Although my time as a student at the University of Massachusetts Boston has been relatively short, I see just how rough the past few years here have been. To be honest, it has been awful to see this school treated in the manner it has been, and even more so because of the immense public scrutiny that this institution has been under for years.
Being a current student at UMass Boston, I’ve seen firsthand how things have improved from years past. It was an honor to be at the ceremony with President Meehan, Mayor Walsh, and other university leaders to celebrate the opening of the university’s first Residence Hall, and in the days after be able to help more than 1,000 students move in for the first time. The positive changes have not just been visible, but have also extended to student life as well. Students are more involved on campus than they have been anytime in recent memory. Morale has shifted dramatically– people enjoy being on campus every day. The dirt is almost gone, and there is less campus construction and more green space. Above all, after several years of inconsistent leadership, the campus has a Chancellor who has shown her passion for this university and will be the leader that students deserve.
Both new and future students are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Enjoy it, because the rest of us have had to put up with a lot in the process. Former Chancellor Barry Mills found a unique and cost effective way to tear down the science building and the substructure, and hopefully there are plans somewhere along the line to find a home for our Nursing, IT, and other programs currently housed in the science building.
That light at the end of the tunnel also gets closer as the sale of the Bayside Expo Center becomes imminent. I hope that I speak for the majority of this campus when I say that I am eager for the financial benefits that we have been promised. And I am even happier that the university understands the importance of the sale, with President Meehan acknowledging at the September 12 Board of Trustees Administration and Finance Committee Meeting that all of the proceeds from the sale will go to our campus’ needs. This decision is also pending the approval of the university’s Board of Trustees, a vote that will likely take place in an executive session without the public’s viewing, but is nevertheless crucial to the future of our campus. The potential for the site to be used by UMass Boston for co-op opportunities like internships and jobs, or maybe even a new neighborhood that could make our Columbia Point community thrive, is equally as exciting.
We are definitely not out of the woods yet, and more issues will come in the future. But we must find a way as a campus to face these issues together instead of fighting each other.
Since even before our founding, no one has wanted UMass Boston to succeed. We have always been the underdog. In 1964, almost every single institution in the city of Boston argued against the creation of a Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts. We fought that battle and won, and for over five decades since, we have continued to fight. Now is our time to make our mark. The opportunities that the sale of Bayside will give this campus will put us on a course to become more successful than anyone ever wanted us to be. This is what we have been waiting for. This is what the students at UMass Boston deserve.