University of Massachusetts Dartmouth officials are concerned that Gov. Mitt
Romney’s plan to reorganize the state’s university system will hurt the southeastern
Massachusetts campus.
While the details of the restructuring have yet to be worked out, the university
and at least one local legislator hope to block the plan. State Sen. Mark C.W.
Montigny, a Democrat who represents parts of Bristol and Plymouth counties,
said Romney’s UMass proposal was a rouse to present a falsely balanced state
budget.
“This didn’t really surprise me. The higher education (portion of the budget)
was the least truthful, transparent and balanced,” he said. “He needed to act
as if he was producing a balanced budget so numbers were thrown out in the proposal
without thought.”
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Montigny, who is a graduate of the Dartmouth campus, said he would fight the
governor with all his resources to see the proposal fail.
After hearing of Romney’s plans, which include eliminating UMass President
William Bulger’s position, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
at the UMass Dartmouth Tom Curry said he couldn’t see how the reorganization
would benefit any of the five campuses. Most of what the governor wants to do
is already in place, he said.
The entire higher education plan, which includes combining six community colleges
and universities, will save $200 million, according to a release on Romney’s
Web site. The governor’s proposal is just one move to help cut a $3.2 billion
budget shortfall. According to that release, UMass Amherst currently does not
receive enough funding to “thrive.”
“The reorganization as he’s proposing it is unclear as to the value that it
adds and over what time frame that is,” Curry said. “I have trouble seeing the
value of breaking up the system.”
As part of the plan, Romney proposes separating UMass Amherst from the other
four campuses in Dartmouth, Lowell, Worcester and Boston. Romney’s goal is to
make Amherst a stronger, internationally respected university. Curry said that
recognition could come at the expense of the other campuses, which likely wouldn’t
be able to share technology, data services and other information through the
main UMass office.
“It seems that he’s moving toward centralization but we’re already centralized,”
he said. “All of the things that appear to be the objectives of the restructuring
seem to be in place, but we don’t have a lot of details.”
The other four UMass campuses would be “realigned” to work more closely with
Massachusetts’ nine state colleges, 15 community colleges and other institutions
and businesses in their areas. For example, UMass Dartmouth would be expected
to work with other southeastern Massachusetts schools like Bristol Community
College, Bridgewater State College and Cape Cod Community College. But Curry
said UMass Dartmouth already does that.
“We collaborate with community and state colleges now. We had a giant program
with area colleges with distance learning,” he said. “We already have a close
working relationship with these institutions.” The three colleges the university
works with are 15, 30 and 35 minutes away, he said.
“The UMass budget, specifically the Dartmouth portion of it, is a sham,” Montigny
said. “I will support him (Romney) if he can prove that restructuring (statewide
or in the UMass system) will save money without cutting services.”
Curry was quick to add that the university system is not opposed to change,
if it benefits the universities and the unique system that keeps them working
together. But the system has worked so well for so long, why change it?
“It’s a federated system. We each have our niche, our unique campus,” Curry
said. Curry said UMass Dartmouth is one of the top regional universities in
the country; each campus brings something different to the table. “We’ve benefited
enormously from a centralized system and Bulger has made many improvements to
the system.”
As to whether the succession could hurt UMass Dartmouth’s ability to receive
funding for new programs, research projects and other initiatives, Curry said,
“perhaps in some respects. But we have inter-campus groups that have been very
successful in raising funding.” The provost added that combined campus programs
like the marine science and technology program shared by Dartmouth, Boston,
Lowell and Amherst is one of the successful ones that shows the partnership
between the campuses.
“That came about because of the system,” he said. And programs like this could
be in jeopardy if Romney’s plan goes forward in the future. “We’d certainly
have to rethink” the plan.
Montigny said he’s almost certain that tuition will increase if Romney is
successful. “I know the numbers and there’s no way this can work without a substantial
tuition increase,” he said. “He’s never going to get away with it. There’s been
too much time, effort and talent put into making the system strong. UMass Dartmouth
needs to stay what it is – a strong university within a strong university system.”
The UMass system’s success can mainly be attributed to Bulger, Curry said.
And even with budget and economic problems, Curry said Bulger was effective
in gathering funding.
“I can only say that the system has flourished under Bulger’s leadership and
in any measure he has done a world of good for this system,” Curry said. “It
was his mission and his vision and we’ve all benefited from it.”
Peter Nessen, Romney’s special advisor on education and workforce development
stressed that the intention of the reorganization is to create a system that
includes the smaller community colleges, state universities and other UMass
campuses and take out the speciality schools that don’t fit. Montigny said he
and other legislators are willing and plan to fight Romney on his proposal,
which he said the governor has kept vague purposely.
“Higher education is the key to the resurgence of this region and I will not
stand by and watch what is, in essence, the destruction of higher education,”
the senator said. “I will spend whatever political capital necessary to make
sure he doesn’t win.”
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