Talking Points for the Readiness Project Open Forum
November 29, 4 to 6 pm, Campus Center Ballroom
UMass Amherst is an excellent public, research, land-grant university, and it can be even
better.
Goals in brief:
o A public university
 Foster educational innovations that combine the advantages of a great
research university with a small liberal arts college.
 Improve access and affordability.
o A research university
 Achieve membership in the Association of American Universities.
o A land-grant university
 Contribute to the economic revival of western Massachusetts, helping to
replace the lost manufacturing jobs in Springfield.
 Through education and research, contribute to economic development in the
whole Commonwealth and the nation.

Resources needed to achieve these goals:
o More tenure-track faculty and librarians and better compensation and working
conditions for lecturers and adjuncts
o Financial aid and other alternatives to increasing tuition and fees.
o Support for teaching: innovative instructional programs, better classrooms, more
graduate teaching assistants, departmental offices, library.
o Support for research and technological innovation: labs, graduate assistants, library
o Infrastructure for education and economic development in Springfield.
Goals in more detail

A Public University
o Goals:
 Foster educational innovations that combine the advantages of a great
research university with a small liberal arts college.
 Extend the benefits of this education to all families in the Commonwealth,
regardless of income, by ensuring affordability and access.
o Why?
 A great research university gives undergraduates the opportunity to be taught
by internationally recognized faculty, to participate in ground-breaking
research, and to choose among a wide variety of fields.
 A small liberal arts college offers a more individualized educational
experience.
 Access and affordability are written into the 1862 Morrill Act that created the
land grant universities: “to promote the liberal and practical education of the
industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.” (7 U.S.C.
§305).
o
What we are already doing:
 There are many existing programs that contribute to a student’s experience at
UMass Amherst: Commonwealth College, Five College Consortium, the
Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, Residential Academic
Programs (RAP), Talent Advancement Programs (TAP), Community Service
Learning, Learning Commons, Writing Program, General Education, …
o Synergies:
 The availability of high-quality, affordable education will produce major
substantive improvements locally, in the economically depressed areas of
western Massachusetts, and will generate intellectual resources for the entire
Commonwealth.
 Affordability is crucial in creating and maintaining a diverse student body.
 Quality and affordability will become synonymous with the UMass Amherst
brand.
 Tenure-track faculty are the principal source of any university’s reputation
for quality.

A Research University
o Goal:
 Achieve membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU).
The AAU is a consortium of the 60 leading American research universities.
 Why should the Commonwealth do less?
o Why?
 Nationally, there are 35 public flagship campuses with AAU membership.
 They are spread across 23 states: Arizona, California (6), Colorado, Florida,
Illinois, Indiana (2), Iowa (2), Kansas, Maryland, Michigan (2), Minnesota,
Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York (2), North Carolina, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania (2), Texas (2), Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.
 In FY 2004, the 60 AAU universities received $16.9 billion in federal grants
— that’s 58% of all federal research dollars.
 Because they bring in so much outside money and because research leads to
new businesses, the public AAU universities are major engines of economic
development for their states and regions.
o What we are already doing:
 UMass Amherst has been fortunate to attract and retain excellent tenured and
tenure-track faculty — though in much diminished numbers as a result of
repeated budget cuts.
 These faculty do a great job of pursuing research and bringing in grants
despite many infrastructure problems.
o Synergies:
 The AAU brand leads to enhanced recognition and even higher quality. For
example, 2/3 of the 2006 entering class of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences come from AAU institutions, as do 82% of all National
Academy members.
 A strategic alliance with UMass Medical School is likely to be a part of a
successful bid for AAU membership.

A Land-Grant University
o Goals:
 To fulfill the University’s land-grant mission by doing for Greater
Springfield what MIT and Harvard did for Greater Boston: create an educated
work-force and the new businesses that will employ them in the knowledgebased economy.
 To lead the way in developing 21st century alternatives to the manufacturing
jobs that were lost when so many of Springfield’s largest employers closed
(Springfield Armory in 1968, American Bosch in 1986, Danaher Tool in
2005).
 Through education and research, to support innovation and economic
development in the Commonwealth and the nation.
o What we are already doing:
 Research and economic development: Springfield Task Force, Pioneer Valley
Life Sciences Institute, Clean Energy, Commercial Ventures and Intellectual
Property, Center for Economic Development, …
 Education: Continuing and Professional Education, Extension, University
Without Walls, Arts Extension Service, WFCR, Community Service
Learning, …
o Synergies:
 Research supports economic development supports education supports
research …
 Affordability and access are crucial if the benefits of a UMass Amherst
education are to be available to the all Massachusetts residents, regardless of
income.
 Improvement in socio-economic, racial, and ethnic diversity of student body.