2025 State of the University Video Transcript

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Text, UMass 2025 State of the University. President Marty Meehan.

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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.

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He takes part in a group photo with other middle-aged men and women in suits and ties.

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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.

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A woman stands in front of a group on stage and a podium that reads Team MA over an image of the state’s shape.

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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.

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A montage of contemporary architectural visualizations of campus structures featuring glass facades, overhanging structural elements, green spaces, and spacious lounge areas.

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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.

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A sprawling brick complex near a riverway.

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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.

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Students walk along a paved walkway with benches to and between campus buildings. A construction site. A sign reads, Sustainable Engineering Laboratories Opening Fall 2026. Designed to achieve LEED Platinum and Net Carbon Zero. Snow and frost rim a construction site.

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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.

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Views of the U Mass campus.

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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.

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Sun beams off a gold dome with a steepled tower on top. A brick structure with a gabled roof and faux Roman columns on the facade. A solar panel array. Fishermen use meters to measure the water.

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The Mass Leads Act intends to make Massachusetts a center of excellence for climate tech.

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A woman looks through a microscope and operates a pipette.

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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.

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Filling a gas tank. Solar panels on an roof and wind farms. Smokestacks.

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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.

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The governor stands in front of a gathered group on stage.

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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.

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A classroom with multiple flat screen monitors. A student raises her hand. Students perform a lab together. A student operates a robotic arm. Another opens a freezer with cold storage of samples.

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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.

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A freeway passes a structure with a glass facade. Clouds float over a city skyline with a bridge held by cables in the near ground as sunbeams shine through. A large university campus. Two people walk down a gangplank at water side. A man gestures beside the water as students observe. More students walk through a common area. A sign for Harborwalk U Mass Boston.

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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.

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Another sign for School for Marine Science and Technology, U Mass Dartmouth. Flags outside a convention center. Students lift crustaceans out of an indoor tank.

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On the South Coast, UMass Dartmouth will anchor the blue economy corridor in advance sustainable fisheries management, marine technology, and ocean sciences.

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A woman looks through a microscope to samples on a slide. Old smokestacks in a converted mill along a riverside surrounded by green trees.

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In the Merrimack Valley, UMass Lowell will leverage its expertise in advanced manufacturing and flexible electronics for climate tech applications.

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Gels fill a grid on a crochet board. Flying over a complex with a large parking lot separated by green spaces. A teacher looks over students’ lab work. An instructor addresses a group of students lined up in a large hospital room.

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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.

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A green dome topped steeple over a campus building. Two girls talk to a professor at the front of a classroom. A man checks a sample. A gardener inspects plants in a large greenhouse.

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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.

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A sign for the U Mass Mobile Water Innovation Laboratory. An electronics workshop inside.

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UMass Amherst WET Center is ushering in the future of water treatment technology.

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Students tend a hydroponics lab and a rooftop garden.

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The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy at UMass Lowell has delivered more than $120 million in external research and innovation funds.

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The president stands with several others on stairs in front of a dedication plaque for Primloft. Trash floating in water.

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The UMass Dartmouth Biodegradability Lab is partnering with industry to develop ocean-safe plastics.

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Students sculpt intricate designs against a stone wall on the water.

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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.

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Ships in the harbor. A weather radar map. A woman points out a weather system. The president holds a dedication plaque with another man in front of a screen that reads, EirGrid welcomes University of Massachusetts with French and American flags. The Vatican. The president meets the pope with a group of students.

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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.

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A banquet hall with a presenter at a podium on stage.

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Just a few weeks ago, UMass Boston hosted the Resilient Mass Summit, which brought together global climate leaders for an exchange of ideas.

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Another small group at a podium with the sign, Clean Energy and Environment. They later pose in front of a framed photo of the building.

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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.

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A man operates a mass pipette machine. A presenter at a Nobel Prize Conference on October 7, 2024. Two women in lab coats inspect a gas tank connected to a jumble of wires.

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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

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Greenhouses and construction sites.

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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.

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A divided roadway leads to a building with a glass facade along a waterway. Tennis courts along the side of the freeway. Stone pillars along a promenade walkway by the sea. Lakes split by forested peninsulas. A pointed clock tower on top fo a campus building overlooks the port.

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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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Text, U Mass. WWW dot Massachusetts dot edu.