On behalf of the Undergraduate Student Body of the University of Massachusetts Boston, I would like to share the outrage felt by UMass Boston students after hearing of the Board of Trustees’ approval of UMass Amherst’s anticipated purchase of Mount Ida College last Friday. 
UMass Amherst’s intention is to create a satellite campus for their students in order to gain easier access to internship and research opportunities that the City of Boston has to offer. In doing this, once again the University System forgets about the Boston campus and our students. It is disheartening that UMass Boston students have been forced to bear the burden of a budget deficit caused by administrative decisions approved by the Board of Trustees with no financial assistance from the President’s Office, the Board, or any other UMass campus, however UMass Amherst can purchase an entire college campus standing only a few miles away from the existing Boston campus at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. By doing this the University System is directly cutting into UMass Boston’s market share, creating even more competition for students, donors, internships, and job opportunities in Boston’s already aggressive higher education landscape. If Amherst truly wanted to give their students opportunities in Boston, they would have used the UMass exchange program, which would give Amherst students the means to study in Boston at no cost to the System. UMass Amherst is encroaching on the region that has historically been served by UMass Boston as the only public research institution in the greater Boston area.
Another sentiment that should not be cast aside is that the higher education future of Mount Ida’s students should not be reduced to political fodder. State politics have historically had too much influence on how the UMass System operates and that must end. At the core of this decision must be how to best serve the educational needs of the Commonwealth and the students at Mount Ida. By being given automatic acceptance and credit transferrals to UMass Dartmouth and not UMass Boston, even though our campus is significantly closer to Mount Ida than Dartmouth, the System is clearly indicating they do not believe in UMass Boston or its students, and our campus can be cast aside and forgotten. If the System believed in UMass Boston, they would have authored a far more equitable deal between Boston and Dartmouth and stood together as a beacon for Mount Ida students that will no longer have a school.
In closing, with a new residence hall, a new chancellor, construction coming to a close, and a budget that is nearly balanced, I sincerely believe that UMass Amherst, the Board of Trustees, and President Meehan are afraid of the potential of UMass Boston to become the next “Flagship Campus”. All parties involved are doing everything they can to maintain Amherst’s status rather than truly working as a system in the best interest of both their students and the Commonwealth. This decision is insulting to the mission of the University of Massachusetts as a public land-grant university, and I will continue to work to the best of my ability to assure that no one—other campuses, the Board of Trustees, or the President—will attack our campus and our mission as an urban public research institution.