Mount Ida Campus Strategic Plan 2020-2023
Be Revolutionary: A Vision for the Future
BE REVOLUTIONARY:
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
2020-2023 MOUNT IDA CAMPUS STRATEGIC PLAN
Executive Summary
The Mount Ida Campus Strategic Plan defines the steps necessary for UMass Amherst’s additional instructional and residential site in Newton, Mass., to meet its stated mission to “serve as a center for student experiential learning and professional development” while “amplifying UMass Amherst’s impact in the Commonwealth.”
Successful execution of the plan will also enable its vision to make the campus “a hub of innovation, collaboration, and engagement that takes on the greatest challenges facing the Commonwealth.”
The plan is organized around four strategic priority areas, with key objectives and actions steps to support them:
Experiential Learning and Professional Development
Objectives include developing a comprehensive experiential learning program, building strong employer relationships, and developing a robust cocurricular career and professional development program within a residential setting offering a unique student life experience.
Innovation and Industry Collaboration
Objectives include establishing a business development function on the campus, creating a framework for state challenge projects, developing an on-campus innovation and entrepreneurship community, recruiting faculty and graduate students, and establishing an experiential training framework.
Economic Development and Community Development
Objectives include leveraging the campus for regional community development, establishing a Newton-based UMass Amherst community, and becoming a leader in regional economic development initiatives.
Facilities Development and Operational Capacity
Objectives include developing flexible and multimodal campus facilities, facilitating operational integration with the Amherst campus, developing a facilities framework plan, designing a sustainable transportation system, increasing capacity for events, and growing the campus student population.
Mission Statement
“The Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst serves as a center for student experiential learning and professional development and facilitates connections between the state’s flagship public research university and the business, civic, government, education, and cultural communities in the Greater Boston region, amplifying UMass Amherst’s impact in the Commonwealth.”
Vision Statement
“To become a hub of innovation, collaboration, and engagement that takes on the greatest challenges facing the Commonwealth.”
Background
In May 2018, with approval from the UMass Board of Trustees, UMass Amherst acquired the Newton, Mass., campus of the former Mount Ida College.
With the state’s center of gravity for business and industry located within Route 128, the strategic acquisition was intended to mitigate the geographic barrier between the state’s flagship public university and the Greater Boston region, which is home to a large number of current UMass Amherst students and alumni.
The months immediately following the acquisition were heavily focused on UMass-related aspects of the closure of Mount Ida College, including the relocation and/or adoption of its unique academic programs. In the subsequent 12 months, UMass Amherst’s academic and administrative units focused on the operational aspects of activating the new campus.
With that initial work complete, in January 2020, Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy appointed a 15-member Mount Ida Campus Strategic Planning Committee, representing a cross section of Mount Ida Campus stakeholders. He charged the committee with drafting a strategic plan for the campus that would “provide guiding principles and goals for the campus as we seek to leverage it for the benefit of UMass Amherst, the UMass system, and the Commonwealth.”
Strategic Planning Committee
Jeff Cournoyer, Managing Director, Mount Ida Campus (co-chair)
Farshid Hajir, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (co-chair)
Devra Bailin, Economic Development Director, City of Newton
Cheryl Brooks, Associate Provost for Career and Professional Development
Christopher Dunn, Executive Director, Government Relations
Kathryn Ellis, Director, UMass Amherst Innovation Institute
Linda Enghagen, Associate Dean, Professional Programs, Isenberg School of Management
Laura Haas, Dean, College of Information and Computer Science
Susan Kelly, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, UMass President’s Office
Barbara Krauthamer, Dean of the Graduate School, Professor of History
Joe Naughton, Director of Capital Projects, UMass Building Authority
Arsh Patel, Graduate Student
Peter Reinhart, Founding Director, Institute for Applied Life Sciences
Steve Reynolds, Campus Director, Mount Ida Campus
Ashley Rice, Undergraduate Student
Strategic Planning Process
The Mount Ida Campus Strategic Planning Committee met regularly over the course of the Spring 2020 semester. It defined mission and vision statements, determined four strategic priority areas, and formed subcommittees organized by the strategic priorities.
The subcommittees leveraged their expertise, existing materials and reports, and stakeholder feedback from one-on-one interviews, surveys, and small-group discussions to draft objectives and action steps, which were then debated and agreed upon by the full committee. The committee’s discussions were also informed by input from the pre-established Mount Ida Campus Steering Committee and the Mount Ida Campus Framework Planning Committee.
As an additional instructional and residential site of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Mount Ida Campus is geographically separate but functions in full alignment with business, academic, and student engagement units in Amherst. Therefore, it was a tenet of the committee to draft a plan that directly supported UMass Amherst’s strategic plan, “Be Revolutionary: A Vision for the Future 2018-2023.” Because “Be Revolutionary” provides broad goals and action steps that apply to the Mount Ida Campus, this plan represents a campus-specific extension, with more granular objectives and action steps. By virtue of its alignment with “Be Revolutionary,” this document is effectively a three-year plan to be updated for 2024. The committee recognizes that many of the objectives in the plan may not be realized within three years, but in the spirit of “Be Revolutionary,” it prioritizes the pursuit of excellence, impact, and outcomes.
Wherever possible, opportunities for student experiential learning or professional development are called out. It is the committee’s hope that in both reviewing and assisting in implementing this plan, faculty, staff, and students alike will identify additional opportunities to create learning and student life experiences for UMass Amherst students via the Mount Ida Campus.