Academic center for Kennedy eyed at UMass-Boston
As he looks to establish his legacy, Senator Edward M. Kennedy is negotiating with the University of Massachusetts at Boston to create a new Center for the Study of the Senate that eventually will be named after him, those involved in the negotiations confirmed yesterday.
The center, which would be built on a 4-acre parcel of university land that faces the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum at Columbia Point, would feature a new academic program based on the senator's collection of papers that he has accumulated over four decades in the US Senate, advisers to Kennedy said. The papers would be stored next door at a new part of the Kennedy Library that will be built as part of the agreement.
Though final details still must be worked out, the curriculum will focus on many of the issues that formed the foundation of Kennedy's career, including education, civil rights, labor, and health care, according to Kennedy advisers and government officials. Similarly, Kennedy wanted to house the center at UMass-Boston because its students are mostly from working class backgrounds, advisers said.
"He has a great love for the mission of UMass-Boston," said Paul Kirk, Kennedy's former chief of staff who is negotiating the arrangement for the senator. "Many of the students are from a blue collar working population. It basically replicates the people that Senator Kennedy has devoted his career to in the Senate."
Aides said the talks about the center should not be interpreted as a sign that Kennedy, 71, is eyeing retirement; he plans to run for reelection in 2006, his aides said. Instead, Kirk said, Kennedy is taking the opportunity to shape his legacy, an opportunity his slain brothers were denied.
"Senator Kennedy feels it is very important that he is deeply involved in how he is remembered. He is quarterbacking this, setting the agenda, directing what he would like to have at the center," said Kirk, who chairs the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
Jack M. Wilson, interim president of UMass, late yesterday confirmed the ongoing negotiations.
"There would be no American democracy without the United States Senate, and it is difficult to imagine the Senate without the powerful voice of Edward M. Kennedy," Wilson said. "The University of Massachusetts is pleased to forge this exciting new relationship with the senator and the Senate."
In looking to the Boston campus, advisers say, Kennedy passed over expressions of interest from Ivy League schools and other prestigious universities. Those that have shown interest include Columbia University, the University of Virginia, where he attended law school, the University of Connecticut's Dodd Center, and the University of North Carolina. Aides said he also said he ruled out establishing the center at Harvard University, where his family has had strong connections.
Kennedy's partnership with the university to build a center will also give the Boston campus a major boost in stature and visibility as it struggles to establish its presence in the greater Boston academic community. Since its inception in the mid-1970s, UMass-Boston has sought to establish a distinct identity in a very competitive university market in Massachusetts.
Bolstering that effort will be a separate agreement that the university is expected to sign with the Kennedy Library allowing it to lease, and ultimately acquire, part of the 4 acres of the Boston campus land in order to build a facility to ease the shortage of archival space at the existing presidential repository. The senator's papers will be kept at the facility.
Jo Ann Gora, chancellor of UMass-Boston, said in a statement, "The partnering with Senator Kennedy . . . [will allow] UMass-Boston to highlight its commitment to the important public policy issues of the day."
No price tag has been calculated in the complicated agreements, sources in the negotiations said. Advisers and other government officials said they expect federal funds to be used for the Kennedy Library's building expansion, but private sources to be used for the newly created center. It was unclear if any state funding would be necessary.
Kennedy, with Kirk, initiated the negotiations more than a year ago with former UMass president William Bulger, a longtime ally of the senator. In a surprise move, Kennedy came to Bulger's defense this year as Governor Mitt Romney and Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly were calling on Bulger to step aside following Bulger's controversial appearance before a congressional committee.
Despite Bulger's resignation last month, those negotiations have carried on. They involve Kirk, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and now a Boston lawyer; Kennedy's current chief of staff, Mary Beth Cahill; James R. Julian Jr., university executive vice president; Gora; and others in the president's office.
Sources on both sides say that, barring unexpected hurdles, the deal for the library expansion is expected to be announced within two months. The partnership agreement detailing the academic center will come later.
One major concern that haunts Kennedy and his aides is that his efforts to create the center will be interpreted that he is ready to retire from the Senate, where he has served since 1963, according to those involved in the negotiations.
But aides and political advisers said yesterday that he is firmly committed to running for an eighth term in 2006, when he turns 74 years old, a position he has also made clear to UMass officials. The concept of the center is to be more activist-oriented, rather than solely a place for academics to come to study the documents he will place there.
