Four events at UMass Boston over the past couple of weeks have made me so proud of being part of this vital, important and emerging institution. The first was Convocation, where our charismatic Chancellor, J. Keith Motley, welcomed 16,000 students and hosted a cookout on the ellipse outside the Campus Center overlooking the Boston Harbor Islands. More than half our students are the first in their families to attend college, more than a third of all students are eligible for Pell grants, and they speak 72 different foreign languages in their homes. There is simply no institution in this region that is more diverse than UMass Boston, and the energy and serious commitment of our students are truly inspiring.

The second event was attended by 850 people who donated more than $1.4 million to help endow the James Brett Chair in Disabilities and Workforce Development−the first endowed professorship of its kind anywhere in the world. Dean William Kiernan, Senator Markey, Congressman Kennedy, President Caret, and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan all gave great speeches and songs−but the stage was stolen by a young researcher at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the new School of Global Inclusion and Social Development, Ashley Wolfe, who spoke of her important research and conveyed to all that those with disabilities (in her case, Down Syndrome) have abilities and wisdom and lessons for all of us to admire and learn. 

The third event occurred in Cambridge, at the groundbreaking for the new Sanofi R&D facility, where a new partnership and a $1 million gift to our College of Science and Mathematics to support their pioneering work on student success in STEM education were announced. Under the leadership of Dean Andrew Grosovsky, CSM, a minority-majority college, revamped advising, academic support, and orientation, and established an academically centered Freshman Success Communities (FSC) program. The four-year graduation rates of the first two cohorts of FSC students are nearly twice higher than the national four-year STEM graduation rates. "Since the retention and academic performance have been so strong, we are on track to greatly increase the number and diversity of STEM graduates. These graduates will be competitive for admission to graduate or professional schools, or to enter the STEM workforce," Dean Grosovsky noted.

The fourth event is one we helped to host, along with the College of Advancing Professional Studies and our partners at WBUR and The Boston Foundation. The mayoral forum in our Campus Center on September 19 was the last of the primary season and one of the most important. As you now know, either Marty Walsh or John Connolly will move into Boston City Hall to replace our UMass Boston graduate, Tom Menino (CPCS '88), retiring after a stunning and incredibly successful twenty years as mayor.

That's all by way of saying that as Boston's only public university, UMass Boston is at the heart of what makes this community so special and so significant not only in the Commonwealth, but for the nation and the world. Diversity, excellence, affordability. A first-of-its-kind School for Global Inclusion and Social Development. Leadership on STEM education. Playing a pivotal role in democracy and local politics.

Here at McCormack, we're doing our part to raise and meet and exceed expectations as well.  Our Gerontology Institute hosted 450 seniors last month for a healthy aging day. Our Moakley Chair in Peace and Reconciliation is off to Kaduna, Nigeria, hoping to bring together previously warring parties from conflicted cities around the world. Our centers and institutes are tackling cutting-edge issues from performance management in cities and towns to designing strategies to end homelessness in Massachusetts and for veterans across the country and helping seniors to recover lost pensions. Assistant Professor Maria Ivanova who co-directs our Center for Governance and Sustainability was appointed by UN Secretary-GeneralKi-Moon Ban to his prestigious 26-member scientific and policy advisory board that includes three Nobel laureates.  

UMass Boston is stepping into the bright sunshine out here at Columbia Point, where pile drivers and construction cranes offer both a logistical inconvenience and a graphic reminder that we are on the move, spreading our wings, and growing our profile locally and globally.

 Yours,