(Image via umb.edu)
Staff Writer: Connor Sullivan
Email: csullivan14@umassd.edu
The University of Massachusetts released its annual State of the University on social media and in the emails of UMass students on Tuesday, March 12th, to share the accomplishments and goals of the public university system.
The video featured UMass President Martin Meehan outlining existing efforts to support students at each of UMass’s five campuses and to increase the university’s accessibility to more potential students.
“To remain an engine of research and economic and workforce development, UMass must remain focused on our core mission of providing an excellent education to our students that is affordable and accessible,” said Meehan.
The video was recorded in a Greater Lowell Technical High School classroom, one of the first to participate in the UMass Commonwealth Collegiate Academy. During the program, UMass Lowell and UMass Dartmouth faculty taught college-level courses at ten local high schools.
The program is one of UMass’s efforts to decrease students’ financial burdens, which was a significant focus of the video.
Meehan claimed that, because of this program, these students “collectively earned nearly 1,000 free credits that will help them lower the cost of college.” He added, “more than 50 Commonwealth Collegiate Academy students have been accepted for Fall ‘24 admission to UMass Lowell or UMass Dartmouth.” The program has been successful enough to warrant further expansion.
“We’ve added more courses and have increased enrollment to nearly 600 students,” said Meehan, “And next fall, we expect to add new high school partners and to be joined by faculty from our flagship campus in Amherst.”
Early college programs are also planned to be implemented at UMass Boston. Meehan describes how Boston students will be able to earn up to 30 college credits, equivalent to one year of college, while attending high school for no extra charge.
Additionally, UMass Boston is planning to partner with Boston Public Schools to create the city’s first University-Assisted Community Hub School. Mayor Michelle Wu announced the school last year during her State of the City address. She claimed the school aims to create a pathway to UMass Boston by providing public high school students access to college-level coursework and resources.
Meehan said, “Within the next five years, we plan to expand our early college initiatives to serve more than 2,000 high school students and broaden our early college reach to more rural areas of the state.”
Along with early college initiatives, UMass has attempted to increase accessibility by expanding its contributions to financial aid. As Meehan says, “Last year, we contributed $395 million to university-generated financial aid, continuing a decade-long trend that has seen the university’s contributions to financial aid increase by 88%.”
A press release published by UMass Boston specifies that this contribution represents “$22 million more than last year and $185 million more than a decade ago.” They also specify that this figure is mostly “grants from university sources,” which make up “nearly three times the amount of grant aid provided by the state and federal governments ($137 million).”
Meehan also credited the work of Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll with increasing the college’s accessibility. In particular, he cited two new policies they helped introduce last year.
The first policy was the expansion of Mass Grant Plus, the state-funded financial aid program. According to WBUR, this $62 million increase in funding went towards covering “the full cost of tuition and fees for Pell Grant-eligible students, including the federal government-determined expected family contribution, and an additional allowance of up to $1,200 for books and supplies.”
The second policy was the creation of MassReconnect. This program offers to pay all tuition and fees for students earning an associate degree who are 25 or older and haven’t already earned a degree.
“UMass is a strong partner in these efforts,” said Meehan, who discussed several efforts to assist community college graduates in transferring to UMass colleges.
One of these is the Community College Advantage Scholarship. According to MassBay Community College, the scholarship provides students who graduate in the top 10% of their class “a minimum of $2,500 per semester ($5,000 annually) for a total of at least $10,000 for the student’s final two years of college.”
Another effort has been optimizing the Mass Transfer Program, which offers guaranteed admission to a state university for community college students who graduate above a certain GPA. The program also offers various scholarships and financial aid based on students’ performance.
“Already community college students can save as much as 40% on a UMass degree by participating in Mass Transfer’s Commonwealth commitment program,” said Meehan, “We want to do even better.” Meehan did not specify how they intend to optimize the program.
Meehan concluded the presentation by arguing the importance and value of a college degree. He acknowledges the growing skepticism surrounding college education, citing a poll by the Wall Street Journal and the University of Chicago, where 56% of participants expressed that a college education was not worth the price.
Meehan argued that “what is supported by economists across the board is that a four-year college degree is worth it for students from nearly every social and economic background.” He claims that 97% of four-year college graduates see a return on their investment within ten years, a figure from a report published by the Institute for Higher Education Policy.
“In a state like Massachusetts, driven by a knowledge and innovation economy, challenged by workforce shortages in important industries like healthcare and technology, and facing a declining population of college-educated workers, expanding access to a college degree is critical to our collective future,” said Meehan.