Chancellor's Monday Message
Monday, April 27, 2015    

Martin Luther King Jr. stated 58 years ago, "An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity . . . Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' " For UMass Dartmouth, the answer to the query is an extensive and enduring tradition of community service that continues to be our defining characteristic. I was never prouder of our UMassD community than I was at our Reverend Dr. Robert Lawrence Civic Engagement Summit on April 17! We honored students, faculty members, and community leaders who have demonstrated exceptional volunteer service and service leadership. Congratulations to the Civic Leadership Award winners Professor Robert Waxler, Endeavor Scholar student Jacob Miller, and BayCoast Bank President Nicholas Christ.

 

Wendy Spencer, CEO of the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, announced at the summit that UMassD was the national winner of the Service Year + Higher Education Challenge in the category of Public Universities! The successful $30,000 grant application titled "Community Health Worker Advocate! Navigate! Educate!" proposed by Dr. Matt Roy and Professor Caitlin Stover will offer a service year to students in our College Now program, who will be trained to assist patients in medication adherence, self-management of their chronic illnesses, and navigation of the health care system in exchange for tuition waivers and academic credit. Ms. Spencer also presented to Reverend Lawrence the President's (Obama) Special Volunteer Service Award for his life-long public service to the SouthCoast community, including his courageous leadership in implementing the gun buy-back program in Fall River.

 

At the Lawrence Civic Engagement we also recognized Political Science junior student Jacob Miller, who was selected as a recipient of the 2015 Truman Scholarship -- one of the most prestigious public service scholarships in the U.S. Jacob was one of 58 awardees out of 688 applicants from across the country. Jacob's accomplishments include securing a legislative amendment to provide low-cost or free health insurance for all college students in Massachusetts through the Affordable Care Act and successfully preparing, in collaboration with Dean Adrian Tio and Mike Metzler, the Cultural Seaport District application for the city of New Bedford. A debt of gratitude to Professor Doug Roscoe, who devoted a substantial amount of time and effort in mentoring and guiding Jacob through the Truman Scholarship application and interview process.

 

Also commended at the Summit was Gabrielle Monteiro, another Political Science junior student, who was named a Newman Civic Fellow, a national award conferred by Campus Compact to inspiring student leaders who make a difference in finding solutions for their community. Hats off to Jacob and Gabrielle! Thank you to Dr. Matt Roy, Deirdre Healy, Gary Marden, Katy Doan, and the entire team at the Leduc Center for Civic Engagement for a fabulous job of organizing the Summit.

 

On April 15, accompanied by Interim Vice Chancellor Jack Moynihan, Joyce Antine, Lara Stone, and Bob Saltzman, I had an opportunity to visit the multinational company EMC2 in Hopkinton, where 200 UMass Dartmouth alumni are employed. I was thrilled to walk into a large conference room at EMC2 to find about 50 of the 200 alumni seated for lunch, eager to welcome us and recount their personal UMassD stories. Greg McCarthy, a 2013 Marketing alumnus and now the Associate Social Media Engagement Manager at EMC2, was the dynamo who organized this enthusiastic gathering. Did you know that two brothers who are both UMassD alumni are EMC2 Vice Presidents? They are Tom Clancy, VP of Education Services, and Jim Clancy, Senior VP for Global Sales. Two siblings, Azzam Tannous and Massarah Tannous, both UMassD Computer Engineering graduates, are, respectively, Systems Engineer and Software Engineer at EMC2. Students, how many of you wish to join the EMC2 corporate pipeline?

 

The 21st Annual Sigma Xi Research Expo last week was a resounding success, thanks to the leadership of Professor Nancy O'Connor, Professor Sivappa Rasapalli, and Science Librarian Liz Winiarz, who are, respectively, the President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the UMassD Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Honor Society for scientists and engineers. Thanks also to members of the exhibit organizing committee: Grant O'Rielly, Mary Hensel, and Stefanie Picard. First place award winners in the Undergraduate Student category were Biology student Jerelle Jesse, for her research "Behavioral Responses of Mud Crabs to Chemical Cues from Fish Species," supervised by Professor Nancy O'Connor; and Mechanical Engineering student Patrick Pasteris, for his study "Summer Monsoons Using In-situ Data from Ocean Robots," directed by Professor Amit Tandon. In the Graduate Student category, PhD student in Chemistry Alessandra Lonardo garnered second place for her study "Lewis Base Derivatized Covalent Metal-Organic Networks," directed by Professors David Manke and Jim Golen; and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering student Tabish Nawaz won first place for his research "Silver Recovery from Waste Water," directed by Professor Suku Sengupta. Congratulations to the award winners!

 

What a delightful surprise it was to be invited for a radio interview last week by Henry and Paulina Arruda, owners of WJFD in New Bedford, and to discover that the DJ interviewer, Irene DeAmaral, is our first PhD graduate in Portuguese Studies. If you wish to listen to Irene -- who authored the book A Emergencia da Mulher: Re-visoes Literarias Sobre a Acorianidade -- she is on the air on Saturdays from 2:00 to 6:00 PM and on Sundays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Enjoy!

 

Have a good week, everyone!

Chancellor's Signature
UMass Dartmouth