UMass Amherst is defending its move to take over the campus of Mount Ida College in Newton, Massachusetts. The small college last month abruptly announced it would close after this semester.
UMass Amherst will set up new programs on the campus, and offer housing for its students looking for Boston-area internships. All this has irked students and faculty at UMass Boston. They say the eastern Massachusetts location for its Amherst cousin will cannibalize enrollment at the Boston campus.
For the latest on the deal, NEPR's Kari Njiiri spoke with WBUR's higher education reporter, Fred Thys.
Kari Njiiri, NEPR: We now know more about the finances of this deal. How is UMass Amherst paying for the cost of taking over Mount Ida College?
Fred Thys, WBUR: Well, one of the things that's going to happen is that UMass Amherst is going to be able to move a lot of students off-campus from Amherst to Newton while they're doing their internships or their apprenticeships. There's about 820 beds out in the Newton campus and that is going to mean that UMass Amherst is actually going to be able to grow its enrollment, because while those students are off in Newton, they can bring in new students to the Amherst campus.
There are [also] going to be new programs on the Newton campus in executive education, lifelong learning and other kinds of short-term non-credit programs. But there's also going to be degree-granting professional graduate and certificate programs in business, nursing, computer science [and] engineering. And UMass Amherst says those programs will actually not involve sending Amherst students out to Newton, but would be new programs that would draw in new students right onto the Newton campus.
And why is that concerning to folks at UMass Boston?
Well, it's concerning the folks at UMass Boston because UMass Boston offers similar programs. Yesterday at the [state] Board of Higher Education meeting, one of the faculty representatives from UMass Boston showed up to express the concern of the faculty at UMass Boston that because they offer very similar programs and people might be drawn to taking the UMass Amherst programs instead, that could jeopardize the viability of the UMass Boston programs.
And these new programs would require approval from a state education board?
They would if the new programs draw more than 50 percent of the people right onto the Newton campus. In other words, if they're not just students who have been admitted through the normal admissions process at Amherst and then go out for a semester or two in Newton. If most of the students are actually new students and they're taking a degree program on the Newton campus, then the Board of Higher Education has to step in and approve that.
You reported that UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy told lawmakers in a letter that he'd been in consultation with the attorney general's office about the deal, as her office has a role in approving the property transfer. Is that consistent with what you heard from the AG's office?
No. Kumble Subbaswamy says in his letter to the legislature that the takeover has been vetted and that ... UMass Amherst has been consulting with the attorney general's office from the outset. But in an email to us, a spokeswoman for the attorney general said her office was only informed of the deal between UMass Amherst and Mount Ida around the time that it was made public, and that she played no role in shaping the agreement.
