Building and Maintaining Connections
The Community Relations team works closely with our partners in Amherst and Hadley on town–gown issues.
We’re connectors. We bring faculty, staff, and students together with community organizations, businesses, and residents. We foster collaboration and opportunities.
Community Relations is the first stop for community inquiries about connecting to university programs, resources, and expertise to meet our area’s needs.
Partnering with Amherst, Hadley, and Our Surrounding Communities
UMass Amherst and its host communities of Amherst and Hadley have shared a mutually beneficial history over the past 160-plus years. Besides its positive impact on the local economy, UMass Amherst adds to the cultural richness, intellectual engagement, and ethnic diversity of the Amherst area and the region.
Numerous town–gown collaborations benefit our host communities and campus. These partnerships provide unique educational opportunities, support community and civic organizations, and enhance our area’s quality of life. They are built on a shared desire to make UMass Amherst and its surrounding towns great places to live, work, play, and learn.
Community Relations and our partners in Amherst and Hadley government work closely on town–gown issues. For many years, we’ve had agreements in place that guide us on important conversations around joint interests like public safety, economic development, and quality-of-life issues.
Our office also works closely with local business organizations and nonprofits on economic and community development, and leads quality-of-life initiatives in the community, working closely with partners in Off-Campus Student Life, the Dean of Students Office, Sorority and Fraternity Life, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Police Department.
UMass Amherst Community Campaign
Community Relations is responsible for the UMass Amherst Community Campaign (UMACC), which is the campus’s workplace giving program for charitable organizations. UMACC provides UMass faculty, staff, and retirees an easy and streamlined way to donate to any nonprofit organization through payroll deduction, check, or credit card. It’s a great way for the UMass community to give back to organizations that support our region.
UMass Downtown
At UMass Downtown, you'll find a home for lectures, meetings, readings, performances, and other events for small audiences. It's also a boutique retail satellite, serving new and classic UMass favorites curated by our partners at the UMass Store. During regular business hours, UMass Downtown is also a campus welcome center. UMass Downtown is managed by the Office of Community Relations and University Events, in partnership with UMass Auxiliary Enterprises.
