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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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