UMass leader was an easy scapegoat
The recent developments at UMass Boston are enough to make your head swim — in a swamp, surrounded by alligators, created by the powers that be to insult, diminish and belittle the stellar work that Chancellor J. Keith Motley, the system’s first AfricanAmerican leader, has done.
In response to a not-so-stealthy hit job, Motley put an end to the torture last week when he announced he will be stepping down at the end of the academic year.
From what you might have read in the news, you’d think the UMass Boston campus is going to hell in a handbasket. It seems there’s a $30 million deficit caused by vast capital improvements that no one, not even the trustees, is taking shared responsibility for. You’d only have to read the public meeting minutes from gatherings of the trustees, state agencies in charge of construction and school building authority to peel back the layers of the onion and realize everyone stinks a little on this one.
And though a few have admitted their responsibility, it wasn’t without widespread finger-pointing.
Most underhanded is how UMass President Marty Meehan handled the situation.
It seems Motley was an easy scapegoat. Why? Because he was the only one publicly taking his share of the responsibility for the overrun because he was eager to fix it — that’s what real leaders do.
The many upgrades to the campus credited to Motley, including two new state-of-the-art buildings and a residential dorm, were signed off on and aimed at increasing enrollment and transforming the Boston campus into far more than the commuter school it currently is.
But the most egregious affront to the chancellor’s supporters — both black and white — was the outrageous disrespect shown to Motley and to a university that is majority minority and which, by the way, has three trustees of color out of a total of 21 trustees.
Gov. Charlie Baker can play an important role here by stepping up and calling out the unfair way that this overtly demeaning and unacceptable process has played out.
The trustees, who meet tomorrow at their open and public hearing, shouldn’t accept Motley’s resignation. Instead, everyone should go back to the drawing board and find a positive solution so the campus doesn’t lose an inspirational and capable black leader who is dedicated to erasing the debt and accomplishing his goal of turning UMass Boston into a world-class institution we can all be proud of.