Thursday, 4:30 PM
After fiery meeting, UMass trustees back reorganization plan
(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)
UMass president Jack M. Wilson (right) applauded at today's board of trustees meeting. He sat next to board chairman Stephen P. Tocco (middle) and Lawrence T. Bench, the school's general counsel.
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
At a meeting punctuated by heated, emotional rhetoric, the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees today overwhelmingly backed system president Jack M. Wilson's controversial plans to reassign two university leaders, over strong faculty objections.
The board named J. Keith Motley as chancellor of the Boston campus and made Michael F. Collins the interim chancellor of the medical school.
Trustee Lawrence Boyle vigorously opposed the nominations, blasting Wilson and other trustees for devising a plan with a secretive process that alienated faculty, politicians, alumni, and some top donors.
"Today we're voting on something that was decided weeks ago," Boyle said. "That's no way to run a university."
Trustee Matthew Carlin called Boyle's criticism grandstanding and defended the choice. Carlin told Boyle, "It's incumbent upon you to know what the hell's going on."
Several other trustees endorsed the two choices as highly qualified and strong leaders.
At the start of the meeting, board chairman Stephen P. Tocco told the trustees that the school system was "at a crossroads as a university to where we aspire to be ... trying to lift this university to top-tier status isn't going to be easy, but Wilson has the right to assemble his team."
While Wilson acknowledged that the process had sparked controversy, he told the trustees that his appointees deserved approval. "For us, debate is healthy. It it strengthens us. I don't shrink from it, I welcome it,” Wilson said.
After the two hour meeting, faculty members held a press conference to criticize the board's actions.
"The last month or two has been disaster for public higher education in Massachusetts because of all the turmoil and dissension this caused," said Max Page, president of the UMass-Amherst faculty union. "These were secretive plans thrust upon us."
