University of Massachusetts Amherst
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The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst or simply UMass) is a land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system. The University of Massachusetts Amherst offers over 90 undergraduate and 65 graduate areas of study.
Its mission statement follows, from Trustee Document T05-024:
- The university's mission is to provide an affordable and accessible education of high quality and to conduct programs of research and public service that advance knowledge and improve the lives of the people of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
History
The university was founded in 1863 under the provisions of the Federal Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to provide instruction to Massachusetts citizens in the "agricultural, mechanical, and military arts". Accordingly, the university was initially named the Massachusetts Agricultural College, popularly referred to as Mass Aggie or M.A.C.. It was known as this until 1931, due to an increase in enrollment and support from the Commonwealth, it was renamed Massachusetts State College. On 15 March 1873 the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity was founded at Old North Hall.
Post-war growth
In 1947, the Massachusetts General Court passed legislation making Massachusetts State College the University of Massachusetts. Like most schools at the time, it was relatively small, enrolling ~5,000 students annually. Some expansion occurred in the 1950's, but the bulk of its transition to the present size occurred in the 1960's. The new president set a goal of expansion to 20,000 by the end of the decade, and the university entered a program of intense building. Many prominent structures rose during this time, including the Southwest Complex, Student Union, Campus Center hotel, Fine Arts Center and famous 26-story library tower. UMass growth drastically altered the regional economy, prompting the commercial development of Route 9 in Hadley, the extension and redirection of several highways (including the widening of Route 9 in Hadley to four lanes and the relocation of Route 116 to a limited access bypass road around the college) and the transformation of the town of Amherst from its old Republican order to its progressive reputation today. As an old saying goes, "the gown overwhelmed the town."UMass was changing as well. McDonald and MilneMcDonald, Mark and George Milne (1999), Cases in Sport Marketing. Jones and Bartlett, ISBN 0763708631. p. 284: "zoo mass" era. note:
- As late as 1961, [UMass Amherst] had only 10,000 students. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the campus grew by nearly 2,000 students per year. With this growth came high-rise dormitories and a high-rise library that completely altered the face of the UMass campus. At the same time, UMass became known as "zoo mass" due to accounts of the many wild parties thrown on campus. Over the past twenty-plus years, the university has exerted greater control over the nightlife of its student body. However, the stigma of "party school" still stays with UMass in comparison to its more cerebral liberal arts neighbors.
Recent expansion project
| The [Neutral point of view>neutrality] of this section is [NPOV disputedisputed]. Please see the discussion on the [Governor Mitt Romney proposed an ambitious expansion project in which the size and population of the university would almost double as it took over the role of the state's community college system which Romney has begun to consolidate and dismantle. While this proposal received the support of the student government, town residents are exceedingly resistant to any such plan as it would increase the already critical traffic congestion in the center of town. The university also owns land throughout the Pioneer Valley for agricultural and ecological research. Mitt Romney's stance that an expanded university would take over the role of the state's community college system is contrasted by Vice Chancellor Mike Gargano's comments to a group of students, first that, "We need more Abercrombie and Fitch and less GAP on this campus"O'Donnell, Julie. [votes 'no confidence' in Vice Chancellor Gargano."] Daily Collegian[Amherst, MA] 18 November 2004: News., and later in that same discussion, to a student of color that if he could not afford to go to UMass, he should go to community college. These remarks were noted by Student Trustee Matthew Murphy, and made public during the November 17 2004 Student Government Association meeting that eventually led to the vote of no confidence in the leadership of Vice Chancellor Gargano. Following Mitt Romney's mandate, the UMass Amherst administration (headed up by Chancellor Lombardi and Vice Chancellor Gargano) has pushed for admission of more students than there are residences for and thus, in Fall, 2005, over a thousand students who had been promised housing (with the implicit understanding that it would be a normal 2-person dorm room) were instead placed in hotels and study lounges. Classrooms are often filled to capacity, and past capacity in some cases. As the size of incoming classes is constantly increasing, the alleged lack of diversity amongst the student body has become a contentious issue. In 2004, the Student Government issued a Freedom of Information Act request for statistical information on minority enrollment. According to Vice Chancellor Gargano, the university did not provide some of the requested information because providing it would have violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Since the record size of the Class of 2009 caused problems in terms of class sizes and housing, the university responded by tightening admissions standards for admission to the Class of 2010. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2009 was over 80 percent, however it has been reported that the acceptance rate for the Class of 2010 was significantly lower, at under 70 percent. Designation as flagship campusIn 2003, for the first time, UMass Amherst was legally designated by the state legislature to be a "research university" and the "flagship campus" of the UMass system[link] Notable Faculty
LibrariesThe W.E.B. DuBois library is the tallest red-brick library in the world, and is home of the memoirs and papers of the distinguished African-American activist and Massachusetts native W.E.B. DuBois as well as being the depository for other important collections, such as the papers of the late Congressman Silvio O. Conte. Special Collections[UMass raps data as "Primetime" prepares to air crime report], Sarah Schweitzer, Boston Globe, November 17, 2005. include
UMass Amherst is home to the DEFA Film Library [link], the only archive and study collection of East German films outside of Europe. Academic departmentsUndergraduate program
Graduate programDoctor of Education, Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Education, Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study
Five College ConsortiumUMass Amherst is part of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes, borrow books, work with professors, etc., at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges.All five colleges are located within 10 miles of Amherst center, and are accessible by public bus. The five share an astronomy department and some other undergraduate and graduate departments. Buildings and LayoutHome to over 25,000 students, faculty and staff, the campus extends about a mile from the Campus Center in all directions. The university owns significant amounts of land in the nearby town of Sunderland.The campus may be thought of as a series of concentric rings. In the outermost ring are parking lots, the admissions center, playing fields and barns for the animal science program. In the middle ring there are the five residential areas and dining commons. The innermost ring had most of the classroom buildings and research labs. Anticipating the drastic increase in student population in the 1960's and 1970's, the University underwent major expansion. Many of the buildings were constructed relatively quickly from poured, exposed concrete, which reflected much of the styling of the era. The most prominent examples of exposed reinforced concrete construction are the Campus Center and Hotel, Fine Arts Center, and Whitmore Administration Building. Although this architectural styling is sometimes considered dated or unattractive today, several of these buildings are considered architectural landmarks, notably the Fine Arts Center by [Roche-Dinkeloo], designers of the U. N. Plaza. There are several recently completed buildings that are both modern and functional, and generally considered attractive by today's standards. Some examples of these buildings include the Mullins Center, The Polymer Science Facility, the Computer Science Building, and the Engineering and Computer Science II facility. South Campus The Isenberg School of Management has its buildings in the southernmost part of campus near the Visitors Center and the Newman Center, the Catholic student center. In addition to being the site of the main administration building, Whitmore, the southeast side of campus has buildings mainly dedicated to the humanities and fine arts. Buildings include Herter, Bartlett, Mahar and the Fine Arts Center (Abbreviated "FAC"). Between Whitmore, the FAC and Isenberg lies the Haigis Mall, a local stop on both the PVTA and Peter Pan bus lines. The buildings on the southwest side of campus house the college of social and behavioral science. These include Totman, Dickinson and Tobin.
 The 26 story WEB DuBois library and the Old Chapel are the notable buildings in the center of campus. The buildings in the center of campus, Goodell and Machmer are mainly used by the Commonwealth Honors College. Student Union The Student Union Building houses most of the University's Registered Student Organizations (RSO's) and it is the home of the Student Government Association. Other facilities include the Campus Design and Copy center, a convenience store, a ball room, and a student lounge. Several student-run businesses and co-ops are also present including the organic convenience store and bagel shop Earthfoods. South College South College is the home of UMass' world renowned linguistics department, and is the oldest building on campus. The DuBois library was intended to be an annex to South College. Campus Center Designed by famed architect, Marcel Breuer, the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center is located adjacent to the Student union and is accessible via passageways from both the Student Union as well as from the main level of the parking garage. On the concourse level are the campus store, restrooms, graduate student lounge, which serves beer, and the Bluewall, which contains a cafe, a smoothie stand and a fair trade coffee stand. This level is a high-traffic area throughout most of the day with students and faculty not only using it as a 'pass through' from one building to another, but also as the central hub of on-campus life. Many people often pass the time between classes on this level and it is common to find vendors and organizations operating from fold-out tables along either side. The lower level of the campus center has multiple conference rooms and a large auditorium. Within the central space of the lower level are telephones, ATMs, vending, as well as couches and television. The offices of the University newspaper, The Daily Collegian, can be found at the far end of the level. One of the conference rooms is home to the UMass Science Fiction Society's library. The top floor of the Campus Center, "The Top of the Campus" is currently undergoing a complete renovation. When finished it will be home to a state of the art teaching kitchen, beverage lab and dining room facility. Campus Center Hotel Above the concourse level is the Campus Center Hotel, a five-level full service facility with 116 rooms, including two suites located in the Campus Center. The Campus Center Hotel is the training ground for the university's Hospitality and Tourism Management students. North Campus The north side of campus is mostly dedicated to science and engineering, and many buildings there are newer than their counterparts in the humanities. The Physics Department primarily uses Hasbrouck Lab, located at 666 North Pleasant Street. The Lederle Graduate Research Tower is the largest building on the north side, housing the Math department on its sixteenth floor. As the Math Department headquarters, the sixteenth floor is prominently labeled 42. The Silvio Conte Polymer Research facility is located in North campus. Computer Science The Computer Science department recently moved into an airy new building built for them on the edge of campus, though classes are usually taught elsewhere. Between the imposing concrete LGRT, the second-story walkway from it to its sister structure the LGRC, the glass-and-aluminum Computer Science building, and other new buildings for the Engineering and Polymer Science departments, North Campus looks more "high-tech" than the rest of campus. Sports, Recreation, and Exercise On campus there are two major gyms, the Totman Center near Northeast and Sylvan and the Boyden Gym to the south. Major sporting events, such as UMass's hockey and basketball team games, are held in the Mullins Center, amidst the fields to the west. Campus Bus System The PVTA bus system serves not only the University of Massachusetts campus, but also the surrounding colleges and communities. This bus system is run primarily by University students and is free for students, which allows them to easily get to classes at the other four colleges. Residential areasAt UMass Amherst, first and second year students are required to live on campus, however, there is no guaranteed housing, since demand outstrips supply. Housing is open to all full-time students, regardless of year, and is chosen in a lottery system. There are approximately 10,000 students living on-campus.Students living on the UMass campus live in one of the five residential areas: Southwest, Central, Orchard Hill, Northeast and Sylvan. Each residential area has a student-run business. All campus residence halls are staffed by Resident Assistants, and have quiet hours, which start at 9pm on weekdays, 12 midnight on the weekends. North Residential AreaCurrently under construction [link], the newest residence halls on campus are slated to open in the Fall of 2006. Located between Sylvan and Northeast, these apartment-style dormitories house approximately 850 undergraduates in four buildings. Each unit comprises four single bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a shared common area including a full kitchen. Other amenities include ethernet and cable access, central air, and laundry on-site. This is a nine-month housing area, which allows students to remain on campus from September to May.SylvanSylvan is adjacent to the North Residential Area, and before North, was the newest residential area on campus (built in the early 1970s), Residents in Sylvan enjoy a private bathroom in each suite containing two or three toilets, two sinks, and one shower (whereas most residence halls have a communal bathroom for 40 people).NortheastNortheast is across the street from North and Sylvan. The residential area consists of nine buildings assembled in a rectangle surrounding a grassy quad.Buildings of note in Northeast include Knowlton, an all female dorm, Hamlin, an all male dorm. Lewis dorm provides international students 9-month housing. Thatcher House is unique because it houses so called "foreign-language" students. The residents are expected to speak the language they are studying while on their language floor. The dorm is extremely difficult to get into, only foreign language students with high GPAs can expect to get housing there. Northeast is across the street from North Campus, which has the polymer research lab, the engineering quad, and the computer science complex. Because of this, many of the residents of Northeast are in math, engineering or science programs. CentralCentral has nine residence halls located along a hill on the east side of campus. Central is also home to the Central Art Gallery in Wheeler and Greeno Sub Shop in Greenough.Central also has several non-residential buildings, making it unique amongst living areas. Fernald Hall, also known as "the Bug Lab", Hills, and New Africa House are all academic and office buildings. Hills houses the Study Abroad office, the Mental Health resource center, the regional planning/landscape architecture department, and several graduate classrooms. New Africa House was renovated in 2004 and early 2005, and contains the African American Studies Department. Central is organized into 4 clusters of buildings: Gorman-Wheeler and Brett-Brooks at the bottom of the hill, Baker, Chadbourne and Greenough ("BCG") organized in a quad halfway up the hill, and Van Meter-Butterfield ("VMB") at the top of the hill. Gorman Hall is a building-wide Living Learning Community called NUANCE. Founded in 1989, it is a diversity awareness Living Learning Community. Wheeler is home to the Central Art Gallery. Brett is where the Pixies met, and besides being home to the hockey team, it is completely wheelchair-accessible dorm. Brooks is substance-free housing. Baker houses the Area Office. Chadbourne houses the Josephine White Eagle Native American Cultural Center. Greenough has the Area's student-run business, Greeno Sub Shop. Butterfield Hall used to be known as the "hippie" dorm and was home to its own full kitchen and dining program, as well as hosting numerous bands over the years. Butterfield residents were known for being a close-knit, friendly group. Due to complaints of excessive partying and destruction of property, the university renovated and converted the dorm to all-freshman housing in 2001. In the wake of the all-freshman conversion of Butterfield, Van Meter Hall took the reins as the proverbial "hippie" mecca. Van Meter will become all-freshman in Fall, 2006. Orchard HillCompleted in 1964, The Orchard Hill residence area is north of Central, and has four residence halls: Dickinson, Webster, Grayson and Field (the latter two are connected and share offices). Orchard Hill is known for its yearly spring event, Bowl Weekend. Many students from the Commonwealth College honors program live in Orchard Hill as part of the Talent Advancement Program [link].Orchard Hill (in Field) is the location of the student-run business Sweets n' More, opening during evenings that sells treats and snacks. Orchard Hill also refers to the hill on which the Orchard Hill Observatory and a cell phone tower are located. The cell phone tower also supports a microwave relay system for internet and land phone service at the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, located on a peninsula within the Quabbin Reservoir (according to Dr. Ronald Snell, UMass Amherst Astronomy Department chair, circa 2003). SouthwestSouthwest is the largest residential area, and it houses three of the five campus dining commons (Hampshire, Hampden, and Berkshire). It is composed of five 22-story towers (Kennedy, Coolidge, John Quincy Adams, John Adams and Washington) and 11 smaller residence halls (referred to as low-rises), holding a total of around 5,500 students. Southwest houses approximately 50% of the students living on campus. Longtime residents of Southwest state that living in SW is like living in an entirely separate city — this high-density, high-volume population is possibly the most diverse region of campus; socially, ethnically, anyone can find a niche.Perhaps because there are so many students in so little space, Southwest is prone to having uncontrolled parties. In recent years, during victories by the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox, the courtyard was filled with students and Amherst residents celebrating. This uncontrolled behavior of up to 5,000 students provided basis for UMass' reputation as a "party school,". UMass Amherst was reconized in the 2005 edition of the Princeton Review as #9 on the list of best party schools. Southwest is also home to James Hall, which is a Wellness dorm that prohibits drug and alcohol use. In addition several TAPs (Talent Advancement Programs) for incoming freshman are located in Southwest. These programs are designed for incoming students who show particular academic promise in their chosen major to live on one or more floors with other similar majors. Students in a TAP will usually sign up for many of the same classes, so studying is made easier by the close proximity of others in the same classes. Each TAP program has weekly seminars and occasional field trips designed to orient students to the university and get them interested in the diversity of subjects offered at UMass. TAP programs, which are by invite-only, as well as RAPs (Residential Academic Programs), are also common in other areas of campus. Southwest has a convenience store, a small art gallery, a University run Snack Bar as well as the kosher dining commons. Southwest also houses the EPOCH program, designed strictly for incoming freshmen to be with other freshmen. EPOCH, specifically the RA's and Peer Mentors (exclusive to EPOCH), organizes a myriad of trips and activities. Currently, the Moore, Melville, Pierpont, and Thoreau buildings are part of the program, with Emerson, Kennedy Tower, and John Adams to join in Fall 2007. By 2008 there will be EPOCH dorms in Central, Orchard Hill and Southwest, and all incoming freshman will be required to live in an EPOCH community. Information Technology
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