UMass Boston dealt bad deal
When DA Maura Healey sheds light on the University of Massachusetts Amherst/Mt. Ida midnight madness debacle that left Mt. Ida kids in the lurch and beleaguered UMass Boston, once again, on the proverbial outside looking in, I hope she also looks into other murky deals in the works that could slight or sink UMass Boston.
A case in point — the Bayside Expo Center site that’s lain fallow for years. It currently serves as an overflow parking lot. With the exception of a few smoke-and-mirror attempts to put one over on the community and elected officials, and the university itself, it seems nothing is happening — but who knows?
In light of UMass President Martin Meehan’s recent rationale for the UMass Amherst/Mt. Ida mess — that he allows each campus to invest in its own projects — my question is, will the sale and use of the Bayside Expo site benefit UMass Boston as was envisioned when then-chancellor J. Keith Motley purchased it?
Our elected officials who vote to invest public money into our public institutions need to be more engaged in not just taking a closer look but taking action. That’s what we elected them to do. I personally supported Nick Collins’ recent election to the state Senate because I see him as a conscientious and dedicated public servant with a commitment to diversity.
Hey, Nick, the people getting shortchanged are the people you represent — they are mostly minority. They are mostly poor kids from neighborhoods like Southie, Dorchester and Roxbury looking for an affordable education. They are from immigrant communities and often the first in their families to graduate college.
Here are some suggestions I think could help stabilize UMass Boston. Get rid of interim chancellor Barry Mills. Thank God his reign is coming to an end. Instead of spreading the pain of cost cuts throughout the university, as most charged with budget cuts generally do, he has wreaked havoc in a most classist and heartless way — bypassing the big guys with the bloated salaries and instead focusing on decimating programs for little guys who do the most with the least.
Leave the research centers and institutes alone. Give them a chance to examine ways they can be more self-sufficient rather than be under the gun to get it done, another Barry Mills special. The William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture, the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy and the Institute for Asian American Studies have long done gargantuan work on shoestring budgets. They represent the heart and soul of UMass Boston.
All of this has to make you wonder if there might be a grand scheme underway to prime the beautiful campus by the water into a new order — one that opens the doors wider for those outside of Boston who are able to pay more and closes the door to opportunity to those in Boston seeking an affordable education.