After Interim Chancellor Barry Mills announced in a statement released early afternoon on Oct. 12 that he will be stepping down from his position at the University of Massachusetts Boston, a Town Hall Forum was held inviting the community to discuss the university’s current budget crisis.

Students, faculty, and members of the administration gathered in the ballroom of the Campus Center that same afternoon as Mills walked in front of the audience, greeting some members.
Mills was elected as the Interim Chancellor of UMass Boston shortly after former Chancellor J. Keith Motley stepped down from his position last summer. Since the beginning of his time at the school, Mills has contended with a projected $30 million deficit. In the statement he released, Mills stated that the school is now looking at a $5 million deficit.
“It has been remarkably difficult, much more difficult than what I would have imagined,” Mills said to the crowd late Thursday afternoon.
“Given all the work that we’ve done… we do see a path forward to bringing financial stability to this university,” Mills added. “The hard part of that is that path is not without sacrifice and there were hard choices that we’ve had to make and hard choices that we will have to make over the next weeks and months.”
In the midst of the budget crisis, according to Mills, cuts had to be made to bring financial stability to the school.
“The reality is how to bring stability back to this fantastic institution,” Mills stated.

Kathleen Kirleis, the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, stated to the audience that this was the reason why the number of shuttle buses were cut this past summer, under-enrolled classes were canceled, and the campus day-care center was closed.

“We had to make really hard choices to get to that point,” Kirleis said. UMass Boston has also laid off faculty members this past year; according to Kirleis, no more faculty members will be fired, but reductions have been made to their incomes. Kirleis also stated that discussions of a new child day-care center are floating around. This would be a resource available to the community without the school’s direct financial management of the center.
 “The pathway is there, we are just going through really hard times,” Kirleis added.
Emily McDermott, the university’s Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, stated that the university is not heartlessly cancelling classes with no regard for its students. McDermott stated that all decisions were made carefully, “without cutting the academic heart of this university.”
Since the beginning of last academic year and the beginning of this academic year, there have been notable coalitions to fight against the budget. One of these fights is the “Save UMB Coalition,” which held a press conference earlier this year releasing a financial report that revealed the university’s financial mishandling.
“The narrative that I hear most frequently, recently, is that we’ve been cancelling enormous numbers of sections and making it impossible for students to progress in their degrees… I cannot say forcefully enough, this is a false narrative,” McDermott added.  
Looking at the academic year ahead, Mills stated that although he has figured out the heart of UMass Boston’s financial issue, one he still cannot understand is how to rebuild the school’s substructure without violating its financial budget. It is one issue that a new leader will have to figure out. 
Mills also addressed that his decision to step down was one that he “regrets” and that “circumstances” have denied him opportunity.

“It’s important to remember that we are a great university,” Mills said. 

“The big picture is that this school has grown dramatically over the last ten years and we have grown beyond the extent of our resources,” Mills added. Mills announced that a committee has formed to search for a new chancellor.