Building a 'team': Chancellor shuffle can make UMass great, Wilson says
BY Kristin Palpini
Staff Writer
Published on May 25, 2007
University of Massachusetts President Jack M. Wilson said Friday the five-campus system will need to embrace a spirit of teamwork to become one of the country's great universities.
'If you look, you'll see we do much, much better for the university when we collaborate,' Wilson said in an interview at the Whitmore Administration Building, on a day that capped a challenging week for the UMass president.
In the interview, Wilson clarified points of a proposed plan to reorganize top-level management in the system.
On Tuesday, the president's office announced a shake-up of chancellors. This reorganization includes having Amherst Chancellor John V. Lombardi leave his position after the 2007-2008 academic year, going on sabbatical for a year and returning to the campus as a professor and senior adviser.
The proposed changes have drawn criticism from faculty, students and state Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg. They criticize the reorganization and fault a lack of prior discussion among concerned constituents.
Citing a lack of consultation, trustee John A. Armstrong, the only trustee from western Massachusetts, announced his resignation Wednesday.
On Friday, Wilson did address questions about the perceived secrecy under which the reorganization and new management systems were devised.
He said more constituents would have been informed of the plan if a media leak had not forced the news out early. Wilson said the plan was to tell at least all trustees about his intentions before a June 21 trustee meeting.
Wilson defended his proposal to investigate a variety of new top-level management structures for UMass and called for cooperation among the campuses.
The reorganization and proposed new management structure are meant to streamline UMass into one great university system, Wilson has said.
While managements systems have been floated, including a 'lead-campus' model in which the president sits as chancellor of the flagship campus, Wilson said UMass has not decided on which management system it will eventually adopt.
The 2007-2008 academic year will be a 'transition' year during which Lombardi and Wilson will work closely together and constituents will be consulted to see what management form would work for UMass.
'There is no specific end point. We don't know which model we'll use or settle on,' said Wilson.
'This is a team sport, not one person,' Wilson said of cooperation among the five-campus system.
The president also noted some UMass accomplishments that have succeeded because of five campus cooperation, including the inclusion of UMass in a plan by Gov. Deval Patrick to make a $1 billion investment over 10 years in the state's biotechnology industry. In previous addresses Wilson has also mentioned UMassOnline, the online education arm of UMass, in which all five campuses contribute classes to the program.
Wilson declined to rebut remarks by Rosenberg and Lombardi's wife, Cathryn L. Lombardi, that assert Lombardi is being forced from his position as chancellor.
More than the Amherst campus will be affected under the reorganization plan.
Michael Collins, chancellor of the Boston campus, will soon become interim chancellor in Worcester. The current Worcester chancellor is resigning for health reasons.
The Boston chancellor's position will be filled by J. Keith Motley, vice president for business and public affairs, who served as interim chancellor for the Boston campus during the 2004-2005 search for a new chancellor.
Collins will also step into a new position as university-wide senior vice president for health services. This will be the first vice president position of that nature created for UMass, said Wilson, who noted that many disciplines fall under life sciences.
Trustees will vote on whether to accept Collins and Motley in their new roles at the June 21 meeting in Amherst.
