There was no evidence that the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS) was treated unfairly when it came to resource allocations, according to a recently released racial climate report.
“In fact, once one takes into account the dramatic decline in the college’s enrollments in the past several years, a case can be made that the CPCS was treated more favorably than the other colleges,” it read.
The report included figures on expenditures from 1999 to 2003. Some say had 2004 figures been put on the list, they would have shown the results of cuts from CURE (Committee on University Resources and Expenditure), which was put together in a belt-tightening effort after the state reduced subsidies by nearly $30 million.
In a written statement, CPCS Dean ad interim Connie Chan said, “My overall response to the report is that the concerns about racial climate and bias as well as the need to support the urban mission and CPCS have been and continue to be important issues for our campus. There are unresolved issues but we are moving forward to strengthen the college and our mission.”
Chan noted she was encouraged by the “new vision” and “inclusive leadership” of Chancellor Keith Motley. “We expect that his commitment to the University’s urban mission and our students will benefit the College, the university and the communities around us,” she wrote.
Two Factions, One Urban Mission
The report noted that the original claim of racial bias soon morphed into a controversy over whether or not the urban mission was being abandoned. The urban mission has become a hotly debated topic, so much so that then-Chancellor Jo Ann Gora appointed then-Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Motley as head of the Urban Mission Committee, charged with looking into the urban mission. Motley kept the position after assuming the interim chancellorship in July, and there are plans for a day-long conference on October 22.
“Working together in tandem will allow us to become the best urban university in the country,” Motley wrote in an e-mail. “In my role as Chair of the Urban Mission Coordinating Committee, where all sectors of the university community are represented, we will continue the work that began last year in identifying ways in which we strengthen our urban mission.”
The report, while writing that Gora had not abandoned the urban mission, faulted the former chancellor of not directly addressing the issue. “Her actions and decisions either enhanced or undermined (or were neutral) with respect to the urban mission,” the report read. “She needed to explicitly and openly address this issue.”
The report pointed to two on-campus factions, primarily made up of various top administrators, faculty, and staff, who have remained divided over the urban mission.
“From the inception of the campus there have always been two groups or factions: one group which believes in and supports the urban mission of the Boston campus and another group which essentially believe that all universities should have the same mission,” read the report. “This has effectively been translated to mean that Boston’s mission is the same as Amherst’s mission. It is in fact this latter group of faculty and staff that have in the past several months come to the ‘defense’ of Chancellor Gora and Provost Fonteyn.”
Some faculty, notably those who were supporters of Gora and her plan for the campus, took issue with the report’s characterization of them. Labeling the characterization as “not at all accurate,” Robert Crossley, English Department chair and a Gora supporter, noted, “Many people who were supporters of Gora are very strong supporters of the urban mission.”
“I’d like to see that corrected,” he added. The Faculty Council has plans to address it at their next meeting.
Faculty members and administration officials in both camps were concerned with the report’s recommendation that the UMass Board of Trustees define or re-define the urban mission. “It is imperative that the Board of Trustees (explicitly) either affirm the campus’s traditional urban mission, clarifying what precisely is intended today as the campus’s urban mission or issue a clear statement explaining the campus’s ‘new’ mission,” read the report.
“I think that’s our job, not the trustees’,” said Crossley.