The new Carney Family Auditorium in Furcolo Hall at UMass Amherst's College of Education was officially unveiled to the public in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday. Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and Dean of the College of Education, Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin were in attendance.
The renovation of the auditorium in the former Marks Meadow Elementary School was made possible thanks to the generous support of Paul Carney, UMass Class of 1982. The $2.5 million renovation to the auditorium transformed an inaccessible, asbestos-filled 1962 auditorium into a fully accessible, state-of-the-art 203-seat lecture hall.
The auditorium was the lone space in Furcolo Hall not renovated in 2016 due to a lack of funding. During a tour of the college with his mother, Grace Norton Carney, a Massachusetts elementary school teacher for 23 years, Carney decided to fund a renovation of the auditorium to honor his mother and help change students’ lives through education.
In his speech, Carney became overcome with emotion when he noted that his motivation in supporting the project was out of a deep desire to show his appreciation to his family for the roles they played in the field of education – especially his mother.
The new auditorium will enable the College of Education to host classes, speakers and professional development workshops for in-service teachers, reinforcing the college’s reputation as a laboratory for experimentation, community engagement and collaboration. The new entrance gives the facility a strong presence within Furcolo Hall and will increase student traffic to the building.
Renovations include full accessibility, the height of the stage being reduced to provide a more intimate teaching environment and a new state-of-the-art audio-visual system that will provide a variety of teaching options for professors, as well as accommodations for future student and community group use.
Education has long been a big part of the Carney family’s lives, and now the new auditorium adds to the Carney family’s legacy at UMass Amherst’s College of Education, which also includes the Grace Norton Carney Scholarship.