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University of Massachusetts Amherst
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The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst, Massachusetts, or UMass) is a selective research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts. The University of Massachusetts Amherst offers over 90 undergraduate and 65 graduate areas of study. It was known as the University of Massachusetts from 1947 until the creation of the UMass system, for which it now serves as the flagship campus.
university was founded in 1863 under the provisions of the Federal Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to provide instruction to Massachusetts citizens in the "agricultural, mechanical, and military arts".
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Encyclopedia
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst, Massachusetts, or UMass) is a selective research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts. The University of Massachusetts Amherst offers over 90 undergraduate and 65 graduate areas of study. It was known as the University of Massachusetts from 1947 until the creation of the UMass system, for which it now serves as the flagship campus.
History
Foundation and early years
The university was founded in 1863 under the provisions of the Federal Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to provide instruction to Massachusetts citizens in the "agricultural, mechanical, and military arts". Accordingly, the university was initially named the Massachusetts Agricultural College, popularly referred to as Mass Aggie or M.A.C.. At the time, the university had 50 men enrolled and including only a fraction of what the campus is today- including the Old Chapel, South College, and Goodell Hall, which was the library at the time. In 1931, due to an increase in enrollment and support from the Commonwealth, it was renamed Massachusetts State College.
Architecture
The school has several buildings of importance in the modernist style, including the campus center designed by Marcel Breuer, the designed by Hugh Stubbins Jr of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, The Fine Arts Center by Kevin Roche, and the Mullins Center by Gordon Bunshaft. The eclectic mix of building styles draws mixed reactions from students and visitors. The is currently undergoing an exterior renovation. New construction projects on campus include the Studio Arts Building and the Integrated Sciences Center.
Recent expansion project
In 2004, former Governor Mitt Romney proposed an ambitious expansion project in which the size and population of the university would almost double as it took over the role of the state's community college system which Romney has begun to consolidate and dismantle. While this proposal received the support of the student government, town residents are exceedingly resistant to any such plan as it would increase the already critical traffic congestion in the center of town.
Following Mitt Romney's mandate, the UMass Amherst administration has pushed for admission of more students than there are residences. A large construction initiative, known as "New Dirt" is currently underway, in renovating and building new residential and academic facilities. Before the completion of North Apartments, the increasing size of the undergraduate body caused residence halls to reach maximum capacity, and many first year and transfer students were placed in area hotels until housing became available.
Designation as flagship campus
In 2003, for the first time, UMass Amherst was legally designated by the state legislature to be a "research university" and the "flagship campus" of the UMass system.
Academics
Admissions
The number of applications to UMass Amherst has almost doubled from 16,500 to 29,000 in just five years, increasing for the third consecutive year. Sixty-four percent of applicants were accepted to the University, and 2% to the Commonwealth College (14% of those accepted). The incoming Class of 2012 had an average 3.55 GPA in high school, also an increase from previous years.
Commonwealth College
The Commonwealth College (ComCol) is the honors college at UMass. The honors college provides students the opportunity to intensify their UMass academic curriculum. The requirements of the college are to complete a set number of the required classes for one's major at the honors level as well as complete a senior year thesis or capstone project and several Dean's book courses. Completion of the ComCol courseload is required in order to graduate the University with higher Latin honors designations, such as magna or summa cum laude. Graduates with Grade Point Averages of higher than 3.2 on a 4.0 scale receive the Latin honor cum laude whether they are members of the ComCol or not. ComCol provides honors students an additional community of students to interact with outside of their academic department.
Library
The is the tallest library in the United States and the tallest academic library in the world. It is also well regarded for its innovative architectural design, which incorporates the bookshelves into the structural support of the building. It is home of the memoirs and papers of the distinguished African-American activist and Massachusetts native W. E. B. Du Bois as well as being the depository for other important collections, such as the papers of the late Congressman Silvio O. Conte.
Special Collections include
- Social change and movements for social change
- African American history and culture
- Labor, work, and industry
- Literature and the arts
- Agriculture
- The history of the region
The W.E.B. DuBois Library is also notable for being home to the Learning Commons, opened in 2005. The Learning Commons provides a central location for resources provided by several departments across campus including Library Reference, Office of Information Technologies Help Desk, Academic Advising, Writing Center, Career Services, and Assistive Technologies Center. The Learning Commons has 164 computers with a broad range of software installed arranged in a variety of configurations for both individual and collaborative work. The library has all sorts of services including tutoring, writing workshops, and supplemental instruction scattered among its 26 floors. The building itself is so large that it needs a security force. That security force is the Building Monitor Desk. The desk is managed by various supervisors and student employees.
The is the other main library on campus. It is located on the 2nd floor of the (occasionally referred to as the Lederle "low rise").
UMass Amherst is home to the DEFA Film Library , the only archive and study collection of East German films outside of Europe.
Other libraries include the Shirley Graham Du Bois Library in New Africa House, the Biological Sciences Library in Morrill Hall, and the Music Reserve Lab in the Fine Arts Center.
Information technology
UMass Amherst is a member of Internet2.
The Office of Information Technologies (OIT) provides all faculty, staff, and students with an OIT account which provides access to a variety of services including email (), online storage space (), web hosting space, and .
OIT maintains 11 computer classrooms across campus with approximately 300 computers available to members of the UMass community. Many of these are the computer available in the Learning Commons located in the WEB DuBois Library. Additionally many departments and programs have their own computing resources available for members of those groups.
Many UMass Amherst instructors make use of Blackboard's WebCT Vista learning management system (which has been branded as SPARK on campus) for delivery of course content via the web.
In the winter of 2003, the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) rolled out the system, which is based on PeopleSoft's student information system. At UMass, SPIRE is a web-based system used to register for courses, as well as a variety of other tasks.
On October 21, 2005 UMass Amherst was designated as the first-in-the-nation Microsoft IT Showcase School by CEO Steve Ballmer, recognizing the university's innovative leadership in applying information technology to teaching and learning.
In April 2008, UMass Amherst announced a campus alert system whereby members of the university can receive emergency notification via text messaging.
Five College consortium
UMass Amherst is part of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes, borrow books, work with professors, etc., at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges.
All five colleges are located within 10 miles of Amherst center, and are accessible by public bus. The five share an astronomy department and some other undergraduate and graduate departments.
Research labs at UMass Amherst
Autonomous Learning Laboratory (Computer Science)
- Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (Computer Science)
- Knowledge Discovery Laboratory (Computer Science)
- Laboratory For Perceptual Robotics (Computer Science)
- Center for Geometry, Analysis, Numerics, and Graphics (Mathematics)
- Center for Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Computation (Mathematics)
- Center for Economic Development
- Political Economy Research Institute
- Center for Education Policy
- The Environmental Institute
- Center for Public Policy and Administration
- Labor Relations and Research Center
- Virtual Center for Supernetworks
- Antennas and Propagation Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
- Center for Advanced Sensor and Communication Antennas (CASCA) (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
- Multimedia Networks Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Network Systems Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Wireless Systems Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- VLSI Circuits and Systems Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Reconfigurable Computing Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Architecture and Real Time Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Complex Systems Modeling and Control Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Emerging Electronics Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Feedback Control Systems Lab (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Information Systems Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Laboratory for Millimeter Wavelength Devices and Applications (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering))
- Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory (MIRSL)(Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Terahertz Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- VLSI CAD Laboratory (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Yield and Reliability of VLSI Circuits (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Software systems and architecture group (Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)
- Scientific Reasoning Research Institute
- National Center for Digital Government
- Renewable Energy Research Laboratory
- Center for e-design
Ranking and reputation
U.S. News and World Report's 2009 edition of America's Best Colleges placed UMass Amherst at #102 on their list of "Best National Universities" ranking it the joint 46th amongst Public Universities.
The Times Higher Education Supplement ranked UMass Amherst as the 175th best university in the world. The MBA program is highly ranked by the Princeton Review.
Student life
Registered Student Organizations
UMass Amherst has . Most RSOs are funded by the Student Government Association (SGA), from the activity fee that all students pay, however, the SGA has often been criticized for not funding all clubs fully or equally. In recent years, the fee has been about $81. In order to start an RSO, one needs a group of at least eight interested students, who then petition the SGA for recognition. Each semester, the SGA reviews RSOs, and those which have too few members are considered inactive. Club Sports, which are non-NCAA athletic or organized sports teams, are considered RSOs.
On May 6, 2008, the hosted an awards show entitled The Sammies for the second time. The Sammies is designed to allow RSOs to give awards to other outstanding RSOs. Over 50 different awards were presented to student leaders and exemplary RSO in more than 20 categories. Among the winners was the which garnered the coveted "Best RSO of the Year" award.
Student government
The Student Government Association (SGA) is the undergraduate student governmental body, and provides funding for the many registered student organizations (RSOs) and agencies, including the Student Legal Services Office (SLSO) and the Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy (SCERA). The SGA also makes formal recommendations on matters of Administration policy and advocates for undergraduate students to the Administration, non-student organizations, and local and state government.
The SGA has three branches: the President and Executive Cabinet, the Undergraduate Student Senate, and the Student Judiciary.
Area governments
There are a total of six area governments. Each of the campus's six residential areas has an area government, and there is also a Commuter Area Government to serve commuter students. Area governments provide social programming for their areas, and are in charge of the house councils for the dorms in their area. They also represent the needs and interests of students in their areas to the Administration, Housing Services, and the SGA.
Area Governments have a tradition of sponsoring large events, generally in the Spring, such as Fill the Hill, Bowl Weekend and Southwest Week.
House councils
Each residence hall or residential "cluster" (a group of residence halls) at UMass Amherst has a house council. House councils report to their respective area governments. Its budget comes from voluntary dues collected in return for access to common supplies (access to the kitchenette, rental access to vacuums, brooms, games, etc). House councils also engage in social programming for their halls or clusters, and advocate to housing staff in regards to concerns of students in their hall/cluster.
Army ROTC
The is one of the permiere Army ROTC battalions in the Army . Boasting a program that annually performs well above national averages and among the top handful of programs in the northeast USA, Army ROTC recently enjoyed the announcement of a senior Cadet being named the #1 Cadet in the nation in a national class of over 4,000 Cadets. UMass has earned this prestigious achievement twice in the last 15 years. The training program is among the best at preparing officers for the US Army and commissionees regularly outperform their peers in initial Army officer training. Active on the Amherst campus, the program's Scabbard and Blade community service club is very active and represents UMass well throughout the year with food drives, assistance to local veteran's groups and assistance with the Medical Readiness Corps at UMass in preparing for large-scale medical disasters. The most unusual activity associated with Army ROTC is the Light Leader's Tactical Society, in which Cadets train in dynamic real-world environments and scenarios. Most students are on a UMass-Amherst is the host program for the Pioneer Valley and Five Colleges Army ROTC programs including: Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Western New England College (WNEC), Springfield College, Westfield State College and American International College (AIC). At and , students on Army ROTC Scholarships also earn free room and board.
Marching band
UMass Amherst has the largest marching band in New England. The Minuteman Marching Band consists of over 390 members and regularly plays at football games. The band is led by George N. Parks. The Minuteman Band also won the prestigious Sudler Trophy in 1998 for excellence. The band is well known across the nation for its style and excellence, particularly for its percussion and tuba sections. The band also performs in various other places like Allentown, Pennsylvania, Bands of America, Boston, and on occasion Montreal.
Fraternities and Sororities
UMass is home to numerous fraternities and sororities, organized under four councils: IFC, NPC, NPHC, and the MGC. Several Greek Life organizations had houses on until Alpha Tau Gamma, Inc. who owned the property for many years, did not renew the leases. The North Pleasant Street houses were colloquially known as Frat Row. Most of Alpha Tau Gamma Properties' houses were out of code and were razed November, 2006. The land was then sold to the University. Currently several sororities & fraternities still live in "Frat Row" including Sigma Delta Tau, Pi Kappa Alpha, , Phi Sigma Kappa and Theta Chi. Behind "Frat Row" or North Pleasant Street there are more sorority houses such as Sigma Kappa, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Alpha Chi Omega. Two other houses Chi Omega and Sigma Phi Epsilon are situated on Olympia Drive, on the northern outskirts of the campus. Delta Upsilon is also situated on North Pleasant Street just past Lederle and Totman. is also on campus. recently relocated to Sunset Ave, and Pi Kappa Alpha returned to campus in Spring of '07.
Several organizations do not have houses, such as , Alpha Epsilon Phi, Zeta Psi and the NPHC, and the MGC fraternities and sororities.
The Greek community has several annual traditions, including UDance, the Relay for Life and the annual Greek Week, during which the various fraternities are partnered with sororities, and these teams compete with each other throughout a week of challenges.
The Greek community at UMass Amherst is a great way for students to get involved in the community of UMass and of Amherst. It is a diverse group of students, and an even more diverse group of alumni. The alumni of the UMass Greek community are actively involved in the present community and offer the students great networking opportunities.
The different councils of the Greek system have governing boards, referred to as Executive Boards. The members of these boards are elected or appointed into their positions and hold them for a year term.
Interfraternity Council Officers
President: Ryan McLane
Vice President of Activities: Taylor Rossi
Vice President of Recruitment: Adam Hollander
Vice President of Standards: Ed Smith
Vice President of Finance: Andrew Puopolo
Communications: Mike Fox
Community Service: Chris Grosse
Public Relations: Andrew Dawson
Panhellenic Council Executive Board
President: Kathleen Fitzgerald
VP of Standards: Melissa Clark
VP of Membership: Stacy Green
VP of Activities: Alyssa Lubin
VP of Comm/PR: Meghan Leary
VP of Finance: Stacey Parke
NPHC Executive Board
President: Jonalis Carrasquillo
Vice President: Jhovon Williams
Treasurer: Christina Ewing
Secretary: Yannick Brookes
Parliamentarian: Jamilah Murrell
Multicultural Greek Council Executive Board
President: Peter Rojas
Vice President: Lorena Holguin
Secretary: Alyssa Young
Historian: Richard Yang
The Daily Collegian
The student-operated newspaper, , is published Monday through Friday during the University of Massachusetts' calendar semester. The Collegian is independently funded, operating on advertising revenue. Founded in 1890, the paper began as Aggie Life, became the College Signal in 1901, the Weekly Collegian in 1914 and the Tri-Weekly Collegian in 1956. Published daily since 1967, the Collegian has been broadsheet since January 1994. The Daily Collegian is the largest daily college newspaper in New England.
UVC-TV 19
The Union Video Center is the University of Massachusetts' student-run television station, located in the basement of the Student Union. is part of the University's Housing Cable Services Network and airs on channel 19 to over 11,000 viewers on campus via a closed circuit system. UVC began as the Student Video Project in 1974, and was renamed the Union Video Center in 1978 after growing into a full-fledged television station. Today, UVC-TV 19 serves as a resource on campus for full-time undergraduate students interested in learning about any aspect of television, video production, or cablecasting by providing access to audio and video equipment, studio, and editing workstations. Student members cover campus events and guest lectures, produce original shows, films and documentaries, and air their work on UVC.
WMUA 91.1FM
The student-operated radio station, , is a federally licensed, non-commercial broadcast facility serving the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts, Northern Connecticut, and Southern Vermont. Although the station is managed by full-time undergraduate students of the University of Massachusetts, station members can consist of various members of the University (undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff), as well as people of the surrounding communities. WMUA began as an AM station in 1949, and today broadcasts music, news, sports, and public affairs programming. The station is located in the basement of the Lincoln Campus Center.
Campus
Buildings and layout
The campus extends about a mile from the Campus Center in all directions. The university owns significant amounts of land in the nearby town of Sunderland.
The campus may be thought of as a series of concentric rings. In the outermost ring are parking lots, the admissions center, playing fields and barns for the animal science program. In the middle ring there are the six residential areas and dining commons. The innermost ring has most of the classroom buildings and research labs.
South Campus
The has its buildings in the southernmost part of campus near the Visitors Center and the Newman Center, the Catholic student center. In addition to being the site of the main administration building, , the southeast side of campus has buildings mainly dedicated to the humanities and fine arts. Buildings include , , Mahar and the (Abbreviated "FAC"). Between Whitmore, the FAC and Isenberg lies the Haigis Mall, a local stop on both the PVTA and Peter Pan bus lines. The buildings on the southwest side of campus house the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. These include Dickinson Hall and Tobin Hall.
Student Union
The houses most of the University's (RSO's) and it is the home of the Student Government Association. Other facilities include the Campus Design and Copy (CD&C) center, a convenience store, a ball room, and a student lounge. Several student-run businesses and co-ops are also present including Tickets Unlimited (Tix), Bike Coop, the Fair trade convenience store, bagel shop People's Market and a vegan/vegetarian eatery .
South College
South College is the home of UMass' world renowned linguistics department. The DuBois library was intended to be an annex to South College.
Campus Center
Designed by famed architect Marcel Breuer, the Murray D. Lincoln is located adjacent to the Student Union and is accessible via passageways from both the Student Union as well as from the main level of the parking garage.
On the concourse level are the campus store, restrooms, graduate student lounge, which serves beer, and the Bluewall, which contains a cafe, a smoothie stand and a fair trade coffee stand. This level is a high-traffic area throughout most of the day with students and faculty not only using it as a 'pass through' from one building to another, but also as the central hub of on-campus life. Many people often pass the time between classes on this level and it is common to find vendors and organizations operating from fold-out tables along either side.
The lower level of the campus center has multiple conference rooms and a large auditorium. Within the central space of the lower level are telephones, ATMs, vending, as well as couches and television. The offices of the University newspaper, The Daily Collegian, can be found at the far end of the level, along with the University radio station, WMUA, and its offices. One of the basement rooms is home to the UMass Science Fiction Society's library which is the second largest Science Fiction library on the east coast.
The top floor of the Campus Center, "The Top of the Campus" recently underwent a complete renovation. It is home to a state of the art teaching kitchen, beverage lab and dining room facility.
Campus Center Hotel
Above the concourse level is the Campus Center Hotel , a five-level full service facility with 116 rooms, including two suites located in the Campus Center. The Campus Center Hotel is the training ground for the university's Hospitality and Tourism Management students.
Fletcher's Cafe
Fletcher's Café is a student run business on campus at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. It is located in Flint Lab, the Hospitality and Tourism Management building, which is next to the campus center parking garage. Students that are part of the Hospitality and Tourism Management major take on full managerial responsibilities and are required to hire employees, order food and drinks, take care of accounting and hopefully make a profit by the end of the semester.
North Campus
The north side of campus is mostly dedicated to science and engineering, and many buildings there are newer than their counterparts in the humanities. The Physics Department primarily uses Hasbrouck Lab, located at 666 North Pleasant Street. The Lederle Graduate Research Tower is the largest building on the north side, housing the Math department on its sixteenth floor. As the Math Department headquarters, the sixteenth floor is prominently labeled 4². The Silvio Conte Polymer Research facility is located in North campus.
Computer science
The Computer Science department recently moved into an airy new building built for them on the edge of campus, though classes are often taught elsewhere, especially for lower division classes. Between the imposing concrete LGRT, the second-story walkway from it to its sister structure the LGRC, the glass-and-aluminum Computer Science building, and other new buildings for the Engineering and Polymer Science departments, North Campus looks more "high-tech" than the rest of campus.
Sports, recreation, and exercise
Major sporting events, such as UMass's hockey and basketball team games, are held in the Mullins Center, amidst the fields to the west. Other locales for sporting events include Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium (where UMass holds its football games) and Garber Field, which is an artificial-turf field adjacent to Boyden Gym used for lacrosse, field hockey, and various team practices.
On campus there are two major gyms, the Totman Gym near Northeast and Sylvan and the Boyden Gym to the south. Each houses basketball courts, a weight/fitness room (Both are free to undergraduates), and various other resources such as racquetball and squash courts. To the west of campus are numerous fields used for recreation and for soccer and baseball. There is also a set of tennis courts located north of Boyden.
In addition to Totman and Boyden, there is Curry Hicks Cage, which hosts a small indoor track, pool, and basketball court. It is also occasionally used as a venue for guest speakers (such as the fall 2006 visit from comedian Bob Saget) and for the Western Mass high school basketball championships and other similar sporting events. The Cage was the home of the UMass men's and women's basketball teams before the Mullins Center was built.
Ground was broken in fall 2007 for a new building across the street from the Mullins Center. It will be a three-floor rec center, complete with a weight/fitness center spanning two floors. It is estimated to be constructed by spring 2008 and commissioned in spring 2009.
Campus Bus System
The campus bus system was established in 1969 as the Student Senate Transit Services (now UMass Transit). In 1973 a demonstration grant secured money to set up a fare-free transit system. This coupled with increased parking fees and strict parking regulations used to alleviate vehicular congestion and parking problems on campus. In 1976 the University of Massachusetts Transit Services became part of PVTA. The PVTA bus system is the second largest free public transportation system in the world. It serves not only the University of Massachusetts campus, but also the surrounding colleges and communities. This bus system is run primarily by University students and is free for students, which allows them to easily get to classes at the other four colleges.
Residential areas
At UMass Amherst, first and second year students are required to live on campus. Housing is open to all full-time undergraduate students, regardless of year. Upper-class students who have continuously lived on campus during their first and sophomore years are guaranteed housing as long as they choose to live on campus. If, however, a student is admitted after their sophomore year, or moves off campus, and wants to move back onto campus, they are not guaranteed housing, but instead must go through a housing lottery, since demand outstrips supply. Building and room selection is accomplished by a that takes into account building seniority as well as class year; those choosing to move from their building are subject to a lottery system. There are approximately 12,000 students living on-campus.
Students living on the UMass campus live in one of the six residential areas: North, Sylvan, Northeast, Central, Orchard Hill, and Southwest. Several residential areas have a student-run business. All campus residence halls are staffed by Resident Assistants, who provide programming and community development, as well as enforce policies, and have quiet hours, which start at 9 pm on weekdays, 12 midnight on the weekends, but may vary from hall to hall.
North Residential Area
Recently completed, the newest residence halls on campus opened in the Fall of 2006. Located between Sylvan and Northeast, these apartment-style dormitories house approximately 850 undergraduates in four buildings. The buildings are currently named North A, B, C, and D. Each unit comprises four single bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a shared common area including a full kitchen. Other amenities include Ethernet and cable access, central air, and laundry on-site. New to North in 2008 includes free wireless access throughout the North Residential area. This is separate from the main UMASS wi-fi and allows for faster speeds and easy connectivity in the area. This is a nine-month housing area, which allows students to remain on campus from September to May.
Sylvan Residential Area
Sylvan is adjacent to the North Residential Area, and before the opening of North in 2006, was the newest residential area on campus, construction having been completed in the early 1970s. Sylvan contains three, eight-story towers: McNamara, Brown, and Cashin. Sylvan is distinctive for offering suite-style living in a shady wooded area. Sylvan derives from Latin silva, "a wood or grove." Each residence hall contains 64 suites and each suite is either all-male or all-female. For Fall 2007, a gender-neutral suite was made available "to students who do not want to identify a gender, students whose gender identity is in transition, and their friends and allies." In Fall 2009, Cashin will become a 12-month dorm providing on-campus housing for graduate students.
Each suite is a mixture of double and single rooms, a common bathroom, and a common living room. Suites accommodate six to eight residents. Sylvan is also home to the Sylvan Snack Bar (SSB) one of eight student-run businesses on campus. The SSB delivers food right to students doors in the Sylvan living area. The snack bar, located in the basement of the McNamara building, provides food and a student hang out for the Sylvan residents.
Northeast Residential Area
Northeast is across the street from North and diagonal to Sylvan. The residential area consists of nine buildings assembled in a rectangle surrounding a grassy quad. Northeast is one of the oldest residential areas on campus and has what one might call classic academic architecture, consisting of red brick buildings and gabled/shingled roofs. Buildings of note in Northeast include Johnson, which is an all female dorm; Hamlin, which is an all male dorm; as well as Lewis, which provides international students with 9-month housing and is home to one of the facilities offered on campus. Thatcher is unique because it has a foreign language program, which includes several floors, each with a different language. The residents of these floors are encouraged to speak the language they are studying with their floor-mates. Dwight Hall offers the Asian-American Student Program. Crabtree Hall and Leach Hall house the Engineering Residential Academic Programs (RAPs). There is also the 2 in 20 Floor, which fosters a positive connection with the campus's LGBT community. Its location is undisclosed to protect its residents' privacy.
In Fall 2008, the cluster of Crabtree, Mary Lyon, and Knowlton (CMLK) became all-freshmen housing, as Northeast joined the First Year Experience program to offer freshman-only living. The previously all-female Knowlton became co-ed, and Johnson became the new all-female dorm.
Northeast is also home to Worcester Dining Common, which contains a separate dining room called the Oak Room, primarily offering Asian-style food during the lunch and dinner hours. Worcester's basement is also home to a large, grocery-style convenience store as well as one of the four Pita Pit locations on campus.
Central Residential Area
Central is unique because it has three academic buildings in addition to nine residence halls located along a hill on the east side of campus. Academic buildings in Central include Hills House, New Africa House, and Fernald Hall. Central is also home to the Central Art Gallery in Wheeler House. New Africa House has a particularly interesting history; the building was formerly known as Mills House, and was a dormitory prior to an incident in 1969 when a group of black students seized the building and barricaded themselves within, ordering all white residents to either join forces with them or get out of the building. The faculty of the newly formed Afro-American Studies department responded by moving its offices into the building to show solidarity with the black students, and the building became New Africa House.
Central is organized into 4 clusters of buildings: Gorman-Wheeler and Brett-Brooks at the bottom of the hill, Baker, Chadbourne and Greenough ("BCG") organized in a quad halfway up the hill, and Van Meter-Butterfield ("VMB") at the top of the hill. Gorman Hall is a building-wide Living Learning Community called NUANCE. Founded in 1989, it is a diversity awareness Living Learning Community. It also offers substance-free housing on its Wellness floor. Wheeler is home to the Central Art Gallery. Brett is a nine-month housing dorm, allowing students to stay during breaks for a fee. Brett has had a reputation for being a popular option for student-athletes before the North Apartments were built, and still houses the freshman hockey players. Brooks is the only all-Wellness dorm on campus, requiring all of its residents to abstain from substance use. Baker, one of the largest dorms on campus, houses the Area Office. Greenough has a substance-free floor and is also home to the Greeno Sub Shop, another one of the student run businesses. Chadbourne houses the Josephine White Eagle Native American Cultural Center. Butterfield and Van Meter are freshman-only dorms. Van Meter is the largest dorm on campus in terms of residents, while Butterfield is the smallest and has a rich community history.
University Health Services is located next to Brett and Brooks halls, on Infirmary Way. Central is serviced by Franklin Dining Common, across the street from Brett and Wheeler. Franklin contains kosher and vegan dining options as well as a convenience store and the UCard office.
Orchard Hill Residential Area
Completed in 1964, The Orchard Hill residence area is north of Central, and has four residence halls: Dickinson, Webster, Grayson and Field. As of the 2007 school year, Dickinson and Webster buildings were converted to freshman-only housing. Webster is home to one of the facilities offered on campus. Orchard Hill is known for its yearly spring event, Bowl Weekend, which is put on each year by the Orchard Hill Area Government. Many students from the Commonwealth College honors program live in Orchard Hill as part of Learning Communities. Orchard Hill also houses a number of Talent Advancement Programs. . Orchard Hill also refers to the hill on which the and a cell phone tower are located. The cell phone tower also supports a microwave relay system for internet and land phone service at the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, located on a peninsula within the Quabbin Reservoir. Grayson and Field dorms are the only pair of dorms on campus to be internally connected. Field also houses Sweets 'n More, a student run business on campus.
Orchard Hill is the only residential area on campus where single rooms are not offered; all of the rooms in the four buildings are doubles with the same layout. The area is serviced by both Franklin and Worcester Dining Commons, which are roughly the same distance away.
Southwest Residential Area
is the largest residential area on the UMass campus.
Southwest is composed of five 22-story towers (Coolidge and the all-freshman Kennedy are side-by-side in the north and John Quincy Adams, John Adams and Washington are arranged in a cluster in the south) and 11 smaller residence halls, also known as low-rises (the height of which varies from building to building), holding a total of around 5,500 students. The low-rises are arranged as such: two freshman-only clusters in the north (James-Emerson and Thoreau-Melville), a freshman-only cluster in the south (Cance, Moore, and Pierpont), and located along Sunset Avenue to the east are two clusters (Prince-Crampton in the north and MacKimmie-Patterson in the south) offering nine-month housing. Cluster offices are located in James, Melville, Cance, Prince, MacKimmie, Pierpont, and in each of the five towers. Additionally, Thoreau and Cance are home to the area office for the north and south portions of Southwest, respectively. Moore is home to the Residence Life Resource Center. Meanwhile, JQA and Washington are the homes to two of the facilities offered on campus.
Southwest houses three of the five campus dining commons, including the inactive Hampden Dining Common. Hampshire is in the north and the newly-renovated Berkshire is in the south, both offering traditional food. Berkshire also offers Late Night, a popular snack-oriented option open until midnight on weeknights. Hampden, which was originally going to be a tower itself before contractors realized the foundation would not be able to support one, is host to the Hampden Art Gallery, Convenience Store (C-Store), Southwest Area Government(SWAG) Office, Latin American Cultural Center(LACC) and the Southwest Cafe & Pita Pit.
Also found in Crampton in Southwest is the Stonewall Center, a resource for LGBT students and allies.
Southwest houses approximately 50% of the students living on campus. Southwest is known for its lively, festive, and active community spirit, often stereotyped (both positively and negatively) as a center for "party" activity. After both victories and losses by the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox in 2002, 2003 and 2004, as well as after the December 2006 UMass defeat in the NCAA Division I-AA football championship game, students held large impromptu festive gatherings (also referred to as riots) in the Southwest Mall which led to injuries, incidents of property destruction, and significant police involvement. The first of these so-called riots was in 1996 when the Minutemen lost to Kentucky in the NCAA Final Four. Although the Patriots were not involved in Super Bowl XLI, campus security was tightened on Super Bowl Sunday in 2007 as a precautionary measure. The 2007 Boston Red Sox playoffs and World Series games were met with tight security as well and proved to be effective. On the night of the Red Sox World Series victory there was loud but peaceful celebration and minimal arrests were made.
Parking on-campus
Parking at UMass is open to all students via for a fee. Cost varies depending on seniority and location. The most typical student parking permits range from $60 to $300 for the year. It is a color coded system with Green, Purple and Yellow Lots available to students. Purple Lots are typically closest to the dorm/housing areas; Yellow Lots are the cheapest but the farthest away; Green lots are for commuter students.
Parking is also available in the campus garage for a fee of $1.50 per hour during the day. In the evening there is a night rate of $3.00. Payment options include cash or ucard. Meter parking is also available at select locations through out campus. The meters accept nickels, dimes, and quarters only.
Athletics
UMass is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The university is a member of the Atlantic Ten Conference, while playing ice hockey in the Hockey East Association. For football, UMass competes in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), a conference of the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS; known as Division I-AA before the 2006 season). UMass originally was known as the Statesmen, later the Aggies, then the Redmen, before changing their logo and nickname to the Minutemen. In a response to changing attitudes regarding the use of Native American-themed mascots, they changed their mascot in 1972 to the Minuteman. This has been lauded by many in the NCAA as being one of the greatest name changes due to the "minuteman" relationship with Massachusetts and its historical context. Women's teams and athletes are known as Minutewomen. UMass considers Boston College, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Connecticut as their biggest rivals.
The UMass-Amherst Department of Athletics currently sponsors Men's Intercollegiate Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Ice Hockey, Football, Lacrosse, Skiing, Soccer, Swimming and Track & Field. They also sponsor Women's Intercollegiate Basketball, Softball, Cross Country, Rowing, Skiing, Soccer, Swimming, Field Hockey, Track & Field and Tennis. Among Club Sports offered are Men's Varsity Wrestling, Men's Rowing, Men's Rugby, Women's Rugby and Men's And Women's Bicycle Racing.
Umass Amherst is also the location of The Amherst Tritons Swim Team. It is the local Amherst community parent-run swim team program located at Umass Amherst. The team practices during the week on campus in Totman Gymnasium, on the weekend the team travels to various locations for friendly competition allowing each boy or girl between the age of 5 and 18 to show off their skills. The team is a recreational team but also allows those who how have in interest in participating in Unites States Swimming League (USS). The team allows swimmers of all different swim levels to participate and reach their own goals. The team’s head coach is Jay Yankowski an Umass Alumni Swimmer.
Notable faculty
Alumni
The slogan of the Alumni Association, "You were. You are. UMASS."
The University is campaigning to get Alumni to purchase specialty Massachusetts license plates with the UMass Amherst logo. The proceeds from sales of the plates would go to help fund student scholarships.
The University Alumni Association operates out of Memorial Hall.
Campus activism
While some students at UMass add to its reputation as a party school, others among the undergraduate and graduate population have also received press for their , including rallies to repeal the imposition of a in 2003-2004, to protest for more favorable in 2005 and 2007, protesting tuition and fee hikes that make the university the second most expensive for in-state students (behind the University of Vermont) and many other campus issues.
Throughout the school's history, it has been the site of many sit-ins, and protests, often led by the Radical Student Union and its successor movements, Take Back UMass, amongst others.
UMass Amherst in the news
"Most violent campus" controversy
On November 17, 2005, ABC News' Primetime reported University of Massachusetts at Amherst as having the highest rate of violent crime on a campus of its size.
UMass officials said the report was flawed in two ways: first, ABC used figures from 2002 and 2003, when UMass reported 57 and 58 violent crimes, and did not take into account the data from 2004, when only 28 violent crimes were reported; second, the news program calculated the rate of violent crime by dividing the number of crimes by the total enrollment rather than by the number of on-campus residents."'Just as you would not include visitors, commuters, and tourists to calculate the crime rate among a city's population, neither should an aggregate number including off-campus students be included in a calculation of an on-campus crime rate", O'Malley, the general counsel, wrote to ABC News.
UMass Amherst Team of Scientists Create "Nano Nose"
A team of scientists at UMass, led by Vincent Rotello, have developed a molecular nose that can detect and identify various proteins. The research appeared in the May 2007 issue of Nature Nanotechnology, and the team is currently focusing on sensors which will detect the malformed proteins made by cancer cells.
UMass Amherst Team Create Fire-Safe Plastic
UMass Amherst scientists Richard Farris, Todd Emrick, and Bryan Coughlin lead the research team that has developed a synthetic polymer that doesn't burn. This polymer is a building block of plastic, and the new flame-retardant plastics won't need to have flame-retarding chemicals added to their composition. These chemicals have recently been found in many different areas from homes and offices to fish, and there are environmental and health concerns regarding the additives. The newly developed polymers would not require the addition of these potentially hazardous chemicals. Coughlin, one of the research team leaders, notes that this is "really a two-birds-with-one-stone approach for a new polymer. It is extremely fire-safe and does not contain halogenated additives, which are known to be environmentally hazardous."
Andrew Card Protest
On May 25, 2007, a large protest was held during the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Graduate Commencement where Andrew Card received an honorary degree. The protest was picked up and broadcast by MSNBC, as well as receiving a writeup by the Associated Press stating that small groups of students and faculty booed and held up signs while Andrew Card was given his honorary doctorate in public service. Due to the protests, Card chose not to speak and Provost Charlena Seymour's comments regarding the award were drowned out by the people involved in the protest.
The commencement protest followed two demonstrations on campus on May 8 and May 15, 2007 with regards to the honorary degree. Card was also protested earlier in the year when he came to UMass to give a lecture entitled "The American Political Landscape: Looking Towards 2008" on April 11, 2007. The Radical Student Union and the Graduate Student Senate organized protests which included a "die-in," where students fell prone with fake blood spattered on their clothes, as well as protest signs and the unfurling of a very large protest banner.
Jack Wilson's Restructuring of the UMass System
University of Massachusetts president Jack M. Wilson has proposed a "one university" plan for the UMass system, part of which included the excision of the Chancellor position. There are also other leadership restructurings which have received a fair amount of complaint from faculty and administration of the various UMass schools in the state: the faculty of UMass-Amherst passed a no-confidence vote in both the president and the trustees; UMass-Boston is currently considering doing the same.
There has been concern that much of the proposed plan has been developed behind closed doors within a small circle of the Board of Trustees. Members of the board have noted that even within the board itself there were members that were aware of the plan prior to it being transmitted to the board-at-large, a fact that has led some to speculate about the evolution of an insider group with its genesis in the involvement of Romney's appointments to the board and other organizations during his gubernatorial tenure. Stephen Tocco, Chairman of the Board, was backed and elevated by then-governor Mitt Romney. Romney also made other appointments to the board just before leaving office, as well as appointing Wilson as a Massachusetts Commissioner to the Education Commission of the States shortly before his exodus. The current plan centralizes some of the power within the UMass system by effectively combining the role of President and Chancellor into the President's office. Due to the uproar from a wide variety of camps, some commentators worry that this reorganization plan may weaken Wilson's position, depending on the effects of the various no-confidence votes and future reactions of the administration and faculty. In 2004, Ryan Kingsbury was named the Vice Dean of the school of Education. He resigned four days later, when we arrested for a DUI. He made various sexual remarks about the arresting officer's wife.
See also
External links
- (the bus system—see also )
- - unofficial site
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