‘Designing the Future’ Campaign Seeks to Raise $250M for UMass Lowell

10/17/2025

Media Contacts: David Joyner, executive director of communications and digital media, David_Joyner@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, associate director of media relations, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

LOWELL, Massachusetts – With early support from thousands of donors, UMass Lowell on Thursday unveiled a bold, new $250 million fundraising and engagement campaign that will usher in the university’s next era preparing students for fulfilling lives and careers while enabling pioneering research and building partnerships with business and industry that fuel the Massachusetts and New England economy. 

“Designing the Future: The Campaign for UMass Lowell” will elevate the university’s place as a national Research 1 university for generations to come. More importantly, it will help ensure the university’s commitment to helping students graduate with a good job and a bright future. Already, the effort has secured nearly $166 million in commitments, according to university leaders who kicked off the campaign at an event for faculty, staff, students and friends at University Crossing student center on campus. 

“Tonight, we’re entering a new phase of helping students succeed and of forging new partnerships to advance research that expands our understanding of the world, all while providing leadership to the commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen. “The amount of money we’ve brought in to date represents more than we raised in our entire previous campaign, which was incredibly successful.”

The campaign will enhance vital facets of the university’s mission: 

• Student success – Expanded scholarships, career-connected experiences, student emergency needs and support for UMass Lowell’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 athletics programs will enrich the experience of the university’s nearly 17,000 students.
• Research and intellectual partnerships – The campaign will expand the university’s research excellence centers and institutes, assist faculty and graduate students, provide tools to enhance teaching and research and foster global learning and engagement.
• The Lowell Innovation Network Corridor (LINC) – The development of industry partnerships and student participation will speed up the realization of LINC, a public-private project centered around a 1.2-million square-foot mixed-use development of offices and research labs, housing, retail businesses and entertainment destinations. The ecosystem is already providing UMass Lowell students with paid career experiences at LINC member organizations.

During his years as the university’s chancellor from 2007 to 2015, Marty Meehan ’78, led UMass Lowell’s evolution as a national public research institution. Now president of the University of Massachusetts system, Meehan reflected on his personal and professional trajectory Thursday night, crediting his UMass Lowell education for sparking his love of public service that took him from the city’s Sacred Heart neighborhood to Washington, D.C., and beyond. On Thursday night, it was also announced that Meehan, through his personal foundation, has committed $1 million to support students in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. It is the second major gift of $1 million he has made to the university.

“Imagine a kid from Lowell who ends up in Congress, is given the chance to sit across from world leaders and later gets the opportunity to run the best university system in the United States – and one of the best in the world,” he said. “That’s what UMass Lowell did for me. That’s the kind of opportunity this university has provided to all of us. And that’s what we’re committed to continuing for the students of today and tomorrow. That’s the heart of this campaign, of our work in designing the future for these deserving students.”

Preparing to seize that future is CeCe Allen of Woburn. A biology major, Allen shared how her hands-on experience in a university laboratory is fueling her plans to pursue her doctorate degree and a research career. A member of the UMass Lowell Marching Band and a Kennedy Merit Scholarship recipient, she thanked longtime university benefactor John F. Kennedy ’70, ’16(H) for that award. The namesake of UMass Lowell’s Kennedy College of Sciences in which Allen studies, Kennedy was also feted Wednesday in a dedication ceremony for the university’s Kennedy Family Athletic Complex.  

“I’m not just designing my future, I am well on my way,” Allen said. “An important piece of all of this is help from people like you. So, thank you, Dr. Kennedy. And thanks to all of you who are helping to provide for UMass Lowell students. This is a place of possibility where you can work toward an exciting, rewarding future. But none of us does it alone.”

“Designing the Future: The Campaign for UMass Lowell” is the second comprehensive fundraising campaign undertaken by the university in its history. The first, “Our Legacy, Our Place,” launched in 2013 under Meehan’s leadership and concluded under the stewardship of another UMass Lowell graduate and former chancellor, Jacquie Moloney ’75, '92. That campaign, with an initial goal of $125 million to celebrate UMass Lowell’s 125th anniversary as an institution, surpassed its goal and raised $165.2 million.