Professor Kamal Bawa recently won the first Gunnerus Sustainability Award for his work in Biodiversity in Central America and was granted an equivalent of $190,000. Bawa donated all this money to the company he founded, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Bawa has done work all over the globe, acted as president for a globally competitive company, and taught me evolutionary biology during the spring 2011 semester at UMass Boston.

UMass Boston sometimes gets criticized for being a commuter campus, lacking the normal college experience, having outdated buildings and no sports programs. One thing UMass Boston should never be criticized is a weak faculty.

I took the class Sensation and Perception with Doctor Karla Evans, a Harvard professor. On the first day, within the first five minutes, Evans warned us, “I teach this class the same as I teach my Harvard class. If you get an A in this class, you would have gotten an A at Harvard.”

UMass Boston may not be an Ivy League school, but we have Ivy League professors and faculty. As much as students may sometimes be critical of the internet service and the heat problems in Wheatley, the foundations of our university are built on the shoulders of top-notch professors. After all, a school with nice amenities and weak professors isn’t a school at all; it’s a glorified study hall.

As an English major, those professors with whom I have had the most experience are in the English department. There are few English majors I have spoken to who have not had abundant praise for the English department and its outstanding professors. Professor Maisano made me, and many others, enjoy Shakespeare. Professor Rowe made me a better writer. Professor Nixon enhanced my appreciation for gothic literature. I could go on and on.

Our professors are more than just professors: they are researchers, advisors, and doctors. The psychology department’s Zsuzsa Kaldy, Ph.D., runs UMass Boston’s Infant Cognition Lab at the same time she teaches.

The standards by which professors are selected must be incredibly high. Many professors at our university are alums from top-tier schools with Ph.D.s in their fields. Sometimes friends or family may snipe “you go to a state university?” with a tone of derision, yet everyone at UMass Boston should appreciate the kind of education they’re receiving.