Boston Herald Goes off the Deep End

In what should be a shocker to no one, today's Herald editorial jumped off the deep end, coming out strong against a UMASS Dartmouth Law School, with the kind of hyperbole rarely out seen outside of tabloid "journalism." Saying the "skids are greased," they launch an attack at Chancellor of UMASS Dartmouth, Jean McCormick, the UMASS Board of Trustees, Romney-appointed UMASS Prez Jack Wilson and Governor Patrick. Notably missing is almost any reason why they think a UMASS Law School, focusing on public law at reasonable in-state tuition, would be such a bad idea.

A lot of the editorial doesn't even make sense. For example:

But when there are agendas at work - and make no mistake there are - you just can’t keep a bad idea down.

Please, Boston Herald, pray tell, what "agendas" are there at work? UMASS Dartmouth wanting to become a more prestigious public school? The UMASS system wanting a law school? The agendas here seem to be of the noble variety.

The Herald goes on to bash this idea as a bad one, because it failed in 2005. Of course, the only reason why the law school failed to earn the votes last time is because BU, Northeastern, Suffolk and several other high-priced law schools screamed bloody murder. Seems they think a neighbor on the block that costs half as much (literally) may just put a dent into their profits. That was the real hidden "agenda" last time -- the agenda to stop a public law school, led by the private ones.

It only gets more absurd from there.

And the only thing that has changed since 2005 is the state of the Massachusetts economy. In case President Wilson hasn’t read the papers lately, the economy has tanked and it’s not getting any better very soon.

And that's a reason to oppose an accessible, affordable law school?

From there, the Herald goes on to distort the truth. They say the law school "basically wants to give itself away to UMASS." However, that's misleading at best. The law school wants to become part of a major university system so it has the increased resources to become academically competitive. UMASS wants a law school so it can be a more competitive major university system in this country. Herald Board: That's why they call this thing a "merger," jackasses.

The Herald then decides swim deeper, saying the state can't afford this.

Wilson is singing the same old song about what a wonderful asset this will be and how it will eventually make money for the system. That, of course, is predicated on it enrolling nearly twice as many students as the school now serves and that wouldn’t happen unless it got American Bar Association accreditation.

Which the University says it would do in a matter of years.

What Wilson and his enabler UMass/Dartmouth Chancellor Jean MacCormack don’t like to talk about is the millions of dollars it will cost to get ABA accreditation by upgrading the school’s facilities, library and its faculty.

Really? They don't like talking about it? Have ya asked them? The fact of the matter is that while this would cost the school some money, it would cost the state diddley squat. The university has the access to the cash to make this happen. They've had that cash for a long time. Making it happen will make the University a more prestigious public school across the entire country, which in turn would make more people want to go to it.

There are a lot of people in this state, many of them who probably buy ads in the Boston Herald, who are terrified of the UMASS system becoming the type of University system that you find in North Carolina, California and elsewhere: elite, public colleges that are affordable and accessible to in-state students. UMASS has already made many leaps and bounds, getting a law school and making relatively small investments in it would go a long way toward reaching the finish line. The real agenda here is keeping UMASS down. Unfortunately, the same forces that have been successful in that quest for so long are losing the public fight, which is probably why this Herald article tries so hard in its own deranged way at grasping for straws.

UMASS Boston Expansion Imperative

Today's news coming from the Boston Globe on the proposed UMASS Boston expansion rocks my socks. Here's the gist:

In the first phase of the blueprint, university officials are proposing to spend $750 million over the next decade to build three academic buildings along a central walkway bisecting the campus, two dormitories for 1,000 students, and a 1,000-space above-ground parking garage....

University officials said the overhaul would reorient the campus to create a close-knit and collegial atmosphere more akin to a traditional liberal arts college than an urban commuter school.

"It will change the whole culture of the campus," Chancellor J. Keith Motley said in a meeting this week with the Globe in which he detailed the school's plans. "It will create a much more open and vibrant community."

Let's examine just a few ways this plan is a great idea, in no particular order.

• It'll be great for UMASS Boston, able to expand its already very strong academic programs, going far beyond the ranks of just a commuter school.
• It'll become an even better school for commuters. Not only will the school get a new, functioning, large parking garage (which it currently lacks), it'll include a far more attractive campus, with new buildings, set for the new millennium. Academic quality will rise because of this plan - and ultimately, that's good for commuters.
• The young adults of this state, often just graduating from High School, deserve a more affordable option for college in Boston than the likes of BU, Northeastern and Suffolk - all upwards of $40 grand or beyond when living expenses are factored in. It shouldn't be a privilege to be able to afford college in this state's capital.
• It will bring a lot of income and new people into a community of Boston that needs it. For every dollar invested in a public college, the community creates $3-4.
• Having a full-scale, academically superior public university in the city of Boston will be the ultimate success in establishing the city as the Athens of America. It can never be that unless students are given the chance to have the full college experience at an affordable price, which currently doesn't exist in Boston.

The people of this state and the city of Boston deserve it. I can't possibly fathom one legitimate reason why UMASS Boston shouldn't be expanded to include residents, as well as more academic buildings and a far nicer campus. For too long, private colleges have dominated the landscape of all of Massachusetts, helping create the haves and have nots of the Bay State, all the while most graduates of this state's private schools move along to the 49 states in this country, while the majority of the state school grads stay home.

Of course, as we've seen with UMASS Dartmouth trying to expand to include a public law school, Boston's many universities are quite effective in resisting a stronger public university system. What's more dangerous to BU and Northeastern than a school that can compete with them - and cost half as much? They'll certainly lose tens of thousands of talented students from this state, especially if UMASS Boston expands beyond two dorms (and I'm sure, eventually, they will), but schools in Boston tend to have plenty of applicants and donors to keep them competitive even at higher costs. Furthermore, maybe a public college with dorms to compete with them could help keep down costs for everyone? Even if it doesn't, no Bay State student should have to decide between being around a hundred thousand dollars in debt - or missing out in the Boston college experience, if that's what they desire.

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.

Patrick to "Take Over Review" of UMASS System

Governor Deval Patrick's educational task force will "take over the review" of the UMASS system, but recognizes President Jack Wilson and the Board of Trustees as the ultimate authority in making personnel changes.

Patrick's spokesman Kyle Sullivan said the Readiness Project is the "appropriate forum" for a review. "There is no need to duplicate efforts."He added, "nothing that we announce today or that we review over the next few months will take away from the authority of the president to make the personnel changes that he is empowered to make."

Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, said taking control of the review is "a big step forward." He said he and other Lombardi supporters lobbied Patrick to step in.

Ryan's Take? Great news.

A number of groups, people and organizations were looking for Governor Patrick to step into the UMASS debate, but it seemed as if he wanted to focus on his current battles - like passing the Municipal Partnership Act - rather than step his feet into even more boiling water. By taking over the review process, but seeding ultimate authority to President Wilson on "personnel," Patrick is jumping in with two feet on the ground - sure, he's getting wet a little, but the water's luke warm. Come on in! Now that the UMASS media circus is over, this is a way to get involved that isn't stepping on anyone's feet. Furthermore, for the people who were afraid Wilson was going to bring wrack and ruin to the system, they can set their minds to peace. Wilson won't subvert this entire process and ignore the committee's principal decisions, especially given the fact that doing so could bring a more direct response from the Governor.

Ultimately, by having Patrick's committee reexamine Wilson's plans and examine the UMASS system itself, it will bring more legitimacy to the process. The big criticism against Wilson's announcements were the tactics involved in coming up with the decision - the planning was all behind closed doors, no one knew anything that was going on and a lot of big decisions were made without any real input. Now, Patrick's committee is going to have until March to investigate all aspects of the UMASS system - as a part of this state's entire public education system. Just as with any Patrick committee, I'm sure there will be lots of chance to gather input from a wide variety of sources involved.

Many of Wilson's goals are ideal: of course, UMASS should be streamlined. Of course, the system should be made more efficient. However, many of his proposals - such as making the President of the entire system also be the Chancellor of UMASS Amherst - don't seem to accomplish that. The President of the system and Chancellor of UMASS look like two heavy loads - loads that shouldn't go in the same wash. Furthermore, while each campus at UMASS should act as a part of the greater system, all of them also have their own character and should not be subservient to Amherst.

The Amherst campus is called the "flagship" by many, but that should have more to do with its actual size than academics. Indeed, many of the UMASS Campuses have programs that stand out beyond Amherst's versions of them - such as Dartmouth's Engineering and Nursing degrees. Changes to the system shouldn't make any of the campuses feel threatened in that regard. None of the campuses should be satellites to UMASS Amherst.

It's important that reform be done in a way that none of the state's Universities feel threatened or targeted. It's important that a vast majority of the faculty be behind the reforms, which means they'll need to be given the chance to weigh in. Students and alumni, too, should have the opportunity to make recommendations. It's amazing what students and alumni get that administrations on campuses don't. Governor Patrick's intervention here can only help calm the storm, especially at the Amherst campus, as well as give UMASS more time to create new and legitimate reforms that everyone, from students and faculty to President Wilson, can get behind.

Scandal at UMASS

I hereby deem this mess at UMASS a scandal. Everyone needs to go click that link and read that article - it's the best one I've read from the Boston Globe in a very, very long time. It's funny, too, because UMASS President Jack Wilson seemed to be wanting a new job this whole time: head of Amherst and the entire system. If the professors at UMASS Amherst have their way - the one's who voted No Confidence with him in the room by a margin of more than 200 to 1 - he'll be getting that new job very shortly, a la President Summers. In fact, my sources at UMASS Dartmouth have dug up a letter reported to be from Mr. Wilson.

Dear Trustees, Faculty, Staff, Parents, Voters, Construction Workers, Former Politicians, Current Politicians, Janitors, Lunch Ladies, Mitt Romney and ah, yea, maybe students...

I have notified the UMASS Board of Trustees today that, in leau of controlling the universe entire system's every job, I'll merely accept control of just Amherst, the entire UMASS system and other such things - provided that I also get control of Worcerster and Boston and maybe the schools that aren't included in the UMASS System (and probably some high schools as well, they call the head of Boston Latin a Dean, right? I want that title too!). However, no one should worry, you won't have to call me Chancellor at Worcester and Boston.... "Mr. President/Chancellor" will suffice.

People also tell me that there's this thing called "UMASS Dartmouth," but that's a vicious rumor I can't confirm. If it's true, I'll let that person who already is in "control" there keep it - because the South Coast is a mysterious place and I can't really be expected to go there, now can I? Do they even make maps to get there? Can I call triple A? Furthermore, Lowell's just been given to soon-to-be President Marty Meehan and he scares me, so I'll leave him alone too.

Now, rumor has it that at a recent meeting at UMASS Amherst, Professors gave me a 214 to 1 vote of "No Confidence." I care very deeply about the people at UMASS Amherst, that's why I want to control them and make all the other campuses irrelevant focus my time there. I can neither confirm nor deny what that vote actually was about, because I don't listen to faculty, but I'm sure it isn't possible that they really voted against me. After all, I was put in place by the Great Mitt Romney - and everyone just loves him! Seriously, that guy knows what he's doing! He should be President of the United States or something. Then, maybe I could get an even better job!

Anyway, it's very important to me that the Faculty, Staff, Parents, Voters, Construction Workers, Former Politicians, Current Politicians, Janitors, Lunch Ladies, Mitt Romney and ah, yea, maybe students neighbors know that I care deeply about the UMASS Amherst campus. I only want what is best for it. That's why I think we need to oust a guy who's clearly done a good job there. If he keeps doing well, the people of Massachusetts will come to have certain expectations there - and if that happens and they're not met, it may not look pretty. Therefore, I want to do a great job at making sure that doesn't happen.

Some people have "No Confidence" in me. I say hogwash! The only person that matters is me and I have plenty of confidence in that person. It's actually a really great philosophy in life - more people should try it, well, if they actually mattered. Or were me. That's why I just want to inform everyone that I'm here for the long haul - which shall be defined as "when people rise up and loudly call for my resignation." That could NEVER happen - because, like I've been trying to say this whole time - I only have the best of intentions and want to do a great job as head of every Tom, Dick and Harry at UMASS. In fact, I don't think merely being a President and Chancellor is enough. I should be a Treasurer, Secretary, Vice President, Administrator, Janitor and Lunch Lady as well.

Sincerely,

President and Wanna-Be Chancellor, Lunch Lady Jack Wilson

P.S. Please don't fire me.

P.P.S. Pretty please!

P.P.P.S. With a cherry on top!

UMASS Bill More Daunting Than It Looks

The Boston Globe wrote an article detailing all the repair needs at UMASS Amherst, but they titled it as only UMASS. Well, if it's UMASS repair costs we're talking about, why not throw in the other schools? I couldn't put a price tag on the repairs needs at UMASS Dartmouth, Boston and Lowell, but surely they're in the hundreds of millions. At UMASS alone, part of the science and technology building is condemned - literally. Luckily, it was only the commuter area - and the school doesn't really care about them anyway. They added a table and a few chairs in the hall way for 5,000 plus commuting students who attend UMASS Dartmouth.

The auditorium at UMASS Dartmouth has been broken almost the entire year. How does an auditorium break, one asks? Well, I'll tell you: the lighting is, to put it mildly, fucked up. The "House Lights" are fried and pretty much can't be fixed (warning: link temporary, I'll try to remember to fix it when it goes bad). From the University newspaper, the Torch:

The UMass Dartmouth Main Auditorium is host to many events: Theatre Company and 20 Cent Fiction both put on all their theatrical productions, CAB puts on both Mr. and Mrs. UMD and a host of other organizations hold a variety of events throughout the year — it was even the location for a gubernatorial forum before this year’s election. Every single one of these events for the past couple of decades has run under the glow of an inadequate lighting system.

According to an anonymous source from within the UMD auditorium staff, the lighting system
that is currently utilized has been in use since the auditorium’s birth over forty years ago. “The system was designed to last for twenty years, and it’s been in use for forty,” the source claims. “It finally ended up dying in October.”

The system dying means that the lights themselves have no power, and the dimmers for the lights are broken.

In order to compensate for this outdated setup, portable systems have been purchased to power the auditorium. These portable SAT(short for satellite) packs “were originally purchased as a backup” and since have become the primary source of power.

Well, I can be a second source on that. It's broken. Everyone in CAB, 20 Cent and the Theatre Company has known that for a year. The Theatre Company first realized it when they staged Anne Frank in the fall - and had to be content to do the production with the house lights on. Imagine going to a movie where they didn't dim the lights? No one was happy, including the audience.

They got the backups working for Moby Dick, but those aren't a permanent solution. They're already being fried. It's like driving with a spare tire: they don't last very long. They were designed to work at room temperature, but it reaches 120 degrees where they're situated. Not to mention, since they weren't designed for long use, they're not exactly safe - the picture in the Torch is of the fuse actually melting the cords to the backup lights.

The good news is that if the building burned down, we'd get a new one... even if in a few years. Sadly, at the rate things are going, it's not all that unlikely.

The source expressed fear of this situation saying “before this [the cords melting] happened, a circuit breaker should have tripped...but it didn’t.” The only reason the problem was noticed is because “a SAT pack wasn’t working and we didn’t know why.” It’s unknown if the cord melted due to an electrical fire, or if it was just the heat of the energy flowing through it.

The fix? $300,000 and 2-3 months, months were all events would have to be cancelled. Imagine if the school had to tell the gubernatorial candidates during the debate last year, "sorry guys, our lights are broken, we can't do this?" Sadly, that was almost the case. Oh, and speaking of repair costs, did I mention the University is damn near falling apart and each academic building should be replaced within 10-15 years? Just remember, the cost of building a university is billions, but the return on the investment is priceless.

The Mass Economy Growing Massively?

Apparently, that's the case. We're growing leaps and bounds above the rest of the country, despite everything. Let this be a lesson to all the doubters in this state: businesses can be successful here even if it's more expensive.

The state's economy grew at a 4.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the fastest pace in nearly 7 years, according to a report yesterday from the University of Massachusetts. The US economy grew at a 1.3 percent rate, its worst performance since early 2003, the Commerce Department said.

The question is "how many people are enjoying this surge?" Is it just going to the businesses, who won't even accept having a normal, average tax rate? They're doing well, while regular people are breaking their backs trying to pay ever-increasing property taxes. In fact, they're making profits 4x greater than the rest of this country - yet expect Massachusetts to keep its infrastructure top notch on the back's of its citizens, without paying their fair share. Nice.

Here's what's driving the economy:

Technology, however, is again driving growth here, UMass analysts said. Global demand for the state's technology and medical products has increased, and that has fueled strong job growth, said Alan Clayton-Matthews, a professor of public policy at UMass-Boston and the UMass report's lead analyst.

No surprises there. Massachusetts is one of the most natural places to lead this country in terms of advancing technology, with the dozens of great Universities we have. It's something we need to truly incubate in other areas as well, such as developing renewable energy. There are entire brink cities that could be resurrected through growth of the tech sector, such as Lynn. Perhaps even the South Coast, with UMASS Dartmouth, or Greater Lowell, with UMASS Lowell, could benefit from the advancement of technology - by melding together the private and public sectors. An entire 20-30 story building is being constructed to test that theory in Boston, right next to where my best friend works in a Harvard medical research lab.

There was an interesting paragraph tossed in toward the end of the article, highlighting the differences between the Massachusetts economy and the rest of the country.

Massachusetts growth in the face of the national slowdown illustrates the different make-up of the state's economy. The nation depends primarily on consumer spending. Massachusetts, however, relies on business spending since it has a high concentration of firms that sell goods and services to other companies.

Bottom line? Our's is a much healthier economy. The figment of consumer spending, with trade imbalances every year and millions of low-wage jobs, hasn't been an awe-inspiring recipe for success. Yet, research and development has been successful for us. The only thing Massachusetts is missing as an economy is a little diversification - which means that when industries like tech falter, we're screwed. So, it's important that the Beacon Hill not just rest on its laurels with what we have now, merely happy to see job growth, and try to develop entirely new sectors or rebuild weak ones.

Marty Meehan's Left Overs

So, now that it looks like Marty Meehan is definitely gone, what does that mean for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?" As many readers probably know, Marty Meehan is spearheading the efforts to repeal one of the most vagrant violations of human equality left in the military - the right to serve regardless of sexual orientation. For the first time in a long time, it looked like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was on its way out. Yet, if this nation loses one of its most important leaders on the effort, I really have no idea what will happen. Anyone care to haphazard a guess?

Let's hope Marty Meehan leaves no left overs when he becomes the Chancellor of UMASS Lowell. As important as that University is - and as admirably I'm sure Meehan will serve there - Don't Ask, Don't Tell is almost as important as marriage rights in terms of glbt equality. Literally over a million gay people have served in the army, yet they were forced to remain in the closet in permanent fear of being dishonorably discharged (or worse). Marty Meehan needs to get the job done before he goes home.

Why North Carolina is Stealing So Many Jobs...

It's no big secret that many people who have left Massachusetts have moved to North Carolina. The question has just been "why?"

This past weekend, President's Day Weekend, I went to North Carolina for a small family trip. We were there to catch a few big ACC Basketball games and see the Greater Raleigh sites - which, oddly enough, is basically college after college after college. Unbeknownced to me, in just a very small area there's a set of colleges that rival Greater Boston itself in size - and class. While Raleigh may not have a Harvard and MIT, it does have a Duke and Wake Forest. Furthermore, Boston doesn't have anything like the University of North Carolina - a major research university affordable to the public (with tens of thousands taking advantage of the opportunity), with a bunch of great programs. Heck, Boston doesn't even have a NC State - an affordable university open to tens of thousands and offering housing for most of them.

People have been looking at all sorts of reasons for why North Carolina is suddenly becoming the state to move to. Some have said it has everything to do with affordability; others say there are still fairly well-paying Blue Collar jobs available there. Some new sectors are popping up in the Raleigh area as well, lured by lower wages for employees. Of course, the reason probably has to do with all of the above.

However, the colleges and universities in that area cannot be underestimated. With Raleigh being the area most people are moving to, it can't be forgotten that there probably wouldn't be a Greater Raleigh without the many universities surrounding it. They're providing jobs - lots of jobs. There must be at least 100,000 college students in a very small radius - no one should be shocked that there are new cities popping up that don't look much larger than a Lynn or New Bedford in terms of population, yet have several small sky scrappers and tons of new development.

The fact that people can get a nearly-new 3 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse with a garage for under 200k certainly isn't keeping all those new graduates out of the area after they graduate. Meanwhile, Mass grads are getting panick attacks when thinking about moving back in with their parents till they're 30 because they couldn't afford a house if they wanted.

Or they're moving to North Carolina.

NC clearly gets that public colleges and universities are the best investment their state can make. They're wreaking the benefits, too - with tons of new academic buildings in both major public universities I visited. There are multiple large research hospitals, tech and bio tech industries moving in (they have a stem cell park!) and who knows what else. Meanwhile, Massachusetts can't manage to build UMASS Boston a new parking garage and UMASS Amherst and Dartmouth have infrastructural needs that rival those falling concrete slabs on their sister campus.

Massachusetts is going to have a lot of difficulty addressing these very large and very real issues to compete with the North Carolinas of this country. For starters, it's not like everyone in this state can take a pay cut. Heck, we don't even have the benefits of nice weather to attract new blood to this state. However, sometimes we forget our own advantages. With hundreds of thousands of out-of-state students coming to the Bay State for their education, there's a four year long golden opportunity to net upwards of half of them if we can help them get jobs. By creating new and more affordable housing, more of them will be inclined to stay. By refocusing on declining areas like the South Coast and Springfield, we can provide areas of this state with as much potential and even affordability as the Greater Raleigh area.

Heck, in many ways, we're actually in an advantageous position. Most of the infrastructure is already there for us, we just need to improve it and add a few fine details. North Carolina had to build everything from scratch. A rail stop here, some key housing development there... and suddenly there are new hot spots that every intelligent, hardworking, tax-paying twenty something is dying to move to. Furthermore, we have a culture that extends way beyond the crazy-hair wearing, ACC-sports obsessed mentality of the folk down there.

Who cares about the Tarheels when there's the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics around? Okay, not so much the Celtics, but they surely don't have the Museum of Fine Arts, Theater District and Coolidge Corner. They definitely don't have our history, open-mindedness and lefty blogroll. So, let's stop losing people to states like North Carolina - no offense to the fine people of NC. If Massachusetts isn't the kind of state that's attracting thousands of new residents every year, we need to look long and hard at just why that is. It's indicative of some systemic problem that must be addressed before it's too late. I can't help but think a lack of affordable education, dispersed throught the state, isn't just one of those reasons.

The Best Investment This State Can Make

This post is for anyone who thinks investing in Public Higher Ed is just giving a bunch of freeloading students a helping hand handout when they should go and secure loans in excess of a hundred thousand dollars to pay for private education - or shut up and work at McDonald's or something. President Jack Wilson has an important message for yousz guyz.

A single taxpayer's dollar spent on the University of Massachusetts results in $8 earned by the state's economy, Jack Wilson, president of the five-school system, said yesterday during a visit to SouthCoast. The equation for the direct economic impact of the school's five campuses reads like this: $435 million legislative annual appropriation plus $90 million in other state funding equals $4.3 billion fed into the commonwealth each year.

"Invest in a university and it pays off big time."

He won't get an argument from this blogger.

Best of all, UMASS spreads the cash love around the state.

"Ninety percent of the research done outside of Route 128 is done by the University of Massachusetts," he said. "A lot of times people don't pay attention to the area beyond Route 128. UMass does."

The sad thing is that, coming from the perspective of a UMASS Dartmouth student, the system is woefully underfunded. Prices have skyrocketed to attend this school, yet class sizes are way up and the buildings are continuing to deteriorate. UMASS Dartmouth doesn't have enough classrooms, full-time professors or even a legitimate theater that can house most events comfortably, with room for all those who would want to attend. Just ask students who wanted to see the gubernatorial debate held here before the last election - only a select few were allowed in.

I can't count the amount of times I've heard demeaning remarks directed toward the UMASS system. Governors and the entire State Legislature have shunned and slashed us in the past. Other colleges in this state have done everything in their power to keep the UMASS brandname down, such as single-handedly killing a UMASS Dartmouth School of Law. Despite all that, the system has survived. Despite all that, more people continue to attend and want to attend.

As President Wilson has testified, UMASS is one of the best investments this state can make. The state gets $8 for every dollar invested in it - a profit line that would send ExxonMobile stocks through the roof. Even though this state's fiscal situation is precarious, it has to find the money to make sure the UMASS system can quickly begin to shine. It's the key to rebuilding the middle class and attracting new workers (and the tax dollars that come with them) to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Huh? What is Marty Meehan Thinking?!

Marty Meehan sure is confusing me.

He builds up a huge warchest - the biggest among Democrats in the House of Representatives. He has future ambitions to run for Senator of Massachusetts, something he would have been a favorite to win had John Kerry decided to run for President instead of Senator. Now that Kerry will run for reelection, what does Marty Meehan go and do?

US Representative Martin T. Meehan has emerged in recent weeks as a leading candidate for chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, a move that would set off a political stampede to fill his much-coveted seat and create the first competitive fight for a Bay State congressional district in more than five years.

Weird...

Quite frankly, I'd be disappointed if Meehan left. He's built up quite the tenure in D.C. and has an ability to have a strong impact on very important decisions. Now, he's not a perfect congressman, but he's fairly solid on most issues. He's been very outspoken in getting rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell - one of the most horrible, self-destructive policies the military has ever instituted (for example, I know more gay members of the military than straight ones - they're just shushed into the closet). Now that Meehan is in a position to actually enact important changes - changes his constituents no doubt want - he's taking interviews to be the Chancellor of UMASS Lowell?

Don't get me wrong, UMASS Lowell needs a top-notch Chancellor. However, would Meehan even fit that bill? Wouldn't it be better to find an already-successful Chancellor (one who students actually like) and hire he or she, rather than installing another politician into a position that requires more than political skills? Would a Chancellor Meehan understand that his most important duty is to create an environment that would allow students to excel - which means earning the trust of the student body, professors and even parents who he's never met.

UMASS Lowell is no doubt just as important to Lowell as UMASS Dartmouth is to the South Coast, so I wouldn't want to hamper UMASS Lowell's ability to succeed by criticizing a Meehan Chancellorship. However, as important as the resurrection of Lowell is, Marty Meehan's in a position to help the entire country from his current position of power. The Democrats just won its first Congressional Majority in more than a decade - and Meehan's rise in Congress has been rapid. It would be a sad waste for Massachusetts and the entire country to see it be all for not.

How a Movement Spreads

Every semester, I've always tried to take at least one class that I thought would really add to my understanding of society - how things work, what's important, etc. Last semester, classes like my seminar on Urbanism fit the bill. This semester, I took a political science seminar on Civil Rights.

Right away, when we were given our syllabus, I got kind of excited. We have a 15 page paper - long enough to study an issue, not long enough to make me insane trying to write and research every day. Anyway, the paper is basically on anything we want to study within the context of Civil Rights - and, despite the fact that I only had one class so far, I think I already know what I want to do.

I want to study how a movement works today - what makes it effective, what's a huge waste of time and what each type of event or organization means to a movement. Since that's such a huge question, I thought I'd narrow it down by focusing on the glbt movement in Massachusetts as a case study. So, for example, I'm interested to know what effect any of the rallies have had - is the publicity worthwhile? Are they useful as a sort of rallying point? I'm interested to see how all the different organizations fit together - how have in-your-face organizations like Knowthyneighbor made an impact compared to more conventional ones like MassEquality? What about regional organizations like the SouthCoast Alliance?

Furthermore, are there certain events that have become important in the movement - and how can you tell if they're important? For example, how did the attack in Puzzles effect popular opinion about gay rights? What about all those rallies for hate that went around earlier this year, including the one where one of the leaders attacked a counter-protester? Is there sort of a marketing element to movement-building that's become important, so people hear about these events and realize their importance?

I think that there's a lot to learn within the framing of this question that could be useful information. If anyone has any ideas about what you think - or any suggestions for a good book on the subject, let me know. I doubt too many people have done research in this area, but it's truly a question that interests me. Because movements are so important to increasing equality in this country, it's important to know what works and what doesn't. By the end of this semester, I intend to have an answer to that question.