07/08/2015
Lowell Sun
By Marty Meehan
During my eight years as chancellor of UMass Lowell, I often was asked if I missed serving in Congress, and missed having an elected official's ability to impact people's lives.
While I loved serving in Congress and will be forever grateful to the voters who placed their confidence and trust in me, I can honestly say that in moving from the U.S. House of Representatives to UMass Lowell, I never felt my ability to affect people's lives diminished. In fact, I have learned that, in many ways, leading a public higher education institution can have a more profound effect on a region and its people.
Now that I have been given the great honor and responsibility of heading the five-campus, 73,000-student University of Massachusetts system, I know that my journey of impact will continue in a far greater way.
My job, at its core, will be to strengthen UMass so that others can make an enduring impact through their teaching, research and service.
While Massachusetts is blessed with many fine private colleges and universities, UMass is the key player when it comes to providing the Commonwealth with an educated workforce and citizenry. We graduate 17,000 students a year, the majority of whom remain here to drive our booming life science and high-tech sectors, start new businesses, teach our children, heal the sick, represent us in government and inspire us through the arts.
A public research university is an engine of social mobility and economic development, and the UMass system ensures that opportunity and prosperity are distributed across the state.
Just as our textile mills once clustered around rivers, entrepreneurialism in today's knowledge-based economy tends to cluster around knowledge. Research universities are hotbeds of innovation and incubators of new industries.
The University of Massachusetts system was responsible for more than $600 million in research and development expenditures last year, ranking third in the state and displaying world-class expertise in areas including the life sciences, computer science, nanomanufacturing, marine science, climate and environmental science and robotics.
Viewed in their totality, UMass' five campuses make a dynamic economic impact in every corner of the state.
For example, the success we had at UMass Lowell -- which included doubling the research expenditures, expanding enrollment, opening 10 new buildings, developing strategic collaborations with local industry, and making striking gains in national academic rankings -- had a $813 million impact in the Lowell area, according to a 2014 UMass Donahue Institute study. Together, the five campuses of the UMass system generated $6.1 billion in economy activity.
I call that impact -- and that is only in dollars. That doesn't take into account the community service that has made UMass one of only two university systems nationwide with every campus distinguished by the Carnegie Foundation's 2015 Community Engagement Classification -- the gold standard for measuring the mutually beneficial exchange of service between institutions and their communities.
I grew up in Lowell when the city was at a low ebb, still reeling from the demise of its textile mills and suffering from double-digit unemployment. My father worked two jobs to provide for our family. UMass Lowell gave me the opportunity to earn an affordable, high-quality degree and set me on a path that has taken me to the Secretary of State and Middlesex District Attorney's offices, Congress and now to the presidency of the largest university system in New England.
My appreciation for the profound difference UMass made in my life has driven my efforts at UMass Lowell and makes me eager to take on the challenges that lie ahead.
With its distinguished faculty and cutting-edge research, UMass already has earned its ranking as one of the 100 best universities in the world. I believe that UMass has the potential to be the best public research university system in the nation.
I will work hard to ensure that state investment in our public research university is a top priority -- and I am committed to increasing private support so that a high-quality university education can remain affordable and accessible.
Education transforms lives. And in today's knowledge-based economy, access to this life-changing experience is not only vital to students and families, it is crucial to our Commonwealth and our collective future.