2025 State of the University

[MUSIC PLAYING] Good afternoon, and welcome to the 2025 State of the University Address. This year has certainly gotten off to a turbulent start for all of higher education. And while new federal policies have created uncertainty that universities, especially research universities, must now navigate, I am confident that the UMass community will, once again, rise to these challenges.

While forces seem determined to drag us backward, UMass and Team Massachusetts are going to continue to work together to move ourselves forward. And that is what I plan to discuss with you today.

How UMass is working with our partners to address one of the critical challenges of our time, climate change, while helping position the Commonwealth for the economy of the future. I want to start by thanking Governor Maura Healey for her vision and commitment to public higher education in proposing the BRIGHT Act.

The bright act represents a generational investment in public higher education, leveraging the state's Fair Share Amendment to provide $2.5 billion in capital funding for public colleges and universities over 10 years. Those funds would enable UMass to modernize our five campuses to serve the future of the Commonwealth through world-class academic research facilities and buildings that are energy-efficient, resilient, and sustainable.

Due to the size and age of our campuses, with most of our facilities more than 50 years old, the UMass system is one of the largest consumers of energy in the state. Through the BRIGHT Act, we'll build the UMass of the next 50 years while simultaneously addressing the state's carbon reduction goals, making Massachusetts more competitive and more sustainable.

At UMass, we are already leading the way in smart, efficient, and resilient design and construction that leverages geothermal heating and cooling, ground source heat exchange, and other renewable energy sources. Through the investments proposed in the BRIGHT Act, we will accelerate our capital program to make more projects like these a reality, fast-tracking the development of the sustainable, world-class campuses that will drive the discovery, workforce readiness, and economic development that advances our competitive position both nationally and globally.

Also in concert with our state partners, and with both sustainability and global competitiveness in mind, UMass is helping position Massachusetts within one of the largest industries of the coming decade, climate technology. The Mass Leads Act intends to make Massachusetts a center of excellence for climate tech. Like the life sciences bills of the past, which helped launch Massachusetts as a global leader in biotech and drug discovery, Mass Leads will leverage state investment to spur private sector activity in climate tech, a critical industry of the future.

Last year in the United States, 273 billion public and private sector dollars were invested in the creation of clean energy, electric vehicles, building electrification, and carbon management, more than double the investment three years prior, and more than 555 years ago. With our rich history of technological innovation and strong track record of academic industry collaboration, Massachusetts is well-positioned to become a global leader in climate tech.

And UMass, through our land grant mission, will be the engine that drives the state's economic ambitions, as we've been for 160 years. Through Mass Leads, the Healy-Driscoll administration, President Spilka, Speaker Mariano in the legislature, have set us on course for our climate tech future.

And UMass, with the support of our Board of Trustees, led by Chair Steve Karam, will Marshal our considerable resources to accelerate that progress. This effort will leverage the whole of our unique mission. We will educate the climate tech workforce, cultivate technology development and commercial activity, help climate tech companies scale in our core research facilities, and our campuses will anchor climate tech corridors outlined in the state strategy.

Here in our capital city, UMass Boston will lead research on coastal resilience and climate justice, and act as a national and international convener on climate. On the South Coast, UMass Dartmouth will anchor the blue economy corridor in advance sustainable fisheries management, marine technology, and ocean sciences.

In the Merrimack Valley, UMass Lowell will leverage its expertise in advanced manufacturing and flexible electronics for climate tech applications. In Central Massachusetts, UMass Chan Medical School will educate future doctors and health leaders on how to confront the disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.

And in Western Massachusetts, UMass Amherst will anchor climate tech research, serve as a partner to industry, and model best practices for sustainable food sciences and agriculture. This focus on climate tech is aligned with the groundbreaking research already conducted on our campuses. 

UMass Amherst WET Center is ushering in the future of water treatment technology. The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy at UMass Lowell has delivered more than $120 million in external research and innovation funds. The UMass Dartmouth Biodegradability Lab is partnering with industry to develop ocean-safe plastics. And the Stone Living Lab here at UMass Boston has installed North America's first-ever living sea walls right behind me in Boston Harbor.

If we want our state to become a global leader in climate technology, we need global partners, and we've been hard at work cultivating them. Last May, through his role on the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, UMass Boston Chancellor, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, was the lead organizer of a climate summit at the Vatican.

Just a few weeks ago, UMass Boston hosted the Resilient Mass Summit, which brought together global climate leaders for an exchange of ideas. And last October, we launched the Clean Energy Environmental Legacy Transition, or CEELT Initiative, led by UMass Lowell and the Healy-Driscoll administration, and born from a partnership between UMass and Irish universities.

As we seek to grow the climate tech industry in Massachusetts, I have tasked each chancellor with developing targeted, partnership-driven economic development strategies that align with the Mass Leads Act and the state's Climate Tech Economic Development Plan. By adopting a whole-university approach, we will leverage our world-class faculty expertise to support our industry partners, educate the climate and sustainability leaders of tomorrow, and steward BRIGHT Act funding thoughtfully and intentionally.

Through that work, we will establish Massachusetts as a national model for how to integrate decarbonization, climate resiliency, economic development, and social mobility, proving, once again, that the most important asset available to the Commonwealth in designing and realizing its future is the University of Massachusetts.

As I stand here on Boston's Columbia Point, I'm reminded of the threat of climate change, the importance of climate resiliency, and the high stakes for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While we sharpen our focus on addressing these challenges and building a climate tech economy aligned with our goals, we invite local, state, national, and global partners to join us for the good of our university, for the good of our state, and the future of our students. Thank you.

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