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Tag: Marty Meehan

  • President Marty Meehan, UMass Lowell invest in the future

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    LOWELL — Before he sat down with The Sun to talk about his new charitable commitment of $1.5 million to UMass Lowell, President Marty Meehan met with a half-dozen students to speak with them about their experience at the university, as well as their plans for their post-graduate future.

    Connecting with students has always been a lodestar for Meehan, the first undergraduate alumnus to lead the five-campus University of Massachusetts system.

    “I have a passion for the students themselves because it’s where I started,” he said after the students left what is currently called University Crossing. “In this day and age, if you want to be a college or a university president or chancellor, you’ve got to be interacting with students. You’ve got to love that part of the job.”

    On Friday, the university announced that the center will be rededicated on May 2 as the Martin T. Meehan Student Center.

    At Chancellor Julie Chen’s request, the UMass Board of Trustees this past fall approved the renaming of the building in Lowell’s Acre neighborhood.

    Meehan called the honor “a little embarrassing, if you really want to know the truth,” while recognizing the impact his UMass Lowell education has had on his entire life.

    The hub of student activity at the corner of Pawtucket Street between Salem and Merrimack streets didn’t exist when Meehan was a commuter student in the mid-1970s.

    But when he became the 27th president of the UMass system, Meehan recognized the need to create a space that would anchor the university to its Industrial Revolution roots and project its educational mission and reputation into the future.

    He spearheaded the acquisition of the old St. Joseph’s Hospital to build University Crossing, a 230,000-square foot complex overlooking the Merrimack River that provides students with easy access to state-of-the-art amenities and services. The complex connects the university’s three campuses and the city’s downtown business and cultural district.

    “The river is why this university is here,” Meehan said. “It’s on this river that the American Industrial Revolution took off. That’s why I wanted this student center to be here.”

    After attending Lowell Public Schools, Meehan earned his undergraduate degree in education and political science in 1978 from what was then the University of Lowell. His four sisters also graduated from the university. Meehan went on to earn a master’s degree in public administration and a juris doctor from Suffolk University.

    Meehan parlayed his higher education into a life focused on public service. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2007, before accepting the role as chancellor of UML for eight years. Meehan left UMass Lowell to become president of the five-campus UMass system in 2015

    “From my vantage point, I’ve been able to accomplish whatever I wanted to in my career and my life — in terms of my career — it all starts here,” Meehan said. “I believe passionately in the institution.”

    The Lowell native grew up in a working-class family, and was a first-generation college graduate who has long championed the transformative power of public education, public service and giving back. Meehan credits his parents with instilling the value of education that still motivates him today to provide opportunities for all young people.

    In 2016, he closed his old campaign finance account and transferred the money to an educational foundation he set up in 2001 to benefit UMass scholarships, and made a $1 million donation to UMass Lowell. The foundation was named for his late parents, Alice Meehan and Martin “Buster” Meehan.

    “My parents never went to college,” Meehan said. “My father was self-educated, but he wanted all seven of us to go to college.”

    Over the years, Meehan has given more than $3.7 million across the UMass system. In addition, during his inauguration events as chancellor and president, more than $2.6 million was raised in his honor for the university, bringing the total gifts to the system to $6.3 million.

    Under Meehan’s leadership, UMass Lowell experienced record gains in enrollment, student retention, research and scholarship funding, and the campus underwent a dramatic physical transformation, opening 10 new buildings in a five-year period, including University Crossing.

    The nationally ranked public university has been a leader in research, learning and teaching for more than 130 years. UMass Lowell is a Research 1 university, which puts it in the top 4-5% in the country, and it earned a No. 1 ranking for a public university in the Wall Street Journal. The university’s enrollment is 17,500 students and it employs 2,400 faculty and staff in a $1.2 billion operation.

    Meehan said it was time for him to build a different legacy, one focused on giving back and reinvesting in the institution.

    His new charitable commitment of $1.5 million will support internships and career connected experiences for students in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, UMass Lowell. The funding grows on the commitment Chen made to a university program that guarantees students paid, career-connected experiences during their college career.

    “Starting with this fall’s incoming freshmen class, we will guarantee every undergraduate student the opportunity for at least one paid, career-connected experience by the time they graduate,” Chen said during her 2023 inauguration ceremony at the Tsongas Center. “And for those opportunities that don’t come with a paycheck, our student success fund will provide it. No student will be left out because they can’t afford to work for free.”

    It’s a philosophy of giving that Meehan endorses both professionally and personally.

    “We’re stewards of this place,” Meehan said. “I am, Julie [Chen] is. We’re only here for a temporary and short time, but our job is to leave it better than we found it.”

    A dedication ceremony for The Martin T. Meehan Student Center will be held Saturday, May 2, 2026, at UMass Lowell. For more information, visit uml.edu/UniversityCrossing/Meehan-Dedication.

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    Melanie Gilbert

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  • ‘An advocate for human beings,’ Ed Kennedy remembered for decades of service

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    LOWELL — If you have been involved in politics in Greater Lowell over the last half-century, there is a pretty good chance you encountered Ed Kennedy on more than one occasion.

    From city councilor, to mayor, to state senator, Kennedy spent nearly five decades representing Greater Lowell in many capacities, right up until the day he died on Oct. 1. Through it all, Kennedy worked with countless residents and officials to leave a mark in his home community that will be felt for decades more.

    While many knew him, and knew him very well, one of those who knew the late state senator best was his cousin, Frank Heslin, who grew up with Kennedy and delivered his eulogy at Wednesday’s funeral. As cousins, Heslin said he and Kennedy were as close as siblings. They celebrated many birthdays and holidays together, and when they got older would often go to the Commodore Ballroom to see shows like The Doors.

    When Kennedy, in his mid-20s, decided to take a chance at the Lowell City Council, Heslin said it didn’t really come as a surprise.

    “He had always followed a lot of what was going on in the city,” said Heslin.

    “He loved the action. He loved to help, and he also loved to debate and make decisions and figure out ways to make things better,” Heslin said later.

    When asked what he thought his cousin’s legacy would be in Greater Lowell, Heslin brought up the same topic many others did when reminiscing about Kennedy: The Lowell High School project.

    In 2017, a citywide debate over the location of the new high school building reached a fever pitch, with the City Council voting narrowly to locate it in Cawley Stadium, and a referendum later that year showing widespread voter preference for the downtown site.

    Kennedy, as the city’s mayor and chair of the School Committee during this time, was credited by many in recent days for his major role in pushing for the downtown site, where the new and renovated buildings — some still in progress — stand today. At the time, Heslin said, Kennedy took a lot of flak from other officials and from the local media.

    “He was just able to let it roll. He wasn’t going to get too bogged down in it,” said Heslin.

    Heslin knew Kennedy beyond politics, though. He described Kennedy’s love for the Rolling Stones, and his love for hiking and the outdoors.

    “When I talked with him before he died, I said the thing I am probably most happy about was the same thing as him, how we climbed the northern and southern Presidential Range in 1975 before we each got married,” said Heslin.

    Heslin called his late cousin “a sincere and determined person” who made his decisions based on what he genuinely thought to be in the people’s best interest. He highlighted Kennedy’s initiative, the “Mayor’s Holiday Fest for Homeless Youth,” which he started in 2017 to raise money for Community Teamwork, but it ended with the pandemic.

    “He really was that way,” Heslin said.

    UMass President and former Congressman Marty Meehan met Kennedy during Meehan’s sophomore year at the then-University of Lowell, when both worked at Lowell District Court in 1975. Unsurprisingly, the two would often talk politics, and two years later when Kennedy ran for City Council to start his first tenure there, he brought Meehan on to run his campaign. The two would become close friends through this, even next-door neighbors at one point.

    Among Meehan’s many stories about Kennedy, he said part of his friend’s legacy will also be in his role from the state Senate in the long-awaited reconstruction of the Rourke Bridge, which finally broke ground this year.

    “Which was ironic, because Ed voted in his first [City Council] term for Ray Rourke to be the mayor,” said Meehan, referring to one of the bridge’s namesakes.

    “I never saw him in a political situation lose his temper. He was very even tempered. Even when there were disagreements, he wouldn’t get all worked up about it,” Meehan later added.

    Patti Kirwin-Keilty has known Kennedy for most of her life, with both growing up in the same Belvidere neighborhood. She would start working for Kennedy for the first time when he joined the state Senate in 2019. Through that new lens, Kirwin-Keilty saw, and was a part of, Kennedy’s dedication to his constituents.

    “For most people, we were the last stop, when they called the senator’s office with an issue,” said Kirwin-Keilty. “He would continually advocate for those constituents when they were experiencing some problem. If we weren’t getting anywhere, he would make follow-up phone calls for a commission or whoever was needed.

    “He was an advocate for human beings, for people to get a fair shake, that they receive services they should receive, and that they were treated fairly,” Kirwin-Keilty added.

    Alongside Kirwin-Keilty in Kennedy’s office was James Ostis, who started working for Kennedy in 2017 when he was mayor. Ostis would work under both Kennedy and Bill Samaras during their respective mayoral terms, but he would also join Kennedy’s state Senate office in 2019.

    While Ostis had a front-row seat to the Lowell High School drama from Kennedy’s office, and his advocacy for the Rourke Bridge, Ostis looked back at a part of Kennedy’s legacy from before Ostis was even born: his advocacy in the nation’s capital for the creation of the Lowell National Historical Park in 1978 during his first City Council term.

    “He testified on something like that, which was so fundamental to the last half-century in Lowell,” said Ostis. “There are all these things throughout history he had at least a little role in, and all of these things he had a huge role in.”

    A special election will inevitably be called for Kennedy’s Senate seat, but in the meantime Ostis and Kirwin-Keilty both said their office would continue doing its constituent services work, for anybody who needs it.

    When former Lowell City Manager Eileen Donoghue left the state Senate to work for the city, it was Kennedy who succeeded her. For the start of his time in the Legislature, Kennedy remained in his seat on the City Council, in part because there were still important votes left in the last year of the term for the city.

    “When he was sworn into the Senate, he certainly could have left the City Council and had a special election to fill the seat,” said Donoghue. “It was not an easy thing to do, but he did that to see through the mission of keeping Lowell High School downtown.”

    Donoghue said Kennedy liked to pick big projects he thought would be beneficial for Lowell and put his political weight behind them as much as he could.

    “[Lowell High] was just a fairness decision for so many kids that were able to walk to school. I watched the many times Ed was really hit hard in the media, but he would just let it roll off his back,” said Donoghue.

    “When they say you can’t be a hero in your hometown, they aren’t talking about Ed,” Donoghue said later.

    Councilor Rita Mercier served with Kennedy for his entire second stint on the council. She said while Kennedy was thought to have a rather serious demeanor, “he could laugh with the best of them.”

    “He was a kind and thoughtful gentleman. A friend to all who got things done. The City of Lowell is very grateful for his determination and fight to bring much needed funding in to our city. We will all miss him tremendously,” said Mercier.

    Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, but maintained friendships with even the more conservative local faces, like former radio talk host Casey Crane, who said Kennedy was “the most loyal friend you could ever ask for.”

    “You could be personal friends and still be opposites politically. A rare man of character who stood up for the people who mattered to him and made everyone feel like they mattered even if it meant going way out of his way to show you,” said Crane. “I was honored to call him a friend. I will miss him terribly.”

    One of Kennedy’s colleagues in the state Senate, Barry Finegold, noted that when the most recent redistricting process moved the town of Dracut from Finegold’s district to Kennedy’s, Kennedy stepped up to serve his new community.

    “Ed assured me he took the responsibility seriously and sure enough – he did his homework and became an expert on Dracut almost overnight,” said Finegold. “That was Ed – dedicated and community minded. He was in government to serve the people – which he did with expertise and care.”

    Former state Rep. Rady Mom said he was fortunate to know Kennedy for many years, and to have served with him in the Legislature and worked together when Kennedy was on the council. He called Kennedy “a humble man who worked tirelessly for the community and dedicated his life to helping others.”

    “He always had Lowell’s best interest at heart and l appreciated his partnership on many issues, including advancing the replacement of the Rourke Bridge,” Mom said. “His passing is a loss all of us are mourning. He will be dearly missed. My thoughts are with his wife Susan, their children Christina and Eddie, and their grandchildren.”

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    Peter Currier

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  • Flat enrollment, aging buildings challenge UMass

    Flat enrollment, aging buildings challenge UMass

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    Enrollment and infrastructure challenges continue to put pressure on the five-campus University of Massachusetts, where enrollment gains over the last 20 years have pretty much evaporated.

    During a UMass Board of Trustees Administration and Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, university officials said enrollment is up this year by a scant 0.1% across its campuses and acknowledged a big gap in funding for needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades.

    Over the past 20 years, the average annual enrollment growth rate at UMass has steadily declined.

    From fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2010, it was 3.5%. It dropped to 2.3% for fiscal years 2011-2015, and 1.2% for fiscal 2016-2020. And while annual enrollment is up a smidgen this year, average enrollment is estimated to drop by 0.3% for the fiscal 2021-2025 period, according to slides presented at the meeting.

    “As we cross into the new fiscal year, enrollment continues to be a top risk for university,” committee Chair Michael O’Brien, a 1988 UMass Amherst graduate, said. “I’d be remiss if I did not say we need to take advantage of our system-ness and continue to innovate on enrollment strategies to preserve our market share.”

    UMass President Marty Meehan said the demand for a UMass education “remains strong” but noted the significant demographic challenges facing universities across the nation as the population of high school graduates continues to decline, “especially in the Northeast.”

    “We’ve seen it not only with the non-elite privates, we’ve also seen it with the community colleges — enrollment is down significant over the last decade, as well as the state universities,” he said. “At UMass, we’ve done much better, but like every university we’re looking at these challenges, and if those challenges are left unmanaged, they’d have the potential to challenge our university as well.”

    University officials expressed optimism about an “admissions sharing” pilot program in which students who are unable to be admitted at UMass Amherst are steered toward possible admission at the Dartmouth or Lowell campuses.

    “It’s a lot of work behind the scenes,” said UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes, applauding the pilot and noting the many phone calls and emails associated with applications and admissions.

    Enrollment figures presented Wednesday showed 30,460 full-time students at UMass Amherst. Enrollment at UMass Boston has risen since fiscal 2022 and stands at 13,085, while enrollment at UMass Lowell has declined over the same period to 13,521. UMass Dartmouth has 6,604 students enrolled this fiscal year, and there are 1,425 students enrolled at the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester.

    UMass officials said after Wednesday’s meetings that it has 73,566 total students, including full and part-time, undergraduate and graduate students, at its five campuses. The 65,000 enrollment figure used in the meeting presentations was based on full-time-equivalent being equal to 12 credits, although those credits might be achieved in some cases by more than one student.

    At a UMass Committee on Academic and Student Affairs meeting, also Wednesday, Meehan gave a presentation on enrollment that mainly touched on the diversity of the incoming class of 2028.

    “Despite the United States Supreme Court decision last year overturning affirmative action in college admissions, UMass continues to educate a student body that is increasingly reflecting the diversity of our commonwealth. In fact, the class of 2028 is the most diverse in our university’s history,” he said.

    Exactly half of the incoming class are students of color, up from 48% in fall 2023, according to UMass. At UMass Boston, the most diverse of the system’s campuses, 73% of class of 2028 members are students of color.

    UMass Chan Medical School is accepting far more women than men — with 70% of its incoming class identifying as women.

    In 2023, UMass identified a $4.8 billion backlog of deferred maintenance needs at its facilities and buildings, with $3.6 billion of that backlog assigned to academic buildings. The university did not receive any income surtax funding in the most recent cycle to address building needs and a top official said Wednesday that current spending rates won’t be enough.

    “That’s a 10-year backlog number that we will not be able to address without support from the state,” Lisa Calise, senior vice president for administration and finance at UMass, told the Administration and Finance Committee.

    Calise said the UMass president’s office and the UMass Building Authority are participating in a state higher education capital working group to assess future funding options for deferred maintenance at UMass and across the state’s public higher education network.

    The university’s current capital plan includes 128 projects totaling $1.8 billion.

    Administration and Finance Committee member Robert Epstein mentioned other area colleges that earned high rankings recently.

    “We’ve got to try to improve the product itself” at UMass, Epstein said.

    Meehan defended the product, which is more affordable than other colleges, and said UMass doesn’t have the same amounts of money to invest in campuses that universities may have when they charge students $80,000 or $90,000 per year.

    UMass has a $4.3 billion budget. It received a $760 million appropriation in the new state budget. Student-sourced revenues account for 34% of university revenues, with the state appropriation at 27%, and grants at 19%. Its fiscal 2025 budget covers nearly 16,000 full-time equivalent employees, according to slides presented Wednesday.

    Sam Drysdale contributed reporting.

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    Michael P Norton

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  • Mill City miracle: Draper Labs expands to Lowell

    Mill City miracle: Draper Labs expands to Lowell

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    LOWELL — A company that operated the computer guidance system that helped land Apollo 11 on the moon is coming to Lowell, to be an anchor tenant in the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor project that was announced last week.

    UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen, flanked by local, state and federal leadership, introduced Draper President and CEO Jerry Wohletz during a welcome ceremony held Thursday at UMass Lowell’s University Crossing, in a room that overlooked the Merrimack River.

    “Today is a milestone in the history of this city,” Chen said. “Because [LINC is] setting in motion a vision that will not only transform UMass Lowell, but will transform this whole region for our students, but also all of the residents of this great city.”

    LINC is an $800 million development plan that leverages the prestige and innovation of the university and the resources and history of the city of Lowell with the job creation capabilities of industry like Draper Labs to envision a vibrant urban village/main street model and economic engine for the city.

    Until ground is broken on Phase 1 of the project next year, which will construct two industry co-location and professional housing apartment buildings, Draper Labs will temporarily move a microelectronics division of about 50 people into university-owned space in Wannalancit Mills.

    According to its website, Draper Labs “is an innovation company that pursues scientific advancements to solve that nation’s toughest national security problems for the betterment of the nation and secure democracy around the globe.”

    Pulling together this transformative project with a $600 million investment is Wexford Science & Technology, a company known for its mixed-use, amenity-rich, innovation-focused communities blending industry/university community models. It responded to a request for proposal that UMass Lowell sent out 16-18 months ago.

    The project will bring new housing, economic development, technology jobs and workforce development to downtown Lowell.

    The planning for this campus-style industry initiative was more than 12 years in the making, said UMass President Marty Meehan.

    “Some of the parcels that are involved in this, we acquired in 2010, 2011,” he said. “This was a vision that was set out over a long period of time.”

    That vision moved from the planning stage to implementation with support from Gov. Maura Healey and U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, both of whom were in attendance at the morning event. They were joined by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, state Sen. Ed Kennedy and state Reps. Vanna Howard, Rodney Elliott and Rady Mom. In the audience were several Lowell city councilors, former Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and Middlesex Community College President Phil Sisson, among others.

    Healey said her administration would draw on LINC as a “marquee” example of innovation in the commonwealth. The state was recently awarded $19.7 million to establish the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub, a regional hub that will advance the microelectronics needs of the U.S. Department of Defense while spurring new jobs, workforce training opportunities and investment in the region’s advanced manufacturing and technology sectors.

    “This is a space in which we’ve done really, really well,” Healey said. “Microelectronics is an example of a sector that is growing and that is key to our future and it’s going to happen here. I’m really pumped about this. Lowell deserves this … it’s good for the country.”

    Trahan brought the federal government to the table with CHIPS Act and other funding.

    The $280 billion CHIPS Act, which stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors, was passed in July 2022 to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.

    “We’ve secured investments that will position the Mill City for a multibillion economic and jobs boom the likes of which hasn’t happened here since the Industrial Revolution,” Trahan said.

    Wohletz said Draper needs talent, and lots of it. The company is doubling its staff of 2,400 in the coming years. It has campuses across the U.S., including Massachusetts with its headquarters in Cambridge and the U.S. Navy Integrated Repair Facility in Pittsfield.

    “Draper views UMass Lowell’s microelectronics program as one of the top programs in the region,” Wohletz said. “We view UMass Lowell as a strategic partner and a resource for state and federal engagement and a pipeline for engineering talent.”

    That pipeline includes Middlesex Community College, the Lowell Public Schools system, as well as Greater Lowell Technical High School.

    Several leaders spoke to a brain drain that happens in Lowell, in which promising talent leaves due to a lack of housing. LINC incorporates professional housing as part of the model. The project is expected to add almost 500 new units to the city’s housing stock.

    “LINC will retain and attract professionals to Lowell as well as ramp up economic development, entertainment and culture for Lowell residents,” City Manager Tom Golden said during his welcoming remarks.

    Golden added that the city and UMass Lowell are also planning infrastructure improvements as more people live and work in Lowell.

    The teamwork between the local government, the university and state and federal leadership is what brought Draper Labs to Lowell, Wohletz said.

    “The secret recipe has always been partnerships,” he said. “At the core of these great technology achievements has been a partnership between government, academia and industry. United in solving these tough problems while committed to educating the next generations of engineers and scientists.”

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    Melanie Gilbert

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