马塞诸斯州大学波士顿

Before the University of Massachusetts Boston was founded in 1964, the Bay State’s only public university was in Amherst. Those seeds were sown in 1863 with the establishment of Massachusetts Agricultural College (Mass Aggie), the commonwealth’s rural land-grant college. Over time, the college expanded its curriculum and became the University of Massachusetts (马萨诸塞大学).

In 1964, amid growing political turmoil, civil-rights activism, 城市动乱, applications from the first wave of baby boomers inundated colleges and universities. 马塞诸斯州大学的 lacked the space to accommodate the many students who wanted to attend college in Amherst. 在这8人中,000 applicants 马塞诸斯州大学的 rejected that year were 1,400 qualified students from metropolitan Boston—most of whom could not afford a private college education.

To Massachusetts legislators, this signaled an urgent need to offer an affordable university education to metropolitan Boston residents, and apply university-quality research to critical urban issues. 1964年6月, the legislature voted to establish the University of Massachusetts Boston (马塞诸斯州大学波士顿), the second university in the 马塞诸斯州大学的 system.

In 1965, 马塞诸斯州大学波士顿 opened its doors to 1,227 undergraduate students and 200 faculty in a renovated building in Park Square downtown.

Reading from the university’s Statement of Purpose at the 1966 Founding Day Convocation ceremony, newly inaugurated Chancellor John W. Ryan说, “We have an obligation to see that the opportunities we offer … are indeed equal to the best that private schools have to offer.” 

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School officials announced in 1968—to the dismay of some—that 马塞诸斯州大学波士顿’s future home would be on Columbia Point in Dorchester, a 100-acre landfill and former cow pasture on a peninsula jutting into Dorchester Bay. The new campus opened its doors in January 1974, and the university community settled into McCormack and Wheatley halls, the Science Center, 希利库, and Quinn 政府 Building.

By then the university had divided itself into College 1 and College 2. Both engaged in the arts and sciences, but College 1 took a more innovative, interdisciplinary approach, while College 2 used more traditional methods. They eventually united in the mid-1970s to become the College of Arts and Sciences, joining two other colleges established earlier in the decade: the College of Public and Community Service and the College of Professional Studies (now the College of Management). 

Enter Boston State College

8月21日, 1981, faced with deep cuts in the state’s higher education budget, the Board of Regents voted to close Boston State College. At that time Boston State, founded in 1852 as a normal school for teacher training, offered day and evening bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as in many professional areas. Its evening programs were designed for nontraditional students with full-time jobs. 

Closing the college enabled the commonwealth to eliminate program redundancies with 马塞诸斯州大学波士顿 and organize the remainder under a single university administration. When Boston State was incorporated into 马塞诸斯州大学波士顿 in January 1982, the university gained graduate and undergraduate programs in education; undergraduate programs in criminal justice, 护理, and regional studies; and an evening division.

The influx of hundreds of students from Boston State, plus a dramatic rise in new applications, boosted undergraduate enrollment by 38 percent, and the college’s graduate programs tripled 马塞诸斯州大学波士顿’s graduate enrollment. This gave the university the momentum to add more graduate degree offerings, including doctoral programs, throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. By 1995, 马塞诸斯州大学波士顿 had 31 graduate degree and certificate programs, with graduate students comprising 21 percent of total enrollment.

Historic images courtesy of the University Archives and Special Collections