Chancellor's Monday Message
Monday, August 17, 2015    

Do you wish summer would never end? Driving around town during these glorious days, picturesque sights evoke joy: gardens blooming riotously with bright orange daylilies, golden sunflowers, purple coneflowers, and blue salvias; graceful white egrets glistening in the distance on salt marshes; and farm stands on the side of the roads flaunting fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs. I think John Koethe described it best in "Sally's Hair":

 

         "It's like living in a light bulb, with the leaves
         Like filaments and the sky a shell of thin, transparent glass
         Enclosing the late heaven of a summer day, a canopy
         Of incandescent blue above the dappled sunlight golden on the grass."

 

As I attended the 50th anniversary of Battleship Cove in Fall River last Friday aboard the USS Massachusetts, witnessing the ceremonies where Governor Charlie Baker, Senator Michael Rodrigues, Mayor Sam Sutter and other speakers lauded the sacrifices of U.S. Navy veterans present and deceased, I thought about my late father, Lucio V. Sanchez, who served in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) in World War II. The USS Massachusetts, affectionately known as "Big Mamie" to her crew during World War II and now permanently docked at the Fall River waterfront as a museum, served initially in the Atlantic Fleet and was transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1943, participating in both the Solomon Islands and the Philippine Campaigns. Big Mamie fought in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, considered the second largest naval battle of World War II, pitting American and Australian forces against the Imperial Japanese Navy.

 

A week ago was also the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. In what was dubbed the Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb was developed by teams of top scientists recruited from around the world who worked clandestinely at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico under Major General Leslie Groves and the renowned physicist Robert Oppenheimer. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb - my favorite book of all time - author Richard Rhodes narrates the story with a number of plots: the design and production of the atomic bomb itself; the evolution of nuclear physics as a discipline; the biographies of scientists such as Leo Szilard, Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, Enrico Fermi, and numerous others who took part in the project; and the scientific process and how the scientific community works collaboratively.

 

The impact on Hiroshima was chillingly described to American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton in an interview by a history professor who remarked, ". . . I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared . . . I was shocked by the sight . . . Such a weapon has the power to make everything into nothing." Lifton authored the book Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima and later advocated against the deployment of nuclear weapons, as well as against the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. There were 140,000 deaths at Hiroshima and approximately 40,000 at Nagasaki. "Japan learned from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the tragedy wrought by nuclear weapons must never be repeated and that humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist," wrote Buddhist spiritual leader Daisaku Ikeda. Linking the horrors of the atomic bombing 70 years ago to the Iran nuclear accord of today, at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry commented, "It is a very, very powerful reminder of not just the impact of war lasting today on people and countries, but it also underscores the importance of the agreement we have reached with Iran to reduce the possibility of more nuclear weapons."

 

On Wednesday and Thursday last week, I convened a Cabinet and Deans Retreat at the Low Tide Yacht Club at Fort Taber in New Bedford. Both days were sunny and splendid! In between sessions when we discussed UMass strategic priorities, research development, IT, advancement, alumni development, and budget stabilization, members of our team enjoyed the beguiling beauty of the waterfront and walked on the shore for relaxation during the breaks. Always as we plan for a new academic year, there is a sense of hopefulness and excitement. Soon our freshman and returning students will be on campus and the cycle commences once more.

 

Yesterday, I hosted a luncheon with women leaders in the South Coast including Maureen Armstrong, CEO of Sylvia & Company Insurance; Fall River Public Schools Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown; Denise Porche, Executive Director at the Island Foundation; Superior Court Judge Merita Hopkins; New Bedford City Councilor Dana Rebeiro; UMassD alumni Bryony Bouyer, Senior Vice President at Hasbro, Inc., and Carol Rego, Vice President at CDM Smith; and our own Center for Marketing Research Director Nora Barnes; among others. Gatherings like these enable us to strengthen connections with each other, envision how we can foster more women in leadership through mentorship, and ultimately create a supportive community where members nurture one another.

 

On Tuesday, September 1, please join me at Convocation Breakfast at 8:30 AM at Lawrence Hall, Woodland Commons, to usher in the new academic year and welcome UMass System President Marty Meehan and new members of our campus community. Shortly thereafter, following our tradition, we will don our academic robes and process to the Amphitheater for Freshman Convocation. Then it is off to the races, and the Fall semester will be here!

 

Have a good week, everyone,

Chancellor's Signature
UMass Dartmouth