In our first set of Master Planning Workshops, we presented Chancellor Holub’s vision for UMass Amherst, “… to be among the very best public research universities in country…. And match the excellence of the public universities that are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU).” See http://www.umass.edu/chancellor/frameworks.html for complete vision. We then asked participants several questions:
First – What needs to be built on our campus to meet this vision?
Second – Map the campus tour that will be given to applicants in 2040?
Third – Why will students attend UMass in 2040?
This exercise gave people an opportunity to tell us what the campus needs and how to improve the physical environment, including eliminating elements that don’t contribute positively to the campus. By creating a tour, participants were able to tell the story of what UMass Amherst should be, which often made them think of more things that we need, or identified areas that need improvement. Finally, when making the list of why students will attend UMass, everyone got down to the real reasons why we are all here and care so much about this institution.
From this exercise, several common themes emerged. This is what we’ve heard, so far…
• Build a beautiful pedestrian friendly campus
? Remove cars from pedestrian areas
? Expand the super block
? Plant trees
? Build more WOW’s and small spaces
? Remove surface parking from within the loop
? Create a strong positive visual character
• Add and upgrade facilities
? Additional Classrooms
? Additional Beds
? Larger/New Student Union
? Wellness and Health Center
? Swimming Pool
? Admissions Center
? Laboratories
? Find uses and renovate historic structures
? Infrastructure to support excellence
• Develop a mixed use campus 24/7/12
? Academic uses in the loop with campus life
? Add more housing in the loop
? Remove non-essential uses from within loop
? Create an environment to attract more summer programming
• Tours started at new admissions center
? Within the Massachusetts Ave. corridor
• Connections to host communities and region
? Different alternatives for public –private ventures
? Connection to downtown Amherst
? Make the campus welcoming and accessible
• Demonstrate New England Sustainability
? Wind turbines
? Solar panel
? Local farming
? Shuttle Buses
• Students choose to come to UMass
? A great value
? Quality education
? Diversity of experience
? Many neighborhoods one city
? They are able to start a career
? Proud to be at the Flagship
? “When I came to UMass, the world opened up to me…”
We’ve also been hearing from people through our online mapping application called “Likes and Dislikes” (http://www.umass.edu/cp/sites/cp/apps/places/index.html) which allows people to put markers on the map and add comments about what they think. What do you think? Please let us know by doing the Likes and Dislikes exercise, participating in this blog, or contacting us directly. You can find out more about the Campus Master Plan process by logging onto our website at http://www.umass.edu/cp/.