Full Transcript of the 2024 State of the University

 

 

This year … I join you from the campus of Greater Lowell Technical High School … one of our early college partners in the UMass Commonwealth Collegiate Academy. 
 

In classrooms like this one during the normal school day, high school students take college-level courses in engineering, calculus, and digital technology offered by outstanding UMass Lowell faculty.  

Last semester alone, Greater Lowell Tech students earned more than 200 free UMass credits they can apply toward their future undergraduate degrees, giving them a head start on college completion and potentially saving them thousands of dollars. 

A little later on I’ll be sharing some exciting plans for the expansion of our early college initiatives.

As an alumnus and former chancellor I take great pride in UMass Lowell’s participation in the Commonwealth Collegiate Academy and its status as one of the top-ranked universities in the country for student outcomes. 

Under the leadership of Chancellor Julie Chen, UMass Lowell is the center of economic development discovery and engagement in the Merrimack Valley and will soon be designated a Carnegie Research One campus, joining the nation’s highest tier of research universities. 

That success is echoed across the Commonwealth… by our nationally ranked campuses in Amherst, Boston, and Dartmouth as well as at the Chan Medical School and UMass Law School. 

As the Commonwealth’s public research university, we educate nearly 74 thousand students and produce nearly 20 thousand graduates annually.  

They hail from 345 cities and towns in the Commonwealth all 50 states and more than 160 countries.

UMass graduates are more likely than their private school peers to stay in Massachusetts to live in Massachusetts, contribute to our workforce, and maintain our position as the most educated and innovative state in the nation.  

And while we prepare our students to make a major impact on the state economy, our world-renowned faculty conduct more than 813 million dollars in annual research, driving discovery and innovation and contributing to the university’s eight billion dollars in overall economic activity a 9 to 1 return on the state’s investment in UMass. 

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. 

Last year, we committed $395 million dollars to university-generated financial aid continuing a decade-long trend that has seen the university’s contributions to financial aid increase by 88 percent. 

Meanwhile, average student debt has declined.  
 

In fact, the number of UMass students who graduate with any debt at all has decreased by 10 percent over the last 10 years.

These results are only possible by adhering to a financial accountability framework implemented by our Board of Trustees led by Chairman Steve Karam and the incredible effort of our talented and experienced campus chancellors Javier Reyes, Marcelo Suarez Orozco, Mark Fuller, Julie Chen, and Michael Collins as well as their campus teams … and our team in the President’s Office.

This work is also supported by the state’s ongoing commitment to affordable public education demonstrated by the Healey-Driscoll administration and the Legislature. 

Examples include the historic expansion of the state-funded financial aid program Mass Grant Plus and the creation of MassReconnect, which provides free community college to residents over 25 years of age, both announced last year by Governor Healey. 

UMass is a strong partner in these efforts. 

While a traditional 4-year degree remains an affordable route for most of our students we have expanded our collaborations to pave and widen pathways from community college to UMass. 

Last year, I announced the Community College Advantage Scholarship, which provides automatic admission to UMass and ten thousand dollars in aid for students who graduate in the top ten percent of their class. 

And building on hundreds of articulation agreements with community colleges, UMass is committed to optimizing the MassTransfer program, including credit transfer, advising, and financial aid.

Already, community college students can save as much as 40 percent on a UMass degree by participating in Mass Transfer’s Commonwealth Commitment program. We want to do even better. 

Another initiative supporting affordability and accessibility is our investment in early college programs.  

According to national data from the American Institutes for Research students who participate in early college are more likely than their peers to attend college to complete their degree and to realize an increase in their lifetime earning potential. 

Here in Massachusetts data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education show that students of color who participate in early college are 20 to 30 percent more likely to enroll in a four-year degree program.

Last fall, we launched the Commonwealth Collegiate Academy right here at Greater Lowell Tech and at ten other high schools in Massachusetts two-thirds of which are in gateway communities.  

Faculty from both UMass Lowell and UMass Dartmouth offered 30 courses to more than 400 students exposing them to the rigor and pace of a college-level curriculum. 

They collaborated with high school teachers ensuring students' needs were met classroom and study habits were maintained and curriculum was aligned with their other classes.

As a result … students had access to coursework and content otherwise unavailable to them. They were exposed to new career pathways, gained confidence in their ability to succeed at the next level, and collectively earned nearly one thousand free credits that will help them lower the cost of college.

Students also visited our campuses, saw the learning and recreational facilities that would be available to them, and met with admissions and financial aid counselors.

These visits allowed students who may not have gone to college to envision it as a path for them.  

Already more than 50 Commonwealth Collegiate Academy students have been accepted for Fall 24 admission to UMass Lowell or UMass Dartmouth.

This Spring, we’ve added even more courses and have increased enrollment to nearly 600 students.

And next fall we expect to add new high school partners and be joined by faculty from our flagship campus in Amherst.

Meanwhile, UMass Boston has partnered with the City of Boston to launch their own immersive early college program that will provide Boston public high school students the opportunity to earn up to 30 college credits (one full year of college) for free.

And in her recent State of the City Address Mayor Michelle Wu announced the first University-Assisted Community Hub School to be operated in collaboration with UMass Boston.

Within the next five years, we plan to expand our early college initiatives to serve more than two thousand high school students and broaden our early college reach to more rural areas of the state.

Between our continued investment in financial aid, our expanding partnerships with community colleges, and our growing early college programs, UMass is demonstrating our deep, enduring, and mission-driven commitment to accessibility and affordability.

And in doing so we are ensuring that the greatest tool for social and economic mobility (a four-year college degree) remains achievable for students from all backgrounds in Massachusetts.

I was deeply troubled by a recent Wall Street Journal and University of Chicago poll that found that a majority of Americans (56 percent) believe a college degree is no longer worth the investment.

That represents a dramatic decline in the perceived value of college from just 10 years ago.

I know that there are many factors contributing to these changes in public opinion, some valid, some very much not.

But I also know … and 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 … and even more so for graduates of a public university, 97 percent of whom realize a return on their educational investment within ten years.

I also know that the further a student gets from graduation, the more valuable their degree becomes as the gap in earning potential between them and non-college graduates steadily grows over the course of a career.

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.

A four-year degree through the traditional route , a 2 plus 2 pathway by way of community college, or one earned in less than four years with the help of early college still matters in Massachusetts.

That is just one of the many reasons why the University of Massachusetts … the Commonwealth’s public research university … remains the most important institution in the state … and why I am so proud to be the first undergraduate alumnus to lead it as president.

Thank you for watching …and thank you for everything you do to support UMass.