To the Editor:
It’s graduation week. A time of reflection. A time when we write annual reports and submit grades. In spite of all that has been in the press, the University of Massachusetts at Boston has had a very good year.
In spite of the adjustment to an interim chancellor, the closing of the early-child-care center, the painful layoffs, a good year. In spite of the need for $80 million to fix the crumbling infrastructure brought on by corrupt decisions made years ago and not our fault, at the same time our sister school, UMass Amherst buys a piece of Boston to compete with us, it was a pretty good year. Finally, in spite of a chancellor search that brought us three contenders who seemed underqualified to meet our needs, a good year, in one very important way.
It’s a year in which the faculty and students came together in several action groups to question decisions made, demand what UMass Boston deserves, and reconfirm our values as a public university, the only majority minority university in Massachusetts, and a distinguished research university. We were a demoralized depleted faculty who became re-energized by hope. (“Frustrated Professors Shut Down a Chancellor Search, Leaving UMass’s President ‘Mortified,’ The Chronicle, May 21.)
Some of that hope derived from our work with interim chancellor Barry Mills, who came to us from Bowdoin College and promised transparency. He delivered — sharing reports, budgets, and proposals like never before. We started approaching the goal of almost every institution of higher learning: “shared governance.”
And we reasserted our roots in the community and social justice, never forgetting our former chancellor Keith Motley’s celebratory cry: “They said we couldn’t.” He often preached, “They said we couldn’t have Ph.D. programs; We have them. They said we couldn’t have dorms; We’re building them.”
A committee of 15 with only two faculty members on it, sworn to secrecy over the seven months of deliberation, announced three candidates the Friday before finals week. With only days to review and one hour to ask questions, it was a set-up for disappointment.
President Meehan said we didn’t represent the majority. But we were in communication with about 200 faculty contributing to the statement that shut down the search, diverse voices with varying levels of agreement. The Chair of the Search Committee, Trustee Henry Thomas called us a “small but vocal” minority, surprisingly unaware that in academia those of us with tenure have to speak for those with less security.
We call out to the faculty at other universities: make no mistake — it takes a lot out of you to protest. But we didn’t do this for ourselves, the faculty; instead for a university we love, for our students, the community, the future.
We had a good year, reclaiming our values, re-finding our voices, and teaching the amazing students we work with every day. We teach them; we work with them; we protest with them. We don’t use them as pawns in an argument. And we continue to be devoted to them, our campus, our research, and our urban mission at our “jewel by the sea,” UMass Boston.
Sharon Lamb, Professor of Counseling and School Psychology, Incoming Vice-Chair of Faculty Council, UMass Boston
Heike Schotten, Associate Professor of Political Science, Incoming Chair of Faculty Council, UMass Boston
Kiran Verma, Associate Professor and Chair, Accounting and Finance, Member of Faculty Council Executive Committee, UMass Boston
Roberta Wollons, Professor of History, Member of Faculty Council Executive Committee, UMass Boston
