as a land grant university.
