UMASS Shakeup Shakedown

Governor Patrick's shaking up the UMASS Board of Trustees, ousting current chair and Romney appointee, Steve Tocco, replacing him with what surely must be a compromise to get the whole thing done, current vice-chair and also Romney appointee, Robert Manning. However, while Manning was originally appointed by Romney, he doesn't come with the same baggage conficts of interest, such as Tocco's higher-ed lobbyist background.

Furthermore, Patrick's must be happy to have someone appointed to chair the board that he helped get there - and who would help defend any serious university reform coming out of Patrick's office. It's not inspiring that Manning voted against the proposed UMASS Dartmouth law school acquisition in the past, but I'd be at least hopeful Manning will switch votes if it comes up again. It's only a matter of time before there becomes a UMASS law school at Dartmouth (it just makes too much sense), no matter how much Suffolk, BU and Northeastern kick, scream and cry.

Finally, readers will note that this is actually an important development. The UMASS Board of Trustees is far more influential to the system than most similar boards across the country.

Deval's Good Idea: Remove Tocco

Let's get the Romney stench out of the UMASS system - something Governor Patrick is trying to do. There are all sorts of good reasons to get rid of Tocco, but the best is because Tocco's the sleazeball that orchestrated the ouster of everyone who supported a UMASS Dartmouth law school. Governor Patrick supports the law school; certainly, thousands in the South Coast (including me, when I was there) spoke to him personally about that issue. It's very important for the region - and state - to have an affordable and one day high-quality institution for public law, which the proposed school UMASS would merge with happens to specialize in. It would take a few years to bring the school up to par, but with a tuition set at $19,000 a year, it would open the doors to law school to millions in this state that would otherwise be unable to afford it.

I know, just what this state needs - more Esquires, right? Well, when their specializations would be in public defense and prosecution, it sounds good to me.