In a mass email sent to the University of Massachusetts Boston’s community, Chancellor J. Keith Motley announced that he will be stepping down from his position as chancellor.

In the campus-wide email sent on April 5, the chancellor informed the UMass Boston community that he will be stepping down from his position at the end of the fiscal year, on June 30, 2017. When the chancellor steps down, the Deputy Chancellor Barry Mills, will act as the interim chancellor until UMass Boston finds a replacement for Motley. As of July 1, 2017, Barry Mills will be our interim chancellor.

Mills was once the president for Bowdoin College, and it was reported that he was “hand selected” by Martin Meehan, who acts as President for the UMass system. President Meehan announced that Mills will serve as interim chancellor until UMass Boston’s finances are stabilized and the university is in a position to attract a chancellor through “global search.” Mills will not be a candidate for the permanent position, however. In light of this, several articles have come out that suggest that the chancellor is being forced to resign by President Meehan.

Motley has served as UMass Boston’s chancellor for a decade. He took on the role of chancellor on July 1, 2007. Under Chancellor Motley’s leadership, UMass Boston has seen a lot of changes. Here is a short list of them:

• Enrollment increased by 25 percent, from 13,433 students in 2007 to 16,847 in 2017

• The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education recognized UMass Boston as a doctoral institution of “higher research activity” (2016)

• For the first time in our history, UMass Boston was ranked in the National Universities in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges ranking (2016)

• UMass Boston received the Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification’s gold star standard for measuring the service that universities provide to their local communities (2015)

• The Honors College was created (2014)

• Research funding increased by 53 percent, from $41.8 million to $63.8 million

• UMass Boston opened the first new academic buildings in decades

• UMass Boston also created the Venture Development Center, which is a technology and life science incubator based on-campus.

• In the past five years, student retention and six-year graduation rates have grown almost by five and seven percent respectively.

Even though Chancellor Motley is stepping down from his post, he shared, “I want you to know that I love this university, and that my years here have been among the best of my life. It has been deeply rewarding to see how much we have accomplished together.”

He later mentioned, “For a university that started out in a gas company building and moved to a landfill, we haven’t done badly. Despite funding cutbacks, collapsing garages, and the doubts of unsympathetic outsiders, we have thrived and grown.”

The chancellor is optimistic about our future and had this to say about our financial woes: “We are going through hard times at the moment, but the hard times are temporary. So are the huge dirt piles!”

Following his resignation, Chancellor Motley is expected to take a year’s sabbatical leave after which he is expected to return, “to teach and witness our progress first hand,” as a tenured faculty member.

Deputy Chancellor Barry Mills had this to say in regards to Chancellor Motley’s resignation: “Higher education leaders play different roles in the lives of their institutions, and Keith clearly led UMass Boston through a period of transformation and growth.”

He then continued to describe what his role as interim chancellor will be: “My role, as interim chancellor, will be to guide the campus through a process that results in the next chancellor assuming the leadership of an even stronger institution. I congratulate Chancellor Motley for his achievements and his years of service to UMass Boston.”

He too addressed our financial situation, “As I noted when I spoke to the Board of Trustees earlier this week, a number of factors contribute to these fiscal issues, including this ambitious growth strategy that resulted in the significant expansion of programs and personnel, this year’s slight decrease in enrollment and the impact that depreciation and debt are having on our balance sheet as new buildings come online.”

Last Wednesday April 12, at the Board of Trustees meeting, students, faculty, and legislators asked the board to ask the state for assistance with UMass Boston’s mounting deficit. To add to that, Mills noted, “The Commonwealth should help us remedy the legacy construction issues that have unfairly burdened this campus for years—in fact since the creation of this campus on Columbia Point.”

He expressed the need for UMass Boston to “reestablish a sense of stability financially for the institution.”

Mills addressed the deficit, and quoted that the deficit is currently at around $6 to $7 million, but could amount to as much as $30 million dollars. “For the fiscal year, we have reduced what was an approximate $25 million deficit to a range of $6 million to $7 million. This has been accomplished by a lot of work that occurred before I arrived and some since, and results from deferring some expenditures and employing one-time spending and saving measures.”

He added that, “we confront a structural deficit that could range as high as $30 million next year and thereafter.”

He then went on to state, “This deficit is in some measure related to the construction and new buildings, but is also related to the program expansion of the recent past. Moreover, we have a number of complicated construction projects in process and some yet to come that put great strain on our resources, but are vital to our future.”

He goes on to say, “I respect all members of our community, and I hope that our community will learn to trust and respect me as we work together to ensure the continued success of this university as a place of access and opportunity for generations to come.”

He continues, “You can also expect to see me walking the campus, in the dining halls, and on the T, looking forward to engaging with you all.”
And as his final statement: “I salute Chancellor Motley for his decade of distinguished service—and look forward to years of close association with him.”