University of Massachusetts Boston - History

History

The University of Massachusetts Boston was established by vote of the State Legislature in 1964. Freshmen classes started for 1,227 undergraduate students in September 1965 at a renovated building in the Park Square area of downtown Boston. The Founding Day Convocation was held December 10, 1966 at the Prudential Center in Boston. John W. Ryan was installed as the university's first chancellor. UMass/Boston is part of the Greater Boston Urban Education Collaborative, In 1982 it merged with Boston State College (est. 1852).

In 1974, it opened its new campus at the Columbia Point peninsula on Dorchester Bay. The university originally occupied five buildings: McCormack and Wheatley halls, the Science Center, Healey Library, and the Quinn Administration Building.

The original Harbor Campus buildings were said to have had sparse and unattractive interiors, with odd mazes of hallways; the campus was known as "the fortress" or "the prison" colloquially. They were rumored to have been designed by architects who were primarily familiar with prisons, although the library had been designed by the distinguished Chicago modernist architect, Harry Mohr Weese. At one point in his career, Weese had designed the Metropolitan Correction Center in Chicago.

The contracting of the construction of the new Harbor Campus had resulted in a huge scandal.

The Clark Athletic Center was added later, including an ice hockey arena, swimming pool, and basketball courts. It also hosted the first presidential debate between then Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore in 2000. The cancellation of two days of classes in order to create security for the debate resulted in a protest by UMB students, faculty, and staff members at the UMass President's office in downtown Boston.

In 2004 a new Campus Center was opened, designed by the Boston-based architectural firm of Kallmann McKinnell & Wood and built by Suffolk Construction at a cost of $80 million. It houses offices, restaurants in a food court, event space, student clubs, and activities space. It also serves as the new entrance for the campus and was the first major building erected since the original Harbor Campus was built in the 1970s.

The original buildings fell into disrepair, and there are plans for replacement. Allegations of shoddy construction surfaced again in 2006 when the underground parking garage had to be closed because it had become structurally unsound. All parking is now outdoors, except for the Campus Center garage.

On June 2, 2006, Barack Obama addressed his commencement speech at UMass Boston to the graduating students. In his speech he talked about several things including his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

In 2007, the university proposed a plan to change the nature of the campus from primarily a commuter campus with many parking lots for cars to a more residential campus with dormitory style living.

J. Keith Motley, is the University's first African-American chancellor.

In 2009, the nearby Bayside Expo Center property was lost in a foreclosure to a Florida-based real estate firm, LNR/CMAT. The University of Massachusetts Boston has acquired the property for future campus facilities.