Chancellor Javier Reyes welcomed the campus community to the start of the 2025-26 academic year in a campuswide email message and video, both of which can be found below, on Sept. 2, the first day of classes.
 

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To my friends and colleagues in the UMass community,  

First, and above all else, welcome! 
 
To those of you stepping onto our campus for the first time as new students, staff, or faculty, welcome to UMass.  
 
To those of you returning for your work or studies, welcome back.  

And for those of you who have worked tirelessly throughout this summer to prepare for a new semester, thank you for making this welcome possible.  
 
UMass represents an extraordinary opportunity both for you and for the world. We are a university where personal promise intersects with a shared, unwavering commitment to the common good. Our charge extends beyond individual achievement; at our core, we serve society as a whole. Each of us - students, staff, and faculty - shares in the work of learning, teaching, and contributing to a better future.

At such a significant moment in history for higher education, we can draw strength from UMass’s deep history of excellence and service. We have always been a university for both the moment and for all the moments to come. This is no different today. 

We are part of a national landscape where public trust in higher education is being tested, where funding is increasingly constrained, and where the power and promise of a university degree is questioned more openly than at any time in recent memory. 

And yet, UMass offers a powerful answer to this question: look at who we are.

We are a laboratory for innovation and a community of leaders working to shape a better and more inclusive future for all. What begins here ripples outward, driving scientific discovery, economic vitality, and social progress. Every dollar invested in UMass multiplies sevenfold across the Commonwealth, creating jobs, fostering vibrant communities, and generating $2.9 billion in economic activity in Massachusetts alone. More than half of our 300,000 alumni live in Massachusetts, building roots and carrying our values into the communities we are proud to call our neighbors.

Our faculty are driven by the pursuit of knowledge, tackling society’s most pressing challenges. Their work is recognized nationally and internationally, securing UMass’s spot as New England’s top public research university and as a powerhouse for discovery and solutions that make our water cleaner, our communities stronger, and our industries more sustainable. Last year alone, our faculty secured over 1,000 research awards, totaling more than $231 million. These awards are evidence of the world’s belief in the potential of research.  

Discovery and teaching are only possible because of the work and support of our colleagues. Thousands of dedicated staff members, many who have served UMass for decades, make our shared work possible. Their work nourishes our community, not only in mind, but in heart and spirit. Like our students, they choose UMass because of our collective commitment to public service and the common good. 

We are a catalyst for access and equity, with thousands of first-generation students, and a dedicated team supporting them every step of the way. UMass is a living testament to the transformative power of public education. 

Students from every corner of the globe choose UMass because they see a university that believes in them and in the future they will shape. The reimagined Goodell Hall, for example, is more than a building renewed to embrace and support our diverse community; it is a promise to our students made visible. Three new academic buildings – the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories, the Computer Sciences Laboratories, and the School of Public Health & Health Sciences Building – are rising across campus as incubators of teaching, learning, and discovery. Designed with sustainability at their core, each building advances the university’s Carbon Zero initiative and ensures that our physical growth strengthens both our community and our shared environment.  
 
We believe that when we invest in the wellbeing, inclusion, and innovative capacity of everyone in our community, we invest in the future itself. That belief continues to draw record interest: this year’s incoming class was drawn from the largest applicant pool in the university’s history. Last year, UMass granted degrees to more than 9,000 students. As they step into the workforce or continue their studies, our graduates fuel innovation, strengthen communities, and expand knowledge economies across the globe. This fall, we welcome nearly 9,000 new undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students to UMass, each bringing new energy, ideas, and possibility. 

These students are the renewal of our promise to the world.  

Above all, UMass is both an investment in your promise and in the common good. I see that promise in our classrooms, our labs, our fields, our galleries and stages, in the common spaces that connect the 1,500 acres of our Amherst and Newton campuses, in our teaching, engagement, and research centers across the Commonwealth, and in the lives of our alumni across the globe. We will defend and deepen this investment to support all students, all faculty, and all staff. We are One UMass.   

We invest in you because we believe in the future you will shape. 

Welcome to your UMass!

Sincerely, 

Javier Reyes
Chancellor