By Bill Forry

Three months after UMass-Boston was forced to halt plans for the first-ever student housing on Columbia Point, University Chancellor Jo Ann Gora says that dormitories remain a priority for her administration and the university's board of trustees. Although Gora this week described the university's current planning phase as "reflective," she suggested that the dorm plan eventually will be revived.

In June, the university's board of trustees withdrew the dorm proposal from a controversial bond sale in an attempt to end a prolonged stalemate between UMass President William Bulger and Governor Mitt Romney. Bulger has since announced his resignation, which will become official at the end of this month.

Gora says that she expects an interim university president to be announced by next week.

The construction of three buildings, in order to house 2,000 undergraduate students, has been a major goal of Gora's tenure, which began in the summer of 2001. However, the proposal came under intense fire last spring from some civic leaders and Dorchester's political delegation, which in April called on Gora to suspend the plan and begin a new community process. Leading critics such as state Senator John A. Hart contend that the $218 million dormitory plan is inappropriate because it conflicts with UMass-Boston's historic mission as a commuter school.

This week, however, Gora maintained that the dorm project does enjoy support among many constituencies in Dorchester and with the university's board of trustees. "There certainly was opposition [to the dorm project] from some sectors, but there was also support from many sectors," Gora said in an interview with the Reporter. "The board continues to be supportive of the idea as it indicated in the last board meeting.

"But in point of fact I think it is very important for us to continue the dialogue with the community and to try to address any concerns and to continue to build community support for it. I think that's more important than anything else at this point," Gora said.

"I've met with Mayor Menino and I want to meet with Senator Hart to continue the conversation. I think it's important at this point to sort of take a step back and to look at everything on the table. I continue to feel that we have to meet the needs of our students and that the needs of our full-time freshman students are important."

Gora contends that about one third of freshman who are accepted to UMass Boston &emdash; but opt not to come &emdash; report that the lack of housing is their chief complaint. Gora also identifies the lack of on-campus housing as the main gripe of students who transfer out of UMass-Boston.

"It continues to be a need that's expressed by our students and we need to address that," Gora said.

Even though the bond funding that the university had counted on to pay for the dorms has been frozen by the Romney administration &emdash; with no immediate prospects of revival &emdash; Gora says that UMass-Boston would still consider conducting a planned study of student housing impacts, if the community indicated it was desired.

Other Imminent Obstacles

Whether or not the dorm project is revived in any meaningful way this year, Gora will have a full plate of daunting challenges to keep her office busy. Although uncertainty over the stability of the UMass system now seems to have been relieved by Bulger's resignation, budget cuts have become the immediate quandary at the waterfront campus. State funding has been sliced by 30 percent this year, according to Gora, who has instituted a series of belt-tigtening measures to make up the difference. A number of administrative positions have been cut or combined and Gora has proposed that an annual week-long furlough program be adopted by UMass employees in an effort to save an additional $1 million and between 20-25 jobs.

"We have gone out of our way to preserve all of our academic degree programs and course availability for students because that's our primary mission. That has meant we've had to cut support for some of our centers and institutes," Gora said.

The most notable streamlining was announced earlier this month with the creation of the re-tooled McCormack Graduate School of Policy Study, which combined several exisiting graduate programs under one entity. Included under the school's umbrella are the university's centers for Social Policy, Women in Politics and the Gerentology Institute.

In the midst of the cutbacks, the new year holds promise in the form of a striking &emdash; and still unnamed &emdash; campus center that will be completed in December and ready for occupancy for the spring semester. The 331,000-square-foot structure, with a price tag of $70 million, will furnish a conference center, academic and administrative offices, dining halls, a ballroom, and a "university room," which designers say will serve as an open space.

"We see the campus center as the centerpiece for upgrading student services in the next year. It will be one-stop shopping for our students that will make a wonderful new place for students to hang out, take care of business, study, and talk to faculty. So we see it as really providing a whole new resource," Gora said.

In a still-developing twist, the campus center could also end up widening the gulf between Gora's administration and the Dorchester civic community. The family of the late Dorchester state Senator George "Gigi" Kenneally has enlisted the support of Dorchester politicians in a campaign to name the center after Kenneally, credited as one of two lawmakers who engineered the UMass move to Dorchester in the early 1970s. The other Dorchester legislator was former Speaker of the House and Attorney General Robert Quinn, whose name adorns one of the campus's main administrative buildings.

Gora says that only "eight-figure" donors &emdash; including potential corporate gifts &emdash; are in consideration for the naming rights for the new facility, a rule instituted by the board of trustees in the mid-1990s, for which she has no power to override.

"It has to be named for a donor. That is a trustee policy that was passed several years ago. All major facilities must be named for donors, just as they are at other universities across the country.

"It needs to be a financial contribution because as the state support is cut &emdash; and it's been cut every year that I've been here &emdash; the university needs to look more and more towards philanthropy to support itself," says Gora.

"We would like to honor Sen. Kenneally and find a way to do that on campus. We hope to work with his family to reach that goal."

Despite the community relations setback caused primarily by the dorm project, Gora says she still has a positive outlook on the university's evolving relationship with Dorchester. She points to the UMass pedigree of thousands of neighborhood residents. And for the third straight year, Gora said, UMass-Boston has been recognized as the national leader in opening its athletic and other facilities to the public.

"I think there's always more work that needs to be done. I came with a lot of enthusiasm for meeting the community and trying to address issues that are important to the community and I still have that enthusiasm and that desire to do that," Gora said. "Over the course of the last few years we've grappled with a lot of difficult issues and very complex issues, but I know that the most important thing is to continue to conversation with the community. How they would like the university to develop and how we would like to work with the community."

"I see this as my job. It's my responsibilty to reach out to the community and seek their support. I want to do that in conjuction with our elected officials and win their support for the university. And I know that's not always going to be easy."