Sign the Mt Ida petition if you have not yet done so

12/13/2019

Dear Colleague,

If you have not yet signed this petition, please do so now: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-umass-bostons-academic-programs-and-mission 

We hope to present this to the Board of Trustees next Wednesday.  Please circulate widely including on your social media. 

Here is the background: 

Over a year ago, UMass Amherst purchased the Mount Ida Campus when UMass Boston was suffering from budget cuts.  UMass Amherst assured the community that it would not compete with UMass Boston programs or for Boston students; instead, it was going to use this Newton campus for experiential learning opportunities like jobs and internships. 

UMass Amherst is now offering a Business and Analytics master’s program that directly competes with offerings at UMass Boston, and it wants to offer 35 other programs, including a master’s degree in Accounting and one in Computer Science (for a list of course offerings, contact the FSU office).  It will offer Geographical Information Science courses, and is emailing UMass Boston students to teach these, now competing with UMB for faculty as well as for programs and students.  Despite saying they are cooperating with UMB in offering these programs, UMass Amherst is not doing so. 

Please sign the petition here https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-umass-bostons-academic-programs-and-mission to stop this competition among UMass campuses and to have the UMass system operate as a system, not as competing campuses.  Please share this petition widely.  Let us know if you want to get involved in this effort. 

Sincerely,

Marlene Kim

Faculty Staff Union President, and

Professor, Department of Economics

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