Committees

Our staff engages with a diverse group of committees, which are listed here alphabetically:

CAMPUS PHYSICAL PLANNING COUNCIL

The Campus Physical Planning Council advises the UMass Amherst administration on issues relating to the physical environment of the campus as they contribute to and affect the mission, goals and quality of academic life at the University. Our planning, design and construction staff advise the CPPC, which serves as a forum for the communication and exchange of ideas and proposals regarding development on the campus and its impact on the campus community, the surrounding neighborhoods, and the towns of Amherst and Hadley.  The intent of the Council’s involvement is to carry out intelligent and representative reviews of proposed capital projects, and to offer timely and constructive comment and recommendations directly to the administrative group managing the projects, as well as to serve as an advisory body to the Provost, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, and Faculty Senate.

COLLECTIONS

The 2012 Campus Master Plan process identified the need to better understand and plan for the UMass Amherst collections and an Ad-Hoc Collections Committee was created to help advance a better understanding of the existing collections and how best to plan for the future. The committee was comprised of Directors/ curators of campus academic collections, Campus Planning staff and other related campus professionals.  The first task of the committee was to develop a basis for creating a planning framework for the academic collections.  The Committee defined existing collections and set a framework and common language that enabled the classification and quantification of collections space on cam­pus. The UMass Amherst Collections 2013 report summarizes each collection, its mission and the contact person responsible for the collection. The term collection was defined to include all the campus holdings that are used for academic, research and outreach pur­poses, with the exception of the UMass Libraries, which had recently completed a facili­ties master plan and a strategy for its facilities. The Campus Collections Committee has developed a holistic vision of the 'Campus as Museum' that will transform the physical campus into an immersive educational environment, will make the campus a destination of choice for students, parents, and alumni, and support on-going relationships with elected officials and the public. It will also harness the irreplaceable assets in our collections to enhance research, teaching, outreach, and development activities.  For more information about the Committee, please visit the Academic Collections Map or contact Chair Julie Brigham-Grette.

Black and white drawing of the Arboretum

FRANK A. WAUGH ARBORETUM COMMITTEE

The Frank A. Waugh Arboretum, which covers most of the UMass Amherst campus, was founded in 1944 and named after the landscape architect pioneer who was the first head of what is now the university’s landscape architecture and regional planning department. The Arboretum has been awarded a Level IV Accreditation, the highest level, by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program which recognizes the arboretum’s tree collection diversity, management policy, public access and engagement with research. The arboretum serves as a living laboratory for university and Five-College research in landscape architecture, botany, horticulture, forestry, ecological restoration and plant sciences and a resource center for external professionals such as landscape architects, nursery professionals, and amateur gardeners. To learn more, contact committee member Simon Raine.

Grey and Maroon Transportation logo

PARKING TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD

The Parking and Transportation Advisory Board (PTAB) reviews matters related to parking and transportation, including bicycling and fleet, and provides input to campus master planning. Given the importance of parking and transportation on the Amherst Campus, PTAB's role is critical in that it generates broad-based input from students, faculty and staff.  For more information about our involvement with PTAB please contact Niels La Cour

UMassBRUT yellow and black logo

UMASSBRUT

UMassBRUT is an award-winning education and advocacy group for the modernist architecture of the UMass system.  It is a multi-disciplinary collaborative initiative of faculty, staff, and students from the University of Massachusetts campuses that aims to raise awareness and pride in the relevance and international significance of the Brutalist building heritage of each campus.  For more information contact Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham.

UNIVERSITY PUBLIC ART COMMITTEE

The University Public Art Committee approves and oversees proposed public art projects on the UMass campus. The director of Campus Planning serves on the committee as an active voice in the decision making process. The committee analyzes open space and proposes the most advantageous ways to improve outdoor space utilization with public art to best showcase the positive attributes of the campus landscape. They weigh pros and cons of various sites for specific proposed projects and present their findings related to location, foot traffic, approximate construction time needed, views to and from proposed sites, scale of project in relation to the site, whether utilities will be needed, and other important site qualities and factors. To learn more, contact committee chair Simon Raine.