Twelve start-up companies;
more than 100 jobs; $80
million plus in venture
capital – came out of UMass
Lowell’s incubator program.
UMass Lowell Division I
Hockey had 17 players on the
Hockey East All-Academic
Team in 2005, blowing away
the previous mark of 13.
The Center for Green
Chemistry – designing toxicsfree products. Director John
Warner received the 2004
Presidential Award for
Excellence in Science,
Engineering and Technology
Mentoring.
Massachusetts businesses
increased production by 45%
and lowered use of toxic
chemicals by one third, with
the help of the Toxics Use
Reduction Institute.
No World Series without
UMass Lowell. Every ball
used in the 2004 World
Series was certified by the
UMass Lowell’s Baseball
Research Center.
The Work Environment
Department is a designated
World Health Organization
center of excellence for
occupational health research
– gaining knowledge that
changes the world.
UMass
M
A
G
A
Z
I
N
E
FALL 2005
VOLUME 8
NUMBER 3
THE LOWELL FUND: FUNDING EXCELLENCE TODAY
Your gift funds excellence, now. Call 978-934-4808 or visit www.uml.edu.
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‘Not the
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Christopher Lydon’s ‘Open
Source’ Aims to Stretch the
Limits of Talk-Show Radio
Page 17
Calendar of Events
September 7- October 7
October 6
Bernd Haussmann Art Exhibit
University Gallery, South Campus
Reception on September 14, 3-5 p.m.
Dear Alumni, Parents and Friends:
For the first summer in several years, I am able to share with you good
news about state funding for public higher education. Between 2001 and
2004, the University of Massachusetts and the state’s colleges lost 32.6
percent of their state support (adjusted for inflation). This year we started
to climb back up the hill. The Massachusetts legislature brought forward
and the Governor signed a budget for this new fiscal year that includes a
$41.7 million increase for the 29-campus public higher education system,
including an $18 million increase for the University of Massachusetts.
UMass Lowell received an additional $2.5 million for its operations.
We owe great thanks to the legislature, in particular leaders from the
Lowell delegation in the State House. Sen. Steven C. Panagiotakos cochaired the enormously effective Senate Task Force on Public Higher
Education, whose work reshaped the statewide conversation about public
higher education. Sen. Panagiotakos is also Senate vice chairman of a new legislative committee on higher
education, which is chaired in the House of Representatives by Rep. Kevin Murphy. Rep. Murphy marshaled
support in the House for increased funding and has begun to implement recommendations made by the Task
Force and develop other initiatives with his committee. Also crucial to this effort were Rep. Thomas Golden
and Rep. David Nangle, both of whom attained leadership positions in the House this session and advocated
strongly on behalf of public higher education.
The Senate Task Force called for the Commonwealth to allocate an additional $400 million on operations and $1.7 billion on capital improvements in the next five to seven years for the state’s public campuses.
The business community in Massachusetts, which lamented the fact that the state ranked 47th in state spending on public higher education per capita, hailed the turnaround. The Task Force hearings demonstrated
there is a strong consensus that public higher education is the key to the state’s long-term economic vitality.
To compete nationally and globally, Massachusetts must enlarge its investment in the University of
Massachusetts and the public colleges. Private schools are not graduating enough well-trained, high-skilled
people for the Commonwealth’s workforce. Massachusetts had nearly 60,000 unfilled jobs in the past two
years, many of which were positions that required a college degree. Eighty-five percent of the graduates of our
state’s public institutions remain in Massachusetts to live and work—including many of you who receive this
magazine. We need all of you if Massachusetts expects to offer a high quality of life to its residents and
contribute to the larger world.
Thank you for your continued support of UMass Lowell. We are doing all we can to ensure that we
have the resources to fulfill, and then exceed, our potential in Lowell. In a few weeks the new academic year
will begin, and you will be hearing more about the progress being made by our students, faculty, researchers
and staff. The generosity of our alumni, their families, and our friends is crucial to the success of the UMass
Lowell community.
William T. Hogan
Chancellor
November 4
M. Virginia Biggy Lecture Series
Dr. Diane Levin will speak about: Working
with Children in Violent Times
O’Leary Library, South Campus
September 9
October 12- November 11
15 th Annual David J. Boutin Memorial
Golf Tournament
Passaconaway Golf Course
Litchfield, N.H.
Art Department Faculty Exhibition
University and Dugan Galleries,
South Campus
Reception on October 19, 1-3 p.m.
September 14- October 6
“Student Paintings” featuring selections
from the Painting Studios
Refreshments on October 5, 3-5 p.m.
Dugan Gallery, South Campus
September 24
Alumni Gathering
Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles Game
Camden Yards, Baltimore, Md.
October 14-15
Fall Festival /Reunion Weekend
Classes of 1955, 1965, and 1980
On and off Campus Activities
Community Social Psychology
25th Anniversary Celebration
American Textile History Museum, Lowell
November 16- December 16
The Boston Drawing Project
University Gallery, South Campus
Reception on November 16
November 16-December 14
“Student Drawing” featuring selections
from the Drawing II Studios
Dugan Gallery, South Campus
Refreshments on November 30, 3 p.m.
October 14 & 15
Sound Recording Technology
All Class Reunion Weekend
On and off Campus Activities
For more information on these and other alumni activities, please check our
Alumni Web site Calendar: www.uml.edu/Alumni or call the Office
of Alumni Relations toll free (877) UML-ALUM or 978-934-3140.
For more information on Athletics, go to www.GORIVERHAWKS.com
or call 978-934-2310.
Interested in subscribing to The Connector, UML’s student newspaper?
Please call (978) 934-5009 or e-mail your request to [email protected]
C
ome back to campus to reconnect with your alma mater!
Reminisce with your friends and classmates, create some
new memories, visit your old haunts and see the fabulous
changes to campus facilities.
Fall Festival 0‘ 5
October 14-15, 2005
Reunions for 1955 (50th) Lowell Tech and State
Teachers, 1965 (40th) Mass State College at Lowell
and Lowell Tech, 1980 (25th) University of Lowell
Some highlights include:
Opening Reception at the Whistler House
Campus Tours
Mill and Canal Tours
Class Reunion Dinners
We have reserved a block of rooms at the Doubletree Hotel
in Lowell for $69 plus tax per room per night. Make your
reservations as soon as possible by calling 978-452-1200. You must
identify yourself as a UMass Lowell alumnus/a to receive
the group rate.
For more information, call the Office of
Programs and Alumni Services, toll free
1-877-UML-ALUM or e-mail us at
[email protected].
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AboutYou!
Write to us using this form with news about your family, career or hobbies.
If you send us a photo we will gladly include it and return it to you after it
appears. This form may also be used for updating a new business or
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Fall 2005
Volume 8, Number 3
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What topics would you enjoy reading more about
— Alumni, Students, Faculty, Campus?
News about you:
Executive Vice Chancellor
Dr. Frederick P. Sperounis
Executive Director of
Communications and Marketing
Christine Dunlap
Director of Programs
and Alumni Services
Diane Earl
Associate Director
Deme Gys
Director of Publications and Editor
Mary Lou Hubbell
❐
Staff Writers
Geoffrey Douglas
Paul Marion ’76
Jack McDonough
Matthew Miller
Design
Shilale Design
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The University of Massachusetts
Lowell is an Equal Opportunity/
Affirmative Action, Title IX, H/V,
ADA 1990 Employer.
College/Departmental Activities
Regional Events
Regional Chapters
Career Services
Class Reunions
N U M B E R
3
Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Graduate School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Outreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Page 17
Ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Faculty in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Campus Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Class Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
Page 20
Cover Story
17
‘Not the Usual Stuff’—
Christopher Lydon’s ‘Open
Source’ Aims to Stretch the
Limits of Talk-Show Radio
Feature Story
20
22
27
29
32
34
WUML’S ‘Sunrise’—Public
Radio for the Merrimack Valley
Page 22
Commencement ’05
Campus Athletics
Alumni Events
The Face of Philanthropy
Class Notes
Page 27
Page 43
Feature Story
Please check the activities with which you would
like to help:
Alumni Relations Council
8
Campus News
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Contributing Writers
Renae Lias Claffey
Bob Ellis
Elizabeth James
Elaine Keough
Ken Lyons
Patti McCafferty
Sandra Seitz
Rick Sherburne
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Women: Please include your graduation name.
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2 0 0 5
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Public Higher Education on the Rise: Legislators
See Heightened Role for UMass and State &
Community Colleges
Community Service
Please send me a copy of the latest Lowell Alumni Handbook,
which includes information on all alumni benefits, services and activities.
48 U M A S S L O W E L L M A G A Z I N E FA L L 2 0 0 5
Thank you!
Lowell Textile School • Massachusetts State Normal School • State Teachers College at Lowell • Lowell Textile Institute
Lowell Technological Institute • Massachusetts State College at Lowell • Lowell State College • University of Lowell
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
FA L L 2 0 0 5
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CampusNews
CampusNews
Lego Lands in the
College Classroom
The day that Assoc. Prof. Sarah
Kuhn found out her undergraduate
class had been unable
to get the reading for
that day’s lesson—so
she wouldn’t be able to
teach what she had
planned—she reached into her car and
found her kids’ tub of Legos.
“I had been thinking about how to
bring the physical element into the
classroom,” Kuhn recounts. So she
brought in the Legos.
The students’ charge: in five minutes, apply what they had been learning about smart growth—economic
development that considers strategies
such as clustering businesses in order to
decrease the need for traveling by
car—by “building out” with Legos.
What she discovered that day was at
first discouraging. The students hadn’t
really understood smart growth. They
were building parking garages and
sprawling developments.
Then she realized what a great
teaching tool she had. She had assessed
where students’ learning was in five
2
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
You’d probably also expect that a
probation officer would be fully aware
of any conditions placed on a parolee
by the court system in order to set
proper conditions on a convict’s
release.
“We have developed many outstanding undergraduate programs in disabilities through this collaboration,” says
Mandell.
Meehan Describes the
Light at the End of the
Tunnel
U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, left, joins Sociology Prof. Dan Egan following a recent
appearance on campus. Nearly 200
people filled the O’Leary Library Auditorium to hear Meehan present and take
questions on “Light at the End of the
Tunnel”— his proposal for a U.S. exit
strategy for Iraq. He is a senior member
of the House Armed Services Committee
and a UML alumnus. The event was
sponsored by the University’s Department of Political Science, Department
of Sociology, and Peace and Conflict
Studies Institute.
At a faculty workshop led by Assoc. Prof.
Sarah Kuhn, Assoc. Vice Chancellor for
Academic Services Joyce Gibson, right,
and Asst. Prof. Judith Davidson try their
hands at hands-on learning.
business say, you probably expect that
the police know about and are prepared to enforce it if necessary.
months collaborating with the Eunice
Kennedy Shriver Center to revise a
four-course sequence, originally
designed for undergraduates.
Colleges - Arts and Sciences
The program, offered on campus and
online through Continuing Studies
and Corporate Education, is designed
for professionals working in the field
and those seeking national certification in behavioral analysis.
Mandell says that early behavioral
intervention is the key to successful
treatment of autism. Symptoms such as
diminished communication and selfstimulation may be observable as early
as two or three years old, but may not
be diagnosed for years.
Warner and Students Celebrate Green Chemistry Day
“Parents are often the first to notice
the symptoms, but doctors may mistakenly conclude that it’s just a phase,”
says Mandell.
Ashland High School
Takes Top Honors
in Botball
ment, the standings were Needham
first, Ashland second and Arlington
High School third.
minutes, and students were now learning the lesson.
It was the joy of victory and the
agony of defeat.
“I see their eyes light up,” says
Kuhn. “They get engaged.”
Emotions ran high as 19 high school
teams competed in the regional finals
of the national Botball program this
spring. Initial favorites performed well
in the seeding rounds, then lost focus
in the head-to-head competition—
some whirred aimlessly in the corner;
others placed prizes in the competitor’s
goal.
Information Technology
Helps City Fight
Violent Crime
Since that day, Kuhn has periodically used Legos in her undergraduate and
graduate classes. More recently, she has
become a teacher of teachers, and of
other adults. For a Lego division called
“Serious Play,” Kuhn has led workshops
for business, stressing the teambuilding
that is engendered when adults “play”
with Legos.
Psychology to Offer
Autism Certification
The UMass Lowell Department of
Psychology began offering a graduate
certificate in Behavioral Intervention
in Autism in the fall.
Prof. Charlotte Mandell, chair of the
Psychology Department, spent several
FA L L 2 0 0 5
Women’s Week
Turns 10
Psychology Profs. Anne Mulvey, left, and
Khanh Dinh, right, join Judy Tso after Tso’s
presentation at Women’s Week. Tso told
autobiographical stories describing how
messages about cultural and physical differences can have a negative impact on
young women. The Council on Diversity
and Pluralism, of which Mulvey and Dinh
are members, supported the event, the
first of which was held in 1996. Members
of more than 70 organizations planned
270-plus events dedicated to social
issues, performances, awards and
women’s networking.
More than 200 high school students took part earlier this year in UMass Lowell’s Green
Chemistry Day at the Museum of Science. Prof. John Warner and his student research group
helped organize six hands-on experiments so the students could learn how to make safer
alternatives to toxic products. Warner and 14 UML students joined representatives from
Gordon College and Bridgewater State College in organizing 20 tables of six
experiments for the students.
If you’ve had a restraining order taken out against someone, instructing
them to stay away from your place of
But, because of the often arcane
record-keeping systems used by many
communities’ law enforcement agencies, there’s no guarantee that the necessary communication is occurring that
would ensure that this level of tracking
is taking place.
Asst. Prof. April Pattavina of Criminal Justice is working with one such
city to provide an information-sharing
system that would enable separate
agencies to better integrate their
data, and, thus, better track violent
offenders.
Three years ago, Pattavina, with
University support, began an audit of
the information systems used by the
Lawrence Police Department. Through
that process, she determined that most
violent crime data was not computerized and, therefore, difficult to access;
and that appropriate law enforcement
Student teams had just seven weeks
to create robots—using kits from the
KISS (“Keep It Simple, Stupid”) Institute for Practical Robotics—that performed tasks completely on their own,
with no remote control.
Ashland High School took overall
first place, with Needham and Roxbury
Latin High Schools following. Overall
standings are based on tournament play
combined with Web documentation.
In just the double elimination tourna-
Conference Attracts Artists, Scholars and
Lovers of Poetry
The New England Poetry Conference, sponsored by the Jack and Stella Kerouac
Center for American Studies this spring, was a week-long event of readings and
lectures by internationally recognized poets, scholars and publishers. Panelists at the
event were, from left, John Burt of Brandeis University, Erica Funkhouser of MIT,
Michael Casey and Chath pierSath.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
FA L L 2 0 0 5
3
CampusNews
CampusNews
agencies had no real system of information-sharing.
Lawrence officials agreed with the
researcher that something needed to
be done. Together, they received a
$214,000 grant from the National
Institute of Justice, to be split between
Lawrence and UML, to develop an
information technology system for
data management.
Pattavina and her graduate students
are working with officials in Lawrence
to input arrest records, court
documents, restraining orders and
other information from the various
offices. They will also develop an
information-sharing protocol to
facilitate communication between
probation and the police.
Colleges - Education
State House Display Features Graduate
School of Education Partnerships
The Massachusetts Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE) hosted a
poster display and reception for legislators at the State House recently, highlighting some
of the numerous school-college partnership projects. Former president of MACTE
Donald Pierson, left,
dean of the Graduate
School of Education,
joins University of
Massachusetts
Trustee William
Kennedy, center,
and Rep. Paul Casey
of Winchester.
Mil’shtein, Lue Explore
New Infrared Imaging
Those of us of a certain age can
remember the most magical moment in
shoe shopping. Step onto a little platform, wiggle your newly shod feet into
a slot and lean over the eyepiece to see
a green and ghostly image of your bones
inside the shoes.
It was the “perfect fit.”
“We achieve better imaging by combining different wavelengths within the
infrared,” says Mil’shtein. “With special
algorithmic processing of images, we are
clearly distinguishing, bones, tendons,
blood vessels and tissues.”
The applications are in the early
stages, and yet exciting.
Collaborating with Biology Prof.
Thomas Shea, the research team is
investigating the effectiveness of imaging tumor growth in mice—to watch
the tumor as it grows and before it
would normally be visible.
The new imaging technology may one
day transform mammography.
A seed grant with the UMass Medical
School will compare infrared and
ordinary x-ray mammograms using
side-by-side equipment.
Colleges - Engineering
Intense, yet non-penetrating like x-rays,
infrared light reveals interior structures in
real time. The technology has potential
applications in monitoring tumor growth,
mammography and surgery.
Unfortunately, it was also harmful
and unnecessary x-ray radiation.
Now there’s a new way.
Prof. Sam Mil’shtein, director of the
Advanced Electronic Technology Center, working with Niyom Lue, doctoral
candidate in biomedical engineering,
are looking at bones, tendons and
blood vessels in real time, using
infrared light.
“Please Wash Me” scrolls on the
message board of the Computer
Science Department’s robotic car.
With Asst. Prof. Fred Martin, front, are
some of the inventors and developers:
from left, Zebulon Heisey, Kareem
Abu-Zahra, Yan Tran, Jon Victorine
and Kyewook Lee.
4
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
Three state senators recently visited the University for a briefing by administrators and faculty
on plans for a nanomanufacturing and biomanufacturing center on campus. From left are
Chancellor William Hogan; Sen. Jack Hart of South Boston, chair of the Economic
Development and Emerging Technology Committee; Sen. Steven Panagiotakos of Lowell,
who requested the session for his colleagues; and Sen. Steven Baddour of Methuen.
The State Legislature has made a major commitment to the Center of Excellence in
Nanomanufacturing at UMass Lowell, with a $6 million matching-funds grant from the
John Adams Innovation Institute. Also, Gov. Romney’s budget proposal includes $21 million
for a new building.
FA L L 2 0 0 5
Niezrecki’s ‘School Zone’
Sign May Help Resolve
Manatee Dispute
The manatee, which plies the
waters of Florida, is the focal point of
an ongoing dispute between environmentalists and boaters.
Manatees frequently are killed or
badly injured by the hulls or propellers
of power boats that speed through Florida’s rivers and channels. Environmentalists, who want to protect the
herd—whose number is estimated to be
about 3,000—have taken steps to control the boaters.
They have succeeded in having manatee zones established in which boaters
must travel at only idle speed; have limited the construction of new docks,
which reduces the number of boats; and
have clamped down on the awarding of
permits for new marinas.
Reach Out to Lawrence
SHPE-UML, the campus chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, is
reaching out to local high schools. In March, eight SHPE-UML student members from
the College of Engineering, along with their advisor, Hector Valdes of the Office of
Economic Development, and Admissions Counselor Ed Seero, visited Methuen High
School, where they talked about careers in science and engineering with 70 seniors.
In April, the engineering students, along with Valdes and admissions counselor Gwen
Dem, made a presentation at Lawrence High School. The UML group was hosted by
physics teacher Jesus Hernandez (far right in photo), who brought together some 60
Lawrence High students for a discussion on careers. The UML delegation in Lawrence
included, standing from left, Jose Fernandez, Luis Escobar, SHPE-UML advisor Valdes,
Radhames Martinez, Felix Kam, Yves Carrion, Ruvani Nagage, admissions counselor
Dem, and Lawrence High teacher Hernandez. Kneeling, from left, are Kelvin Juarbe and
Joel Martinez.
“Infrared is a weak light, with not
very deep penetration—unlike x-ray,”
says Mil’shtein. “The assumption was
always that you couldn’t see very deep
with infrared.”
However, experiments on another
research project led to the discovery
that coherent infrared light (emitted by
lasers) creates an intense form of the
light that can be used for imaging.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
FA L L 2 0 0 5
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CampusNews
Assoc. Prof.
Christopher
Niezrecki
The state’s $14
billion boating
industry—which
affects some 180,000
people in marinerelated businesses—
has opposed these
initiatives.
They argue that
reducing boats to
idling speed eliminates water skiing; for
people who own homes two or three
miles inland on waterways, a trip to the
ocean could take an hour or so because
of reduced speed limits — consequently, the value of their homes is reduced.
And so on.
One solution to this problem may
emerge from research being conducted
by Assoc. Prof. Christopher Niezrecki
of Mechanical Engineering. He is working on a “Manatee Avoidance System”
with a grant from the state of Florida of
nearly $130,000.
Niezrecki’s work responds to complaints from boaters that there are not,
in fact, always manatees in the areas
designated as manatee speed zones.
CampusNews
Graduate School
Web-Based Communications Help Make
Grad School More Competitive
The global arena in which schools vie
for the best graduate students is increasingly competitive. In that environment,
quick response to prospective student
questions, applications and problems
may be the factor that helps a school
capture good candidates.
Recognizing this, the Graduate
School at the Lowell campus has instituted new, faster methods of processing
student inquiries and applications. The
most recent innovation is an e-marketing system that shortens response time
for inquiries about specific departments
and programs.
Each week, graduate coordinators are
provided with biographical information
and an e-mail hyperlink for all prospects
who inquire about their programs.
Coordinators can respond with a brief,
colorful electronic message developed
by The Graduate School. The single
page description contains general infor-
mation about the high quality of faculty and resources in each program and
specific listings of research opportunities available to graduate students.
Links to department or program Web
sites and to graduate coordinator and
chairperson e-mail accounts are included. Coordinators can modify and personalize each response as they choose.
The automated delivery program
was developed by Magarian, Linda
Southworth, director of Graduate
Admissions, Jay DeFrank, assistant
director of Graduate Admissions, and
two doctoral students, Piti Piyachon
and Somchai Jiajitsawat.
The idea would be to use
hydrophones that detect the vocalization of manatees, the sounds they emit
to communicate with one another.
When the hydrophone system detects
the presence of manatees, a light flashes
on the speed zone sign. When the light
is off, boaters may proceed at their
normal speeds.
6
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
Graduate School staff members who contributed to new e-systems include, from left, seated,
Piti Piyachon and Somchai Jiajitsawat, both doctoral students, and Jay DeFrank, assistant
director of Graduate Admissions, and, standing, Jerome L. Hojnacki, dean of the Graduate
School; Karina Boisvert, graduate admissions clerk; Linda Southworth, director of Graduate
Admissions, and James Magarian, director of Corporate and Community Graduate Programs.
FA L L 2 0 0 5
Safety Competition
a Big Win for Students
and Workers
The new protocol, designed by
Jerome L. Hojnacki, dean of the
Graduate School, and James Magarian,
director of Corporate and Community
Graduate Programs, is available to the
coordinators of all 28 UMass Lowell
and intercampus graduate programs.
His solution is to develop a system
much like the one used to control the
speed of motor vehicles in school zones:
the speed limit is in effect only when
the light on the sign is flashing.
“We’re still researching the
hydrophone plan,” Niezrecki says.
“There are issues that we have to
tackle, but it looks encouraging.”
Health
Four former students representing the programs Prof. May Futrell helped establish spoke
about Futrell during a reception at the American Textile History Museum in April. They are,
seated from left, Amy Anderson ’74, MA ’77, Futrell, Celeste Campbell ’72; and, standing from
left: Pamela DiNapoli Ph.D. ’00 and Barbara Maloney ’75, MS ’77 in the field of nursing.
When Futrell was first in school, nursing students lived in all-girl dorms, had to be in bed by
10 p.m. and were rarely married. Now students—not necessarily all female—may have
families, their own homes and full-time jobs.
Richard Schultz and Megan
McAuliffe, both industrial hygiene
graduate students, won a competition
aimed at providing health and safety
information for workers in a variety of
industries. As part of an Occupational
Safety Engineering course, the goal of
the competition was for students to
identify hazards that workers face on
the job site and create a publication
for each hazard to effectively communicate its control and prevention.
McAuliffe focused on eye hazards and
personal protective equipment for
plumbers, while Schultz concentrated
on machine guarding in woodshops.
Both publications will be placed in a
number of industrial settings so that
workers can see the benefits of
protecting themselves from hazards
while on the job.
Prof. May Futrell, Retiring
But Not Slowing Down
Upon retirement, most people pause
to reflect on their careers and what
impact they may have had on the
places they worked and the people
they encountered. For Prof. May
Futrell, who retired this spring after 35
years of shaping and nurturing the
nursing program at UML, deep reflection is not necessary. Her impact is
clearly evident.
She can look to the nursing program
itself, which she helped shape with
Trudy Barker and Eleanor Shalhoup,
former deans of the College of
Health Professions. Working with a
close group of faculty, she helped
establish the curriculum that, she says,
“took nursing education away from
an apprenticeship and into the
university.”
Futrell was one of the first faculty
members hired by Barker in 1970,
leaving a tenured position at Boston
University, where she had taught for
10 years. Throughout her tenure at
UML, she helped the bachelor’s,
master’s and doctoral degree programs
come to fruition, while making an
impact on students, mentoring and
collaborating with colleagues,
and conducting her own research
in gerontology.
“It is very gratifying to see what we
were all striving for actually happen,”
she says. “Our nursing program has
always been on the cutting edge. I
expect that to continue.”
Futrell can also look to the many
people she has touched, about 100 of
whom came to honor her at a reception in April at the American Textile
History Museum in Lowell. Speaking
about her were four pioneering, former
nursing students—Celeste Campbell, a
student from the first bachelor’s degree
class in 1972 and now a UML faculty
member; Barbara Maloney and Dr.
Amy Anderson, from the first master’s
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degree program in 1975; and Pamela
DiNapoli, the first doctoral program
graduate in 2000.
Futrell received her nursing diploma
from Mary Fletcher Hospital in
Burlington, Vt., in 1956, her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from
Columbia University in 1960 and
1961, and her Ph.D. from Brandeis
University in 1976. She chaired the
Department of Nursing for 20 years.
PHASE Shares
Findings in Final
Conference
The campus’s five-year research
project, Promoting Healthy and
Safe Employment in Healthcare
(PHASE), sponsored its final conference, “Worker Health and Safety
in Healthcare: Learning from
the Past, Best Practices for the
Future,” this spring. Attended by
healthcare providers and administrators from across the region, the
conference was held at the BU
Corporate Education Center in
Tyngsboro. The project was directed by Principal Investigator Craig
Slatin and co-principal investigator
Laura Punnett.
CampusNews
Afraid You Won’t Sleep
Well Tonight? Then
You Probably Won’t.
The best predictor of a bad night’s
sleep, he says, is the anticipation of a
bad night’s sleep.
Everyone needs eight hours sleep a
night, right?
“If you’re afraid you won’t sleep well,
you won’t. And if you don’t, it can perpetuate the problem.
Wrong.
“Most people need between four and
12 hours sleep, and it’s wildly variable
from person to person,” says Assoc.
Prof. Geoffry McEnany.
“Sleep is directly related to a person’s functional performance. If you
sleep well, you’ll be more alert, think
more clearly and function more effectively,” he says.
McEnany, a psychiatric nurse and
teacher in the Department of Nursing,
specializes in the subject of sleep.
Egg Study Sheds Light
on Blindness Prevention
“Nearly everyone with psychiatric
illness has sleep disturbance,” he says.
“Sleep disturbance to psychiatric illness is like chest pain to cardiac disease. It’s that common.
“Sleep is a critical index to a lot of
illnesses. In psychiatric illness, sleep is
the first thing to change. Sleep disturbances usually occur before a person
will admit he’s distressed. The change
in sleep is an indication that a person’s
body rhythms are changing.
“When the psychiatric illness is
treated adequately, the sleeping experience usually gets better.”
But if a person isn’t getting as much
sleep as they think they should, it
doesn’t necessarily indicate a psychiatric problem.
“Sleep disregulation is very common,” McEnany says. “We need to
teach the public what normal sleep is.
An infant doesn’t sleep the same as a
child. And adolescents usually go to
bed later and have a hard time getting
up in the morning. People who are
middle aged don’t sleep the same as
teens.
“As we all age, one thing is sure—
we get less of any one of the sleep
stages and more wake time. The problem is that no one expects it and they
become anxious and seek medications
to help them get to sleep.
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Who would’ve thought an egg a day
might keep blindness at bay? A study
underway by researchers in the Center
for Health and Disease Research in the
School of Health and Environment
indicates it might be so.
“Certain things happen with eggs,”
says Margaret Martin, associate director at the Center. And “certain things”
certainly happened when 47 area nursing home residents began eating an
egg a day for five weeks. Their levels of
two important anti-oxidants increased
significantly. These antioxidants—
lutein and zeaxanthin—help prevent
macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of blindness. Subjects’ levels
of lutein increased 20 percent, and
zeaxanthin, 41 percent. To ensure that
the participants’ cholesterol levels did
not also increase, their blood was
checked twice a month. Those levels
rose one percent.
“I really think that this will make a
difference in people’s lives,” says Prof.
Robert Nicolosi, who is heading the
research project. He says that a leading
Nashua ophthalmologist “thinks our
interventions are as good as any drug
he’s seen—and the interventions we’re
talking about are things people eat.”
Assoc. Prof. Susan Houde of
Nursing is working with Nicolosi on
the $230,000 study, with assistance
from the Center’s Martin, Asst. Prof.
Thomas Wilson, and Program Manager Maureen Faul. It is funded by the
Egg Nutrition Board of the Federal
Department of Agriculture (FDA).
Management
Commercialization Lab
Bridges Gap Between
Idea and Working
Venture
Valerie Kijewski thinks the business
of creating a new business is haphazard
at best. And she intends to do something about it.
entrepreneurship. The students will
take a patented invention (drawn from
the CVIP, which has up to 50 inventions at one time in the patent disclosure process) and try to turn it into a
“The most difficult piece of business is
business. They must complete the
defining reality,” says Kijewski. “What
management team, build prototypes,
would be the real value of the invention?
sign the first good customer and preWhat is the market? Who are the potenpare to secure financing.
tial licensees?”
The program began in September
“Defining reality” will be the job of
and is open to all master’s degree
students in the new Commercialization
students.
Lab, a hands-on, real-world education in
the gap between the intellectual property
invented by faculty researchers and working ventures that are attractive to venture capitalists.
Outlook
Construction Begins on New Parking Garage
A 12-month, $13 million project to build a 650-space parking garage
on UML East is soon to break ground in July as part of a solution to campus
parking problems.
“The garage will provide four levels of safe, well-lit parking near the largest
cluster of residence halls,” says Vice Chancellor for Facilities Diana PrideauxBrune. “Most importantly, students won’t have to cross Aiken Street to get
to it.”
Valerie Kijewski, associate professor of
marketing, is working with Paul Wormser,
entrepreneur-in-residence for the Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property office
and the associated Commercial Venture
Development incubator, in a new graduate
program—the Commercialization Lab.
The new facility, to be situated on the current Bourgeois Hall parking lot,
will primarily serve the needs of faculty, staff and students living and working
on UML East.
Following completion of the UML East facility, construction is expected to
begin immediately on a second, 900-space garage to be located on part of the
Riverside Lot on UML North.
“The community that creates businesses is not as organized as the
research community,” she says. “New
businesses develop plans, but then
don’t implement them. And we don’t
have good information about the processes of technology commercialization.”
Kijewski, associate professor of marketing, is working with Paul Wormser,
entrepreneur-in-residence for the
Commercial Ventures and Intellectual
Property (CVIP) office and the associated Commercial Venture Development (CVD) incubator, to develop a
new graduate program that will bridge
Construction will begin soon on a four-story, 650-space garage on the site of this
Bourgeois Hall lot as part of a plan to solve parking problems on campus.
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Red Sox Yearbook Readers
Getting a UML Pitch
Even if you’re not a die-hard Red Sox
fan, you might want to pick up the 2005
Yearbook of the world championship
team.
Featured among the career statistics of
some of your favorite players is an ad for
the University’s Baseball Research Center
at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. It is the latest step in a campaign to
increase visibility of the campus beyond
the region.
Under the headline, “At UMass Lowell, We’ve Got our Eye on the Ball,” the
ad informs readers that the 2004 World
Series balls were certified at the Baseball
Research Center—the official certification site for Major League Baseball and
the NCAA since 1998.
“And just like our favorite team, we’re
back to do the job again this year,” touts
the ad, which also features a photo of a
UMass Lowell baseball player laying
down a bunt, along with the campus logo
and Web site.
Louis DiNatale, executive director of
Public Affairs, said the University also is
raising its profile in the media through a
partnership with WBZ radio and television for release of its quarterly public
opinion polls, as well as other surveys as
warranted.
“This University is rich with innovation, expertise and knowledge. Everyone
in Lowell knows it. It’s time to spread
the word,” he said.
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Outreach
Video, Publications
Promote Safety for
Hispanic Workers
“Protect yourself. Your family needs
you!”
This important reminder from a
worker is part of a new safety and
health video aimed at educating Hispanic construction workers on how to
protect themselves from hazards and
injuries in the workplace. In this 16minute video, produced in Spanish
and translated into English, Hispanic
construction workers talk about the
different hazards they face at work and
the impact of on-the-job injuries and
illnesses.
Dr. Maria Brunette of Work Environment developed the video and
other instructional publications with
help from a grant awarded to her by
the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA).
Because a significant portion of the
Hispanic worker population has serious difficulties understanding technical English, Brunette felt that they
lacked the resources to obtain important health and safety information
that would help protect and prevent
injury or illness while on the job.
Her efforts to create linguistic and
culturally appropriate training resulted in an effective
way to communicate this vital
information to
the Hispanic
construction
workers.
One in five
deaths in the
workplace in this
country occurs
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‘Save Our History’ Project Unveils
Activity Trail Guide to the Acre
within the construction industry, and
one in five construction workers are
Hispanic.
Celebration filled the room as dignitaries, family, sponsors and hardworking
participants – adults and students – marked the completion of the Save Our
History project.
Lowell Cultural Partners
Awarded $75,000 Grant
for Film Project
The City of Lowell is hosting a
monthly world culture film series,
“Destination World: Lowell’s Global
Film Venture,” highlighting the community’s vibrant social mosaic. A
team of 26 community partners, led
by the Cultural Organization of Lowell (COOL) and including UMass
Lowell as a major sponsor, received a
$75,000 grant from the Massachusetts
Cultural Council (MCC) for the project.
The multi-media world-culture
expo series, being held on the first
Thursday of each month in downtown
Lowell, features Mexico, Greece, Italy,
Cameroon, Portugal, Canada/ Quebec, India, England, Poland, Brazil,
Ireland and Cambodia. In addition to
COOL and UML, the major partners
are the City of Lowell and Greater
Merrimack Valley Convention and
Visitor Bureau.
“The University is especially
pleased to have this grant because we
have been working closely with
COOL to find ways to enhance the
link between the campus and downtown,” said Paul Marion, director of
Community Relations. “In planning
meetings this past year, students, faculty, and staff mentioned film and the
city’s cultural diversity as strong interests. We tried to bring these together
in a fresh way with this new project.”
Brandeis resident scholar and former Lt.
Gov. Evelyn Murphy showed slides revealing widespread wage discrimination against
women across the country in various fields
at the recent Gathering at the Well forum.
Women Wage War
on the Wage Gap
Taking the adage “Don’t Get Mad,
Get Even” to heart, a recent Gathering
at the Well forum featured former Lt.
Gov. Evelyn Murphy and other women
leaders encouraging action to address
the wage gap that persists between
men and women.
“It’s not about women being insufficient; it’s about discrimination,” said
Murphy, who is a resident scholar at
Brandeis University and has a book on
the subject. “As soon as we realize this,
we’ll make up the 23 cent gap.” That
is the current gap between men and
women who work in the same jobs.
“I’m going to persuade you to do something about it,” she added.
Murphy offered anecdotes as well as
slides revealing the sheer number—
and the varied locales— of wage discrimination cases won by women. She
pointed out that university employees
are not immune to wage discrimination, citing a University of Texas case
in which a woman was paid $20,000
less than her male colleagues in the
same job with the same job description. The only difference? “She had
more seniority,” said Murphy.
The occasion was the official unveiling of a printed booklet, Lowell’s Acre
Activity Trail, written entirely by eighth-grade students from the Bartlett Middle
School and designed with the help of Mary Lou Hubbell, director of publications
in UMass Lowell’s Communications Department. A $10,000 grant from the
History Channel and the American Association for State and Local History
funded the project, a joint effort of the Tsongas Industrial History Center, the
Lowell National Park and the Bartlett School. The celebration was sponsored
by Comcast.
Sheila Kirschbaum
and Michele Turocy of
the Tsongas Center and
Amy Glowacki of the
Park worked with a
Bartlett team of instructional specialists,
teachers and about 20
students. They interviewed people who
grew up in the Acre
and people from histor- The History Channel awarded the project an all-expenses-paid
trip to Washington D.C., to compete for a national prize.
ical agencies, toured
From left, Linda Willis, Neary Mam, Vania Perez and Mark
various historic sites,
Souza will represent their colleagues.
and selected 11 sites
to create a family activity guide. The project,
one of only 19 funded out of nearly 600 proposals
nationally, had to be completed in only three
months to meet the terms of the grant.
The students learned a lot, but so did the
adults. As teacher Steven Cyr remarked, “I
learned never to underestimate the ability and
enthusiasm of students when they have something worthwhile to do. We take great pride in
their achievement.”
The Lowell Save Our History project received
another award from The History Channel: an allexpenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for a
team of two students and two teachers, to compete with other Save Our History projects for a
$10,000 national prize.
Bartlett School students created
a family activity guide to historic
sites in their Acre neighborhood
for a Save Our History project
funded by The History Channel.
Students wrote the text, created
the activities and helped design
the final publication.
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High-Tech Incentive
Improves Attendance at
Lowell High
Buoyed by the Laptops for Lowell
program that provides Lowell High
School seniors with an opportunity to
earn a free laptop provided they attend
school regularly, attendance among
high school seniors has increased by
more than 60 percent compared with
the same time last year, according to
Lowell High School Housemaster
David Conway.
UMass Lowell is among the major
partners that donated to the program,
along with Lowell city government,
state Sen. Steven C. Panagiotakos,
and Middlesex Community College.
Provost John Wooding leads the UML
effort on behalf of the program. To
date, some 50 computers have been
donated, and organizers are seeking
further gifts.
From September 2003 to January
2004, 231 students would have met the
current requirements: absent less than
eight days; accepted at two- or fouryear colleges or enlistment in the
military. From September 2004 to
January 2005, there were 413 students
who met the standards.
“To see the numbers increase by a
whopping 60 percent is phenomenal,”
says High School Headmaster
William Samaras.
For more information or to make a
donation to the program, contact
[email protected].
People
DNA Project Connects African-Americans to Their Roots
Growing up in New Haven, Bruce
Jackson gave up his dream of playing
first base for the Yankees when he got
a taste of science through a program
for urban youngsters.
“I was making bacterial plates at
Yale Medical Center and loved it,”
says Jackson, a molecular geneticist.
“When I finished my Ph.D., I was most
interested in Alzheimer’s—nothing at
all like the DNA project.”
Family history was what hooked
him, as it has so many, and led him in
a different direction.
The Jacksons have lived in New
Haven since before the American
Revolution. Fourteen-year-old John
Jackson arrived—from somewhere —
in 1768. He brought back a wife from
Madagascar, who died shortly after
giving birth to one son. That son had
14 children.
How does an African-American
trace personal genealogy back to the
homeland without knowing a country
of origin, or connection to an ethnic
group?
Forensic DNA is the answer.
The African-American DNA Roots
Project, which Jackson heads at UMass
Lowell, uses specific DNA analysis
techniques to identify unique signature
sequences among African-Americans
that might link them to particular
West African or Central African
ethnic groups that have also been
characterized.
The goal is to match the DNA
lineages of African Americans and
Caribbean people of African origin to
the DNA signatures of ethnic groups
that were the sources of slaves. The
point of common ancestry should show
up in the DNA. Developing all the
data, though, is like creating all the
genealogical records in Europe—
from scratch.
The African-American DNA Roots Project attempts to identify unique signature sequences
among African-Americans that might link them to particular West African tribes. Bruce
Jackson, a molecular geneticist and associate professor in the Biomedical Engineering and
Biotechnology program, third from left, leads the project at UMass Lowell.
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Jackson also feels the pressure of
time. Lineages in Africa are disappearing, as AIDS and war—the double
scourge of death and displacement—
are wiping out whole groups of people.
And, in the U.S., fraudulent services
have cropped up, claiming they can
trace African roots—for a fee.
published in several journals including
the Connecticut Review, Entelechy
International and Lowell’s Renovation
Journal.
Staff Writer Miller
Awarded Stegner
Fellowship from Stanford
Reardon Assumes New
Security Post
Matthew Miller, a staff writer in the
Communications Office, has been
awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship
in Creative Writing from Stanford
University.
Every year, the Stanford Creative
Writing Program awards five fellowships in poetry and five new fellowships in fiction. Coveted by writers
world-wide, competition for this twoyear fellowship is fierce, eliciting
roughly 1,500 applications annually
Matthew Miller
from more than 30 countries. Fellowships are awarded for two years and
include a living stipend, workshop
tuition and a summer stipend totaling
$62,000 for the two-year period.
Miller, a native of Lowell, recently
received a Mogan Cultural Center
Grant and has been twice nominated
for a Pushcart Prize. His work has been
Former UMass Lowell Chief of
Police Patricia Reardon has assumed
the new post of director of Institutional Safety and Security Assessment.
Her responsibilities include assessing
the University’s security needs; managing centralized reporting of securityrelated tasks; and providing for crisis
management, as both chair of the
Crisis Management Committee and
as a representative of the University
with federal and state emergency
management agencies.
UMass Lowell Goes Hollywood-For-a-Night
The UMass Lowell north campus was briefly remade
into Hollywood Boulevard one evening this spring.
From the steps of Cumnock Hall, a 95-foot red carpet
extended to the street; a movie poster hung between
two columns, balloons and posters festooned the
interior, klieg lights stabbed the sky. On the sidewalk
between the Cumnock entrance and the street, and in
the hallway inside, more than 300 invited guests awaited the arrival of a bright-white limousine.
The occasion, too, was a staple of Hollywood: the
world premiere of a movie—The Game of Their Lives, a PGrated, 90-minute film, based on the book of the same name by
UMass Lowell adjunct professor and Communications writer
Geoffrey Douglas. The film, which opened that same night
in theaters around the country, is the real-life account of 11
young, first-generation Americans who made up the 1950 U.S.
World Cup soccer team that defeated England, 1-0, in Brazil in
June of that year – arguably the greatest single upset victory in
the history of World Cup soccer.
The movie, shown in the Cumnock Hall auditorium, was
followed by a buffet reception and author’s book signing in
Alumni Hall.
Geoffrey Douglas, at the Alumni Hall reception, holds aloft the
framed Game of Their Lives movie poster presented to him as
a gift from the Communications staff.
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For a Class of 10-Year-Olds in Acton, a Lesson
in World Citizenship
For Vicky Dalis, it all began that day
last fall when her daughter Emma, who
was 10 years old at the time, came
home from school—the Merriam
School in Acton—with a story about
an inter-class project.
Ventures
It was playoff-time for Major League
Baseball; her fifth-grade class, Emma
told her mother, had been meeting
with a class of sixth-graders to discuss
the Red Sox-Yankee rivalry.
“What had happened was,” says
Vicky—a graphic designer in the
UMass Lowell Publications Office—
”the classes had gotten together to talk
about the two teams, and why some
people supported the Red Sox and
some liked the Yankees—the whole
subject of what makes a sports fan a
sports fan, I guess. And what the
teachers found, pretty much right
away, was that things had gotten a
little bit ugly.
“So the teachers, to try to address
the problem, started a dialogue with
the kids about playground behavior.
That led to some talk about respect
and good sportsmanship, those sorts
of things...”
At some point during all this, one
of the fifth-graders, a baseball player
reportedly, made the comment
that started things in a whole new
direction:
“If we can shake hands after our
games, why can’t they?”
Out of this was born the “Handshake Project,” and the modest
measure it proposed: that the two
teams shake hands with each other,
on-field, at Fenway Park or Yankee
Stadium, on either team’s Opening
Day.
Over the winter, letters were
written to owners, players, and brass
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UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
England, maybe all around the country,
read or heard about what they did. And
for Emma and the others, that’s the lesson that counts—that if you see something wrong or unjust, and take a stand
on it, you can make yourself heard in
the world.”
Two Agreements in
One Month Is Cause for
Celebration
Vicky Dalis
of both teams.
By early this spring, the kids had
heard from Red Sox Manager Terry
Francona and baseball Commissioner
Bud Selig, who wrote to say that he
found the idea “fascinating.”
Vicky volunteered as an informal
press liaison and, with the help of
some folks from the Publications
Office, put together a press release,
which was sent to local media.
The response was beyond anyone’s
imaginings. The coverage, which
began with a front-page story in the
Boston Globe and an account the same
day in The Herald, then caught the
attention of The New York Times,
which ran a piece the following Sunday; and of Sports Illustrated, which
weighed in with its coverage of the
“Handshake Project” within several
days of that.
Susu Wong, licensing associate in
UML’s Commercial Ventures and
Intellectual Property (CVIP) Office,
recently reached two licensing agreements in one month for software
developed at UMass Lowell—agreements that will, if all goes well, return
a stream of income to the campus
and the inventors.
Triumvirate Environmental of
Somerville bought a license to
EMSWebware®, developed by
Environmental Health and Safety
Director Richard Lemoine and former
computer science graduate student
Mikunj Josh. Triumvirate will use the
software to shape an EMS program
for its consulting and hazardous waste
management business.
The company is also making a
$20,000 grant available to colleges
and universities for purchase of the
EMSWebware from UML.
The Red Sox-Yankees handshake
never took place. But for Vicky the
handshake was only part of the point.
And Bunker Hill Community
College licensed EZREG® software.
EZREG makes possible simple, online
student registration, and is currently
being used by Continuing Studies and
Corporate Education. Steven Tello,
associate director of distance learning,
and Judy Feeney, UNIX/Web services
manager, developed the program.
“Those kids saw a wrong and they
tried to right it,” Vicky says. “And they
made an impact—people all over New
Licensing agreements take
time — and Wong has heard all
the complaints.
Then the broadcast media joined
the chorus: CBS-TV, ESPN, NPR and
a host of New England affiliates.
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“The average licensing deal with a
university takes a year and a half,” she
says. “Working with a state university
poses additional constraints, such as
indemnification—that a company can’t
sue the state. The IP policy was set by
the UMass Board of Trustees and both
parties need to become accustomed to
the process.”
About 200 invention disclosures are
currently in some stage of the process.
Despite the natural constraints, Wong
says she is determined to help define
and streamline the licensing process
“to be more responsive and communicative.”
Research
Journey to the South
Pole a Dream Come True
If you work in the UMass Lowell
Submillimeter-Wave Technology Lab
and your job is to understand the ins
and outs of lasers, including how to
repair them, a service call might bring
you to the very bottom of the earth.
Senior physics major Elizabeth Ehasz
completed such an assignment over
winter break, journeying to the South
Pole during the month of January to
repair a laser on the AST/RO radio
telescope that helps identify specific
radio frequencies from space. It was an
adventure she had dreamed about since
starting at the Submillimeter Lab as a
freshman, and one she will remember
all her life.
“No matter what you think it will be
like, it is so much more than you can
imagine,” says Ehasz, who is from Westford.
As one of only 30 women in the
group of 250 scientists stationed or visiting the U.S. South Pole Station in
Antarctica, she stood out during her
five-day stay. She was also one of only
two undergraduates and the only repre-
Elizabeth Ehasz of the Submillimeter Lab stands at the Ceremonial South Pole. She was one
of only two undergraduates at the South Pole station in January. Behind her is the new South
Pole station, which is still being completed.
sentative from UMass Lowell to complete the final leg of the trip. Rather
than being intimidated, Ehasz said she
enjoyed being around her older, more
experienced, mostly male colleagues.
“Just to be surrounded by really interesting people, all these scientists working together doing great things, was
amazing,” she says.
Faculty in News
Prof. Kay Doyle of the Department
of Clinical Laboratory and Nutritional
Sciences has been named chair of the
Research and Development Committee
of the American Society for Clinical
Pathology Board of Registry.
Bridgewater State College has presented its Nicholas P. Tillinghast Award
for Outstanding Leadership and Professional Achievement in the Field of
Public Education to Mary Beaudry,
director of UMass Lowell’s Faculty
Teaching Center.
Prof. Jim Coates, chair of the Art
Department, has been named a lifetime
fellow by the New Hampshire State
Council on the Arts in recognition of
his having received three individual
artist fellowships since 1981, the year
the award was first given.
Prof. Tom Shea of Biological Sciences has published a book about the
ways in which traditional karate trains
one’s mental as well as physical skills.
Titled Paper Wraps Rock, the Gentle
Side of Karate, it is available through
Amazon.com and directly from the
author.
Asst. Prof. Jane Flanagan of the
Department of Nursing has been
appointed associate clinical scientist
at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Nursing Prof. Lin Zhan delivered
keynote addresses in the People’s
Republic of China on “Health Care
Management: Quality Service and
Managing Variations” and “Higher
Education of Nursing in the 21st
Century: Essentials, Criteria and
Standards.”
Prof. Karen Devereaux Melillo and
Assoc. Prof. Susan Crocker Houde of
the School of Nursing have co-edited
the textbook Geropsychiatric and
Mental Health Nursing, in which they
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CampusNews
CoverStory
By Geoffrey Douglas
engaged leading researchers and practitioners in the field of geropsychology
to address the issue of health care in
older adults.
Asst. Prof. Jacqueline Dowling of
Nursing has received a grant for Step
Into Wellness, a pilot program aimed
at improving the nutrition and activity
of Head Start child-care providers and
adult family members.
Donald Pierson, dean of the Graduate School of Education, has been
elected to a three-year term as Region
I representative for the Executive
Board of the Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities.
Prof. Linda Silka of RESD, director
of the Center for Family, Work and
Community, was one of eight faculty
recognized nationally with an Ernest
L. Lynton Honorable Mention for her
work with refugee and immigrant
communities.
John Shirley, associate professor
in Sound Recording Technology,
has released a CD titled Sonic
Ninjutsu, a collection of original experimental electroacoustic compositions
written over a 10-year period.
‘Not the Usual Stuff’—
Campus Obituaries
Raymond Rigney, Former
ULowell Vice President
Dr. Lanett Scott, Founding
Director of ALANA
Raymond I. Rigney, an administrator in two of UMass Lowell’s predecessor institutions for a dozen years, died
April 13 at the Pavilion in Hyannis,
from complications of emphysema.
He was 82.
Dr. Lanett Scott for many years a
counselor in the University’s Counseling Center, died April 2 in Georgia at
the age of 53.
A native of Boston, Mr. Rigney was
a graduate of Holy Cross College and
held master’s degrees from Boston
College (history) and Boston University (education).
After teaching school for a decade,
he became fiscal and education adviser to Gov. Foster Furcolo in 1957 and
later served succeeding governors in
similar posts.
He was named treasurer of Southeastern Massachusetts Technological
Institute in 1964 and, in 1973, was
appointed the first director of fiscal
affairs for Lowell Technological Institute, where he helped oversee the
merger of that school with Lowell
State College to form the University
of Lowell in 1975. He was vice president of Fiscal Affairs for ULowell from
1976 to 1985.
Dr. Scott served briefly as a career
counselor in the Placement Office and
then became the founding director of
the ALANA Student Center, now the
Office of Multicultural Affairs.
She left the University five years
ago and moved to Powder Springs,
Ga., with her husband, Gregory, and
their daughter, Lakendra.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
Mrs. Roberts lived in North
Andover where she served on the
town Finance Committee. In addition, she was a member of the League
of Women Voters, and was a delegate
to the National Women’s Conference
for Equal Rights in 1975.
She retired from the University
in 1991.
She was a native of Birmingham,
Ala.
June Gonsalves Miles, Former
Equal Employment Officer
Joan Roberts, Retired Director
of Personnel
June Gonsalves Miles, an equal
employment officer and associate
professor at the University for 17
years, died of colon cancer on May 20
at New England Sinai Hospital in
Stoughton. She was 65.
Joan Roberts, who served as the
University’s director of Personnel
for eight years, died Feb. 3 at the
Lawrence General Hospital. She
was 68.
A native of Lawrence, Mrs. Roberts
graduated from Lowell State College
in 1971 with a major in education and
a minor in science. She joined the
staff of the college that same year as a
lab technician and later was elevated
to the rank of professional technician.
In 1978, she was named assistant
director of Personnel Services and,
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two years later, was appointed temporary director of Personnel. She was
named director of Personnel in 1981
and, two years later, the title was
expanded to director of Personnel and
Classified Labor Relations.
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After leaving the University in
1990, she was appointed a judge in
the Boston Juvenile Court, a post she
held for 12 years before retiring on a
disability pension.
Judge Miles earned a bachelor’s
degree in political science at Northeastern University in 1962 and a law
degree there 11 years later.
Christopher Lydon’s ‘Open Source’ Aims to
Stretch the Limits of Talk-Show Radio
here is, says Christopher
Lydon, a tectonic shift underway in our media. Before it is
through, it will touch on everything
we know, everything we believe to be
true. But most of all, it will transform
forever the way our news is brought
to us, as well as the messengers who
bring it.
T
“Remember that old Walter
Cronkite sign-off—‘And that’s the way
it is,’ and such-and-such a date, at the
end of all his old TV newscasts?
Remember how revered he was? He
fingers on the table-top in front of
him as though searching for just the
rights words. “The Internet has
changed everything. Everything. It’s
created this huge shift. Because there’s
no pope on the Internet, there’s no
New York Times, no Cronkite. There’s
no absolute authority anymore.”
Lydon, once host of “The Connection,” the brainy, no-holds-barred
morning talk-show on Boston’s
WBUR Radio, which went off the air
four years ago, returned to the airwaves May 30 on a new show—“Open
“The internet has changed everything. Everything. It’s
created this huge shift. Because there’s no pope on the
internet, there’s no New York Times, no Cronkite. There’s
no absolute authority anymore.” — Christopher Lydon
was the consummate voice of authority, we believed every word he said…
“Well, no more. I hear that today,
I’m going to say, ‘Hey, hold up a
minute, Walter. Why is that the way it
is? Because you say it? Because your
people [at CBS] say it? Because that’s
all you know?”
Lydon pauses briefly, drumming his
Source”— produced by the University.
Designed as a free-wheeling, broadformat civic and cultural “conversation,” Open Source will push the
traditional barriers of format, subject
matter and audience participation.
At least for the time being, the show
will be broadcast from WGBH, where
it airs Mondays through Thursdays
Christopher Lydon
from 7 to 8 p.m. A re-broadcast is
aired on the University’s WUML
Radio (91.5) Tuesdays through Fridays
9 to 10 a.m. Next year, following an
upgrade of the University’s studios,
WUML is slated to serve as the
permanent site and source of the
broadcast.
But coverage doesn’t end at the
outskirts of the region. Open Source
launched May 30 in the Seattle
market as well, and is syndicated
nationally by Public Radio Interna-
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CoverStory
secrecy; cabs and cab drivers the world
over (“We’re going to talk to Biju,
some New York cab drivers and perhaps one of the largely West Indian
cab drivers of our native Boston to
unravel such mysteries, for example,
as the plexiglass shield that separates
driver from driven in New York. Is it
a metaphor? Or just plexiglass?”); the
slowly-vanishing world of bespoke tailors (“In an age of casual Fridays, of
Banana Republic and banana-republic
sweatshops, there are still people out
there with tape measures and chalk
and scissors…who make clothes the
way they would have been made 200
years ago. And one of them is blogging
about it…”).
Chris Lydon and “Open Source” producer Mary McGrath. The show is being
produced by UMass Lowell, and will air next year at the WUML studios.
tional (PRI), which, starting July 4th,
will feed it live to 727 affiliate stations
for broadcast and simulcast streaming.
With conventional broadcasting
technology built around the broad
freedoms of the Internet—the same
freedoms that have created the
“authority collapse” Lydon is so fond of
discussing—the show draws its source
material from bloggers, podcasters and
Web enthusiasts in general, with
Lydon overseeing a dialogue with
callers and e-mailers from around the
world on a virtually limitless range of
subjects. You could say it’s the
technological equivalent of Speakers’
Corner in London’s Hyde park, where,
for at least two centuries, locals have
gathered every Sunday to speechify,
rant and heckle, unplanned and unsolicited, on an infinitude of topics.
“The idea,” Lydon says, “is to have a
broadcast with the speed and expanse
of the Web—fast, wide-ranging,
dynamic—but delivered with the
human voice. The vox humana. It has
the advantages of both mediums, of
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UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
both technologies. It reflects the realities of our world today, the speed of
technology, and the interconnectedness of everything and everyone. At
the same time, it manages what the
straight media hasn’t yet really even
attempted—it lets the readers become
the writers, the listeners become the
broadcasters. It lets the audience in.”
roundtable and the range of the giveand-take to the whole planet…”
His goals for the show are not modest. His hope, he says, along with that
In a single week in mid-June, just
two weeks after Open Source went on-
In a typical hour, Lydon might lead
discussions on subjects ranging from
Iraq to religion to hunger to the economy, to Internet-based publication
opportunities for aspiring novelists.
There is no limit, he says, either on
the topics or the sources involved.
“When people switch us on, what we want them to
think is, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, this is something
different, something really, really new.”
— Christopher Lydon
of producer Mary McGrath, is “to
thread the seeming chaos of the Web
into a coherent skein of ideas and
argument. We want to launch the
smartest, most various, wide open, irresistible and democratic conversation
anyone has ever been invited to join,
in any format. The Internet transition
we’re living through is a boundless
opportunity. It extends the rim of the
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air, the range of its coverage, though
no doubt typical, was as broad and
eclectic as anything you’d find on the
radio today: “Accidental Time Capsules” (“What will anthropologists of
the future be talking about—furtive
text messages? Capri Sun pouches?
Patio furniture?—when they talk about
us?”); Chinese bloggers, and the threat
they pose to that nation’s vaunted
And the show won’t end when the
hour does. “Through a very active
Web site,” Lydon promises, “we’ll be
engaging people before, during and
after each program, on every subject
we discuss. We want to make the
show incredibly zesty and original
and fresh.”
Open Source, Lydon told a media
reporter earlier this year, “will be the
first radio program truly fused to the
Internet, and it will have a lively Web
pects. I gotta stay tuned to this. These
guys really have something to say.’ ”
Beginning next year, if all goes
according to plan, Lydon, in addition
to his Open Source duties, will begin
hosting a student-run, once-weekly
WUML program with a focus on
Lowell and the Merrimack Valley.
The show, which will explore the historic contributions of the region in a
broad range of areas—literature and
the arts, as well as industry—and place
them in a modern perspective, will be
produced and engineered by UMass
campaigns; in later years he anchored
“The Ten O’Clock News” on WGBHTV in Boston, then founded “The
Connection,” broadcast to more than
70 stations with close to half a million
listeners—once cited as “the most
original, varied, and inclusive ‘smart’
public radio talk show in America.”
Two years ago, in a logical lead-up to
his current Open Source endeavor, he
produced and hosted a seven-hour PRI
series, “The Whole Wide World,” that
examined the roots, perils and implications of globalization. His 2004 “Blogging of the President” Web site was
described last year by Vanity Fair as
“the smartest coffee-house conversation on the presidential campaign.”
“‘Open Source’ with Chris and other
University talent is UML’s entry into
the national marketplace of ideas,”
says UMass Lowell’s executive director
of Public Affairs Lou DiNatale. “His
local show will light up
the Merrimack Valley,
from Concord to
Lawrence.”
“Chris Lydon’s show will light up the Merrimack Valley,
from Concord to Lawrence.” — Lou DiNatale
presence. We expect to create a community online that can take part in
the production process before, during,
and after the program, helping us to
surface new views and new voices. It
will be a destination for bloggers and
for people wanting just one place to go
on the Web to discover the best of the
daily blogosphere…
“When people switch us on, what we
want them to think is, ‘Whoa, wait a
minute, this is something different,
something really, really new. This is
not the usual stuff, not the usual sus-
Lowell students as part of a planned
new communications program
(see story on page 21).
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls,”
says Lydon, “from [University] kids
who want to be part of the program.
That’s exciting to me. I love to teach.
And it adds a whole new dimension
to things.”
For more than 30 years, Christopher
Lydon’s has been a signature voice in
print, TV, and radio journalism. Early
in his career, he was a political reporter
for The New York Times, contributing
to the coverage of several presidential
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FeatureStory
hour intervals by news and sports
briefs. There is also a daily essay—four
to six minutes, on a limitless subjectrange by an assortment of sources—
and, from time to time as the schedule
allows, a
pre-recorded segment. On Thursday
mornings, a special feature, “Common
Threads,” spotlights some indigenous
feature, trend or personality—the
recent influx of artists into the
Valley, for instance, or a local old-time
clock-maker.
The twin goals, says Dunlap, are
freshness and variety. “We look for subjects you might not hear about every
The staff of “Sunrise”—from left,
Michelle Richards, Henri
Marchand, Anthony Accardi,
Perry Persoff and Bob Ellis—in
the studio on a recent morning.
WUML’S ‘Sunrise’— Public Radio
for the Merrimack Valley
,
WUML the University’s FM
station, has an all-new morning
format.
The newly-designed “Sunrise,”
which airs on the station weekday
mornings from 6 to 9 a.m., kicked off
last winter with an eclectic mix of
news, weather, sports, features, essays
and interviews. The program, which
had been on-air since the fall of 2003
as a partnership of UMass Lowell and
The Lowell Sun, has been produced
since January by the University’s
Communications Department with
creative support and source back-up
from The Sun and its staff.
Executive Producer Christine Dunlap,
also the University’s executive director of communications. “We’re different from your basic FM station. We
run daily essays, for instance, from a
wide cross-section of folks—both in
and out of the University—and interview-features that profile men and
women you might never know of otherwise. All that, along with the usual
diet of news, sports and weather to
keep our listeners abreast.”
The program, which patterns itself
on public radio, but with the Merrimack Valley as its focus (the targeted
“We like to think to
think of ourselves as a
forum for the exchange of
ideas,” says “Sunrise”
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“We look for subjects you might not hear about every
day, maybe something the average listener hasn’t
thought about. Family and relationship issues maybe, or
homeowner problems, or travel ideas—‘news you can
use,’ we like to say.”
— Christine Dunlap
day, maybe something the average listener hasn’t thought about. Family and
relationship issues maybe, or homeowner problems, or travel ideas—‘news
you can use,’ we like to say. And we try
to keep our voices varied: professors,
researchers, artists, local movers, folks
from the non-profits in town. Just
about anyone you could name, anyone
with something interesting to say…
New, Planned Communications Program
Will Set a ‘Standard of Excellence’
Christopher Lydon, in addition to his work on Open
Source, the University’s new broad-format radio talk-show,
has agreed to assist faculty and staff on the creation of a
planned communications major—then, when the time
comes, to be among its faculty.
The program, at this point,
remains a year or more away, says
UMass Lowell Associate Provost
Kristin Esterberg, with a proposal—being prepared jointly by communications staffers and interested
faculty—currently in the works.
Christine Dunlap
audience is roughly 250,000), begins
its typical day—at 6 a.m.—with a
brief newscast followed by a discussion
of major news events. This will lead
into the first of four or five daily guest
interviews, which are recorded live
and interspersed throughout the
three-hour time-slot, followed at half-
“And we’re always looking for
more—sources as well as listeners.
Long-term, that’s what we’re after:
to grow our audience and improve
the format. We’re working on both
every day.”
“There’s a core of faculty who
share an interest in media studies
Kristin Esterberg,
or communications,” Esterberg
UMass Lowell associate
says, “who right now are working
provost.
with two part-time staff people—
one with a background in journalism, the other in cable—
to draft a proposal for review by the faculty senate. Once it
clears the senate, it goes to the board of trustees for
approval, then from there to the state authorities.
So it’s still early. But we’re committed to this.”
Until the program is approved, students wishing to pursue a course of study in communications can do so through
the Philosophy Department, earning a degree with a
concentration in communications. The long-term goal
though, says Esterberg, is to have a stand-alone program.
Once that been approved, and the Open Source base of
operations has been moved to UMass Lowell (see accom-
“The vision is to build a UMass Lowell
course of study, a new undergraduate
communications major.” — Lou DiNatale
panying story), the station will serve as a training lab for
communications students, with Lydon and others providing the broadcast training. No student fees will be used to
support Lydon’s show; costs instead will be covered
through a reorganization of the Communications and
Advancement offices.
“The vision is to build a UMass Lowell course of study, a
new undergraduate communications major,” says Executive
Director of Public Affairs Lou DiNatale, “that will be a
standard of innovation and excellence in the student
and community radio and communications field…with
Christopher Lydon, a student-managed radio station and,
eventually, a nationally-recognized communications major
at its core.”
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Commencement’05
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blueprint in 2003. He then formed
the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a research collaboration of the
two schools and affiliated hospitals
with the Whitehead Institute for
Biomedical Research. Directed by
Lander, Broad aims to advance the
new field of genomic medicine.
Happy graduates were eager to share their success with friends
and family in the standing-room-only crowd at Tsongas Arena.
James V. Dandeneau, who graduated in 1980 with a degree in plastics
engineering, is the founder of Putnam
Plastics in Dayville, Conn. Under his
leadership, Putnam Plastics grew to
one hundred employees and became
one of the nation’s leading specialty
polymer-extrusion companies serving
the medical device industry. Industry
experts attributed the company’s success to Dandeneau’s ability to find
innovative solutions to the challenges
of manufacturing critical components. In 2004, twenty years after its
founding, Putnam Plastics was
acquired by Memry Corporation.
James Dandeneau was named a vice
president of Memry Corporation and
was subsequently elected to the company’s board of directors.
neau Family Endowed Scholarship
Program for the benefit of students in
UMass Lowell’s Francis College of
Engineering. Two years later, he was
inducted into the University’s Francis
Academy of Distinguished Engineers.
Dandeneau also is a member of the
steering committee for the 50th
anniversary celebration of plastics
engineering at UMass Lowell. To
mark the occasion, Putnam Plastics
renovated the S.J. Chen Extrustion
Laboratory in plastics engineering.
Dandeneau returned to his alma
mater in 1999 to establish the Dande-
Commencement 2005
UMass Lowell’s June 5 commencement attracted an overflow
crowd, as more than 6,000 people
filled the Tsongas Arena to cheer for
the nearly 2,000 graduates receiving
bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral
degrees.
Master’s degrees were awarded to
the first group of students completing
multi-campus degree programs. Four
students have earned the Biomedical
Engineering and Biotechnology
degree and one is completing the
Marine Science and Technology program. Both degree programs are
shared among the University of Massachusetts campuses; each student
chooses the campus from which to
receive his or her degree.
Degrees conferred on June 5 included 70 doctorates, up from the annual
average of 55.
The ceremony provided an opportunity to recognize students for outstanding academic and service
achievements. This year’s valedictorian was Christopher DiNitto, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in
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UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
mechanical engineering. DiNitto also
received the Trustees’ Key, which
honors students who completed four
years at UML and earned a grade
point average of 4.0. The Trustees’
Key has only been awarded 13 times
since its creation 20 years ago.
Four professionals were recognized
for their achievements. Swedish environmentalist Margot Waldstrom, John
Beckwith and Eric S. Lander received
honorary degrees. James V. Dandeneau received the Distinguished
Alumni Award.
Waldstrom, who delivered the commencement address, is first vice president of the European Commission,
the politically independent collegial
institution that embodies and defends
the general interests of the European
Union. She also holds the post of
commissioner for institutions relatione
and communications strategy. She
served previously as European Commissioner for the Environment, and
before that as a member of the
Swedish Parliament.
John Beckwith, a geneticist and
microbiologist, is deeply involved in
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exploring issues of the social impact of
science, and genetics in particular,
and in acting on concerns about this
impact. In 1989, he was appointed to
the Working Group on Ethical, Legal
and Social Implications of the Human
Genome Project of the National Institutes of Health and Department of
Energy, a group formed to anticipate
and disrupt possible negative consequences of the project. From 2000 to
2002, he participated in the Behavorial Genetics Working Group jointly
organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
and the Hastings Center, the leading
bioethics center in the country. Since
1986, he has worked in the Genetics
Screening Study Group in the Boston
area.
Lander, a mathematician, geneticist,
economist and molecular biologist, is
a driving force behind today’s revolution in genomics, the study of all
genes in an organism and how they
function together in health and disease. He was a leader of the international Human Genome Project,
which completed mapping the human
Chancellor William T. Hogan presided over
commencement ceremonies on Sunday,
June 5 at the Tsongas Arena.
The ceremony was called to order by The
Honorable James DiPaola, Sheriff of
Middlesex County.
A Doctor of Humane Letters degree was conferred
on Jonathan Beckwith, left, a geneticist, microbiologist and researcher on the social impact of science,
by Dr. David Wegman, dean of the School of Health
and Environment.
Margot Wallström, first vice president of the
European Commission, delivered the commencement address to the nearly 2,000
graduates who received bachelor’s, master’s
and doctoral degrees.
Robert Tamarin, dean of the Division of Sciences, right, conferred a Doctor of
Humane Letters on Eric S. Lander, a leader of the international Human Genome
Project and advocate for applying genomics to biomedical research.
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Advisors are shown hooding this year’s 70 doctoral recipients. The annual average of doctorates awarded in recent years has been 55.
Distinguished Alumnus James V. Dandeneau, ’80, plastics engineering, fourth from left,
is welcomed to the breakfast by Chancellor Hogan. Dandeneau was accompanied by,
from left, his mother Rosemary, his daughter Lauren, his wife Debbie and his son Ryan.
Key administrators on hand for the chancellor’s Commencement breakfast
included, from left, Diana Prideaux-Brune, Vice Chancellor for Facilities; Louise
Griffin, Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance; Frederick P. Sperounis,
Executive Vice Chancellor; Jeffrey Thompson, Vice Chancellor for Information
Technology, and Kristen Esterberg, Associate Provost.
Chancellor Hogan welcomed State Sen. Steven Panagiotakos to the commencement breakfast. The Senator
brought greetings from the Commonwealth to the
graduates.
The crowd of more than 6,000 prompted this graduate to use a
cell phone to locate those in the audience who came to wish
him well.
The Commencement Breakfast was attended by
Provost John Wooding, left, and David Wegman,
dean of the School of Health and Environment.
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David Gray, UMass Vice President for Information Technology, joined Dean Jacqueline
Moloney, right, in congratulating Cheryl Gray,
who earned a bachelor’s degree in information
technology on line through the Division of Continuing Studies and Corporate Education. Gray
received a Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished
Academic Achievement.
Christopher DiNitto, left, valedictorian for the Class of 2005, and
Charles Cary, a recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal for Student Service,
flash a thumbs-up sign before joining the commencement processional. DiNitto also received the Trustees’ Key, awarded to a student who
completed all four years at the Lowell campus and who achieved a
4.0 grade point average.
Chancellor Hogan, with the assistance of his granddaughters, from left, Ella and
Ceara Tomaino, welcomed commencement speaker Margot Wallström to the commencement breakfast.
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Commencement’05
CampusAthletics
Winter Athletes Excel
on the Field and in
the Classroom
Athletes competing on UML’s winter teams compiled great numbers in
their respective sports. They also had
great numbers in the classroom.
The Chancellor’s Medal for Student Service recognizes outstanding contributions to the University Community. This year’s recipients are,
from left, Katie Ferguson and Pella Anderson from the School of Health and Environment, Shannon Seidel from the Division of Sciences,
Jeffrey Belair from the College of Management, Charles Carey from the Division of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Karan
Parkash from the Division of Sciences.
Shannon Seidel, a senior from Seattle,
Wash., received the University Athletic
Scholarship Award from Chancellor
Hogan, left, and Athletic Director Dana
Skinner. The award is conferred on the
athlete with the highest grade point
average among students who have
played for four years on UML varsity
teams. Earlier this year, Seidel was
named the Eastern College Athletic
Conference Division II Female
Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Twenty members of Lowell’s Division I River Hawk hockey team were
on the fall ’04 Dean’s List and 10 of
them earned a grade point average of
3.5 or better. The Lowell campus was
ranked second for its academic record
among the teams of Hockey East.
On the ice, the team finished with
a record of 20-12-4, making this the
seventh season the team won 20 or
more games since entering Division I
more than 20 years ago.
Center Ben Walter, a junior from
British Columbia, was the third-highest scoring player in the country this
season, scoring 26 goals in the season’s
36-game season. Walter, who was
named Hockey East’s second team All
Star, has already been drafted by the
Boston Bruins but will finish school
before turning pro. Freshman goalie
Peter Vetri of Windham, N.H.
was named Hockey East’s Rookie of
the Year.
In basketball, both men’s and women’s teams did well. The men’s team
posted a record of 18 and 10, finishing
second overall among Northeast 10
Division II teams.
Students who achieve the highest cumulative grade point average in each college are awarded the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished
Academic Achievement. This year, medals were earned by, from left, Cheryl Ann Gray from the Division of Sciences, Nelson Poon from the
College of Management, Christopher DiNitto from the College of Engineering, Brenda van der Beek from the Division of Fine Arts, Stephanie
Smart from the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and Kent Conforti from the School of Health and Environment.
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The Lady River Hawks basketball
team ended the season with a record
of 16 and 13, placing them sixth in
the Northeast 10. Mariette Guillaume, a junior from Audubon, Penn.,
averaged 11.8 points per game. Guillaume has already etched her name in
the school’s record books for executing
the fourth highest number of steals in
a career.
The men’s and women’s indoor
track and field teams produced a
record-breaking 18 athletes who
qualified for the NCAA Division II
National Championships this year.
In the New England Championships,
Lowell’s men’s team finished second
and the women’s team third in the
invitational match in which Division
I, II and III athletes compete together.
Runner Patrick Morasse, a junior
from Lowell, shattered two significant
school records during the season. He
ran the mile in four minutes, 6.54 seconds. And, with a time of two minutes, 24.99 seconds, he became
Lowell’s fastest 1,000 meter runner,
beating the previous record by nearly
one and a half seconds.
Student-Athletes
Honored at Annual
Excellence Banquet
UMass Lowell athletes who excelled
in the classroom as well as on the
playing field were
recognized this
spring at the
University’s annual Excellence Banquet.
Honored as the
top student athletes of the year
Shannon Seidel
were Shannon Seidel of the women’s
track and field
team, who maintained a 3.9 grade
point average in
biology; and Nate
Liebenow, a graduate student with a
Nate Liebenow
3.8 GPA in criminal justice who also hit .374 on the
baseball team.
Shannon Seidel
Seidel received the Laurie Mann
Award as female student-athlete of the
year while Liebenow was the recipient
of the David J. Boutin Award as male
student-athlete of the year. Seidel also
received the Chancellor’s Medal at
Commencement for her contributions
to the University.
Seniors Jonathan Curran of the
men’s soccer team and Jackie Driscoll
of the field hockey squad were named
winners of the Lester H. Cushing
Award as male and female athletes of
the year.
Senior Carly Hopkin, a mid-fielder
on the women’s soccer team, received
the Jon Hellstedt Award. This award,
which was made for the first time,
goes to the male or female studentathlete who exemplifies outstanding
service to the University community,
the City of Lowell and other causes.
The award is name for retired Psychology Prof. Jon Hellstedt who served as
faculty representative to the Athletic
Department for 10 years.
Twelve other student-athletes also
were honored at the banquet.
Their names, sport, GPA and major
are as follows:
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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27
CampusAthletics
Women Speak Out for Equality in Sports
Nate Liebenow
Mariette Guillaume, women’s
basketball, 3.0, psychology.
James Whyte, men’s basketball, 2.5,
finance.
Chris Kapfer, men’s cross-country, 3.5,
electrical engineering.
Nicole Plante, women’s cross-country,
3.5 biology.
Alysia Morgan, field hockey, 3.3,
nursing.
Tom Lamond, golf, 2.7, American
studies.
Jason Tejchma, ice hockey, 3.7,
business administration.
Sara Farias, softball, 2.5, criminal
justice.
Beth Odian, women’s soccer, 3.7,
business management.
Tim Garry, men’s soccer, 2.8,
criminal justice.
Patrick Morasse, men’s track and
field, 2.8, mechanical engineering.
Julie Handy, volleyball, 3.5, health
education.
28
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
AlumniEvents
At the roundtable panel, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The Road to the Top for Women in
Sports,” panelists Marry Mazzio, former Olympic rower turned film producer, far left,
Joanne Aldrich, Division I women’s basketball official, second from left, and Joanne
Merrill, senior athletic director at Rivier, far right, all spoke about getting ahead in the
male-dominated world of sports. Professor of Political Science Jeff Gerson, third
from left and Senior Associate Athletic Director Joan Lehoullier, second from right,
facilitated the discussion.
The role of women in sports has
developed significantly over the
years, yet there still remains a gap
between men and women at all
levels in athletics, according to panelists at a recent campus roundtable.
Others panelists included Joanne
Merrill, who has been the athletic
director at Rivier College for more
than 20 years, and Joanne Aldrich,
an NCAA Division I women’s
basketball official.
“Breaking the Glass Ceiling:
The Road to the Top for Women in
Sports,” was the topic under discussion. Panelists attempted to find
some answers to how women can
become strong sports figures and
role models.
With women having such a small
presence in sports-related careers,
these panelists were asked to
describe how they got where they
are today. Mazzio was an Olympic
rower and a lawyer before she
jumped into the film industry.
She was appalled at the portrayal of
women in the media and, with the
birth of her daughter, Daisy, on the
way, she made the switch into film
so her daughter and other young
girls could have some realistic
role models.
Among the panelists were women
who have made a visible difference
in the world of sports. One was former Olympic rower Mary Mazzio,
founder and CEO of Eggs Inc.,
an independent film production
company. In 2000, Mazzio received
the Women’s Sports Journalism
Award from the Women’s Sports
Foundation.
FA L L 2 0 0 5
2.
1.
1. Friends, fellow faculty, staff and alumni gathered at the American
Textile History Museum in Lowell to celebrate the retirement
of Dr. May Futrell and to honor her many years of service to the
University and the field of Nursing. From left, Patricia LussierDuynstee '01, Dr. Futrell, Pam DiNapoli '00 and Mary Aruda '02.
2. The second annual "Mother's Day Makeover" in cooperation with a
local shelter was hosted by the community service committee of the
Alumni Relations Council. Volunteers, from left: Chris Vasiliadis '87
(Signature Faces), Tom Kershaw '88, Dr. Susan Pasquale '75, and
Florence Lacouture '59.
3.
3. The annual senior brunch
welcomed the graduating class
of 2005 into their new alumni
status. From left, Joan Lehoullier,
senior associate director of
athletics, Kathy O'Neil, women's
basketball coach, Diane Earl,
director of programs and alumni
services, and Kim Ducharme '06
with her winning raffle prize.
4.
4. This year's UMass Night at
the Pops was a very special
occasion with the installation
of President Jack Wilson and a
tribute to Sen. Ted Kennedy, the
President's Medal recipient.
From left: Ron Boudreau '75,
Donna Manning '84, Rob
Manning '84, Fred Sperounis,
executive vice chancellor, and
Dr. Susan Pasquale '75.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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29
AlumniEvents
AlumniEvents
5.
9.
9. The UML Golf Classic was
held at Sky Meadow Country
Club in Nashua on August 2.
The weather was picture perfect
and enjoyed by all. From the left,
Paul Simard '73, Matthew
Eynon, executive director ’07
for university advancement,
Bill Penney '75, and Joe Cofield.
10.
5. The 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to Jim Dandeneau '80. Pictured at a
dinner in his honor the evening prior to commencement are, from left, John Davis, senior director
of development, Debbie Dandeneau, Ryan Dandeneau, Jim Dandeneau, Lauren Dandeneau,
Rosemary Dandeneau and Prof. Steve Driscoll.
10. First place at this year's
UML Golf Classic morning
round championship flight
went to, from left, George
Dixon '69, Stephen VanderEls
'00, Andy Shupe '96 and
John Dixon '00.
6.
11.
7.
7. Alumnus Michael Johnston '69,
chairman and chief executive
officer of Visteon, was one of the
keynote speakers at the May 22nd
plastics gala.
6. Over 400 plastics alumni, faculty, staff and friends celebrated the 50th anniversary of plastics at
Lowell at a gala at the Boston Marriott.
11. Golfers at this year's tourney
included alumni, friends, faculty
and staff. From left, Rich Lemoine
'96, assistant director of Environmental Health and Safety, Patti
McCafferty, Media Relations,
Rich Conley '92, Peoplesoft
Project manager and Jeff
Thompson, vice chancellor of
Information Technology.
8.
12.
8. Chancellor William Hogan chats with keynote speaker Barry Perry '68 and his wife, Janice Perry
at the plastics gala celebration.
30
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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12. Circle of Distinction donor
appreciation night at the Spinners
ballgame was held on Tuesday,
August 2. Alumni gathered at the
campus recreation center for a
picnic before heading over to
LeLacheur Park to cheer on the
Lowell Spinners, Class A Affiliate
of the Boston Red Sox. From left,
Ron Boudreau '75, Dr. Susan
Pasquale '75, Tom Lumenello '64,
Carolyn Lumenello '63, Kathrine
Hastings, director of the Lowell
Fund, Tom Gillick '43, and a UML
friend, Warren Bambury.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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31
The Face of Philanthropy
The Face of Philanthropy
Now That They’ve Achieved Success,
These Three Are ‘Paying Back’ to Help Others
By Jack McDonough
Jim Dandeneau ’80 had some scholarship aid when he was an undergraduate
at ULowell and he also worked as a
residence director in Fox Hall to help
make ends meet.
But he accepted an appointment to
the Air Force Academy because he
wanted to be an astronaut. The Academy program began in June but before
the summer was over he learned that he
had a progressive astigmatism in his
right eye that, by the time he graduated,
Eamonn Hobbs ’80 says, “I was on my
own nickel.” He also was a residence
director – in Leitch Hall – and made
a little money tending bar in the
Rathskeller, a pub that operated in
Fox Hall in those days when the drinking age was 18 in Massachusetts.
Mark Saab ’81, whose father died
when he was 6, enrolled in ULowell
because, he says, “That’s what we could
afford.” He had his own carpentry business that he worked at on weekends and
summers to help pay the tuition that he
remembers as being about $450 a
semester.
Today, these three graduates of Plastics
Engineering are presidents of companies
they founded and each has contributed
substantial amounts of time and money
in support of the University. Ask them
why they do it and their answers are
strikingly similar: They’re grateful for the
education that led to their success, they
want to repay the school, and they want
to help today’s students.
Dandeneau, the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award at this year’s
Commencement, is president of Putnam
Plastics in Connecticut. His company is
in the business of providing solutions to
complex medical tubing problems.
His career in medical plastics began
right after graduation when he was
recruited by Cook Inc., of Indiana, a
producer of biomedical products. He
remained there for four years until he
moved to Connecticut to start his own
business.
As an undergraduate, Dandeneau
played varsity hockey for two years but
found it too difficult to balance sports
and class work.
32
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
Growing up in Springfield, he earned
excellent grades in high school and, he
says, he “aced the SATs.” As a result, he
had full scholarship offers from MIT,
Duke, Stanford and other schools.
Hobbs eventually left Indiana, moved
back east and started a business he ended up selling. Then, in 1988, he founded
AngioDynamics, Inc., which makes
medical devices used to treat peripheral
vascular disease. Business Week recently
named this Queensbury, N.Y., company
one of the 100 best small public companies in the United States.
Mark Saab enrolled at ULowell a year
after Dandeneau and Hobbs with the
idea that he wanted “something” in
“Together the level of support from these three
alums is more significant than anything that has ever
happened in the department.” — Prof. Bob Malloy
These three Plastics Engineering alumni, founders and presidents of their own companies,
have been generous contributors to the Plastics Department and its students. They are,
from left, Mark Saab, Eamonn Hobbs and Jim Dandeneau.
“I had to quit because I was falling
behind in my studies,” he says. “I ended
up taking 22 credits my junior year to get
back on track. We were in Division II in
those days. I didn’t have any athletic
scholarship but I did receive some aid.
I have a lot of respect for students who
can play a full-time sport and also be in
engineering.”
He shows this respect in a tangible
way – the $120,000 Dandeneau Family
Scholarship Fund – which benefits
engineering students, and is earmarked
especially for engineer athletes.
“There are a limited number of those,”
he acknowledges, “so the money then
goes to deserving plastics students.”
we continue the tradition of Lowell
plastics, and engineering in general.
“We needed to get people involved
and to infuse some fresh ideas and generate renewed interest in the program.
I was in a position to be able to do that.
“Now there’s personal satisfaction in
knowing that the program has come
back full force and some of the other
guys are following suit.”
Eamonn Hobbs says much the same
thing when asked about his motive for
supporting the University with the
$250,000 Hobbs Family Endowment
Scholarship Fund for “academically talented” students in plastics engineering.
He also has provided funds for the
S.J. Chen Putnam Plastics Extrusion
and Thermoforming Lab in which
students learn extrusion technology,
of great importance in the medical
device industry.
“I wanted to pay back in some small
way,” he says. “I really feel that the time
I spent at Lowell was an integral part of
any success I have enjoyed. I wanted to
help others to be as lucky as I’ve been.
Putting scholarships together is a good
way to do that.”
Dandeneau says his support of the
University began “at a time when I had
success in a couple of business ventures
and I felt the department was struggling
a little. I thought it was important that
In a way, it’s ironic that Lowell was a
springboard for Hobbs’ career because he
ended up here only at the last minute
because of an astigmatism.
FA L L 2 0 0 5
would prevent him from flying. The
commandant told him there were “plenty of other jobs” in the Air Force but,
Hobbs says, “It was a crushing disappointment.”
So he resigned and showed up back
home on his parents’ doorstep, to be
greeted by a father who was none too
pleased that he had left the Academy.
“My father said, ‘Well, big fella, you’re
making decisions on your own now, so
you can go to whatever school you can
pay for.’
“At the time I was upset by that but it
turned out to be the nicest thing he ever
did for me. It really forced me to grow
up and figure out how to make ends
meet,” he says.
A good friend who was attending
ULowell urged Hobbs to join him here,
saying “you can afford it and it’s a fabulous school.” So, at the last minute,
Hobbs followed that advice.
Graduating with a plastics engineering degree, he was highly sought after
and landed a “dream job” in medical
devices at a company in Indiana –
where he shared a house with his
friend and fellow alum, Jim Dandeneau,
who had been recruited by the same
company.
engineering. As a high school student in
Andover, he did well in chemistry, and a
teacher there suggested he try chemical
engineering.
Saab wasn’t at the University very
long when a chance meeting in the
library changed his plans and set his life
on a whole new course.
“One day in my freshman year I was
in the library when I happened to meet
Mark Normandin, Ray’s son,” he recalls.
(Ray Normandin was one of the first
members of the plastics faculty when
the department was established in the
1950s.)
“Mark and I talked about majors,”
Saab says. “He said plastics was a really
cool major and that I should talk to his
father about it. So on the spur of the
moment we walked over to Ray’s office.
He talked to me about plastics and
showed me the labs.
“I had seen chemical engineering by
this time and it didn’t look ‘hands-on’ to
me. I couldn’t see what was happening.
But in plastics I could see things being
molded and extruded. I could see
products.”
The hands-on aspect appealed to
Saab, he says, because of his experience
as a carpenter. He liked working
with his hands and seeing the results
of his labor.
“So I went right down to the registrar’s office that same day and changed
my major to plastics,” he says.
After graduating in 1981, Saab
worked first for the Kendall Co. in
Lexington and later for C.R. Bard’s
USCI Division in Billerica where he
was introduced to the field of medical
device manufacturing, specifically
angioplasty balloon catheters.
Meanwhile, he was working on a
master’s degree thesis with Prof. Rudy
Deanin. And it was while researching
his thesis topic – the structure property
relationships of biaxially oriented
polyethylene terephthalate tubing
(PET) – that he came up with the idea
for producing a strong, thin-walled
balloon tubing that became the cornerstone of Advanced Polymers, Inc., a
company he established in Salem, N.H.,
in 1989.
Now, 16 years later, he looks back at
his success and says, “Why do I have all
this? If it hadn’t been for the education
I received at Lowell, it wouldn’t have
happened. I owe the Plastics Department for my education.”
Saab has addressed that “debt” by,
among other things, underwriting the
$122,000 cost of renovating the properties testing laboratory and by establishing a $100,000 scholarship fund.
Prof. Bob Malloy, chair of the Plastics
Department, talked recently about these
three graduates, each of whom worked
his way through school and who now
contribute so generously to the department and its students.
“Together the level of support from
these three alums is more significant
than anything that has ever happened
in the department,” he says. “Their support, including matching gifts, totals
nearly $1 million. This field is growing
and they’re helping us to do a better
job training students for careers in the
medical device industry.”
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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33
ClassNotes
1938
Irene Menihane Lavin
writes that she is still going
strong and would love to
hear from her classmates.
She still lives at the same
address listed in her yearbook.
1953
Don Finegold retired after
nearly 50 years in the
leather industry and began
to write mystery novels.
Two books, Interlude and
The Pact have been published. A screen play entitled The Pemberton Pact has
been completed, and a third
novel, as yet unnamed, is in
the works, due to be completed late 2005 or early
2006.
1955
Robert “Bluebird Bob”
Walshaw is an approved
speaker for the North
American Bluebird Society
ClassNotes
and teaches a series of classes on how to attract bluebirds to backyards and
neighborhoods. He has
received certification as an
Oklahoma Master naturalist. Bob was also selected by
the American Red Cross as
a “Red Cross Everyday
Hero”, people who make a
difference in the lives of
others. Congratulations!
1962
Richard Crandall retired in
December from Minuteman
Regional Vocational High
School, Lexington, where
he was an instructor in the
Robotics Department for 27
years. He is now enjoying
traveling and his six grandchildren. His daughter,
Melissa Crandall O’Meara,
is a 1992 graduate of
UMass Lowell.
1974
John David Murphy is
pleased to announce that
his daughter, Lindsay,
has been named to the
Southern States Athletic
Conference All-Academic
Basketball Team for 2005.
Murphy plays for nationallyranked Berry College of
metro-Atlanta.
1975
Mark Lamond and his son
Tom Lamond ’07 recently
finished strongly in the
Lowell City Golf Tournament, with Tom finishing in
7th place and Mark in 10th
place. Tom plays for the
UMass Lowell golf team.
(See photo with class of
1987 notes)
1976
Barry Chiorello, founder
and principal of Barry
Chiorello Events Management and Marketing in
Trenton, N.J., was the winner of two recent Middie
Awards, awarded by the
International Festival and
1961
This was the thesis of Charles L. Mitsakos, professor of education at Rivier College in
Nashua, at the annual conference of the Social Science Education Consortium at Atlanta’s
Emory University this June. Ethical judgment, noted Mitsakos, is one of six benchmarks
that have been endorsed by a cross-section of national and international organizations as
criteria for the licensing of principals, school superintendents, special-education teachers
and school administrators throughout the U.S.
Whether it be the CEO of Tyco International, the superintendent of Schools in Roslyn,
N.Y., or the Speaker of the United States House, Mitsakos told his audience, ethics are at
the core of the day-to-day responsibilities of men and women at all levels of leadership and
responsibility.
As a means of illustrating his point, Mitsakos aired a case study for the benefit of the
group, then had his audience assess their own knowledge, dispositions and performances
and make determinations as to whether they measured up to the standards they had set.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
The first was a
gold award, given
for the Web site
Chiorello’s firm
co-designed with a second
firm for the Mercer County,
N.J., Italian-American
Festival. The other, a silver
award, was given for his
sponsor-solicitation package
benefiting the same festival.
Chiorello’s firm is a fullservice festival and events
agency specializing in the
creation, management,
sponsorship and marketing
of events.
1977
Susan Crocker Houde
(’77) and Karen Devereaux
Melillo (’78) have co-edited
the textbook, Geropsychiatric and Mental Health
Nursing, Jones & Bartlett
Publishers (2005).
1978
Whatever your field of endeavor, be it business, education, politics or art, there will
sooner or later come a moment when your ethical principles—and the courage to apply
them—will be tested.
34
Events Association, in recognition of his work
in that industry.
FA L L 2 0 0 5
Colonel Gary S. Connor
was promoted to brigadier
general in June. He is the
Commander, Command
and Control, Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems (C21SR)
Wing, Electronic
Systems Center,
Air Force Material Command,
Hanscom Air
Force Base in
Massachusetts,
where he is
responsible for 1,354
personnel and $14B in pro-
grams. Some of his major
awards and decorations
include Defense Superior
Service Medal, Meritorious
Service Medal, Air Force
Commendation Medal
and Stewart Award for
Excellence in Program
Management, Aeronautical
Systems Center.
Karen Devereaux Melillo
(’78) and Susan Crocker
Houde (’77) have co-edited
the textbook, Geropsychiatric
and Mental Health Nursing,
Jones & Bartlett Publishers
(2005).
1980
Mike King is the
controller of Demoulas
Supermarkets. He is married
to Valerie Ansill King (’81),
a nurse practitioner.
1981
Valerie Ansill King is a
nurse practitioner with Dr.
Carlos del Rio in Dracut.
She is married to Mike King
(’80), who is the controller
of Demoulas Supermarkets.
1984
Susan Brown Frankfort
received a juris doctor degree
from Massachusetts School
of Law in 2004 and passed
the Massachusetts bar in
February. She practices wills
and trust law in her own law
firm.
After law school and 16
years in the insurance industry, Susan Cook Lyle and
her husband, Charlie, are
acquiring the Benjamin
Prescott Inn located in the
Scandius Makes It Easier for Surgeons to
‘Tie Shoes in a Big Box’
Mark Johanson ’88 says arthroscopic surgery “is like trying to
tie your shoes in a big box with a couple of instruments. It’s
very difficult.”
As founder, president and CEO of Scandius Biomedical in
Littleton, he’s making the job a little easier.
Earlier this year, Johanson’s company introduced the Stratis
™ ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) reconstruction system
that enables surgeons to perform this procedure faster and more
easily while, at the same time, reducing trauma and scarring for
the patient.
Mark Johanson
“We set out to create the same type of anatomical repair
surgery that surgeons would achieve with the old ‘gold standard’ method that required very
large incisions. We aim to get the same results, but with a scope instead of a big incision,” he
says.
Stratis received Federal Drug Administration approval last October and has been on the
market since January. Johanson says it differs from similar devices in that it is designed to
simplify and reduce the number of steps the surgeon must perform.
The two most common sports injuries involve knees and shoulders, he explains.
“We’re a new and upcoming company,” he says of Scandius, which he founded five years
ago. With a strong emphasis on research and development, and input from an advisory
board of renowned orthopedic surgeons, the goal is to be a major player in the medical
device industry, he says.
After graduating from ULowell with a degree in industrial technology, Johanson gained
experience at GTE Government Systems in Needham and Medtronics, an angioplasty
devices company in Danvers before joining a start-up medical equipment maker, Innovasive
Devices.
While at Innovasive, he was heavily into research and development, and spent a significant amount of time developing relationships with orthopedic surgeons around the country,
watching them perform arthroscopic procedures on sports injuries.
“I gained a valuable network doing this,” he says.
Johanson isn’t the only Lowell graduate on Scandia’s management team.
Jennifer Silverman ’86, a business administration major with a concentration in marketing, is Scandia’s director of marketing.
Before joining Johanson last year, she worked for two other medical devices companies –
as product manager for C.R.Bard and in marketing and sales management for Smith and
Nephew. Meanwhile, she earned an M.B.A. at Rivier College in Nashua.
Being in sports medicine, Silverman says, “is nice because we make products that help
people function in their daily lives.”
That echoes Johanson, who says, “It’s extremely rewarding to be in the business of
medical devices.”
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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35
ClassNotes
Monadnock region of New
Hampshire. Now that their
son, Charlie (’04), is happily
working at Boston Beer
Works/Sam Adams as a
graphic designer, they are
able to pursue their dream of
becoming innkeepers.
Susan Reed, a 10-year
probation officer at Ayer
District Court, was among
10 probation officers from
across the Commonwealth
who were honored during
the 2005 Probation Employee Recognition Award
Ceremony in the Massachusetts State House on
April 1. Susan also received
a master’s in criminal justice
in 2002.
1986
Margaret Fitzgerald, one of
New England’s top speakers
on health care issues, has
earned the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation. Established in
1980, the CSP is the speaking profession’s international measure of experience
and skill. Fewer than 10 percent of the speakers who
belong to the International
Federation for Professional
Speakers hold this professional designation. Ms.
Fitzgerald is the founder,
president and principle lecturer with Fitzgerald Health
Education Associates, Inc.,
the nation’s leading provider
of board certification preparation and ongoing continuing education for health
care providers. She is also
the recipient of the American college of Nurse Practi-
36
ClassNotes
1987
Ken Gys, center, playing in his 20th Lowell City Golf
Tournament, finished strongly earning his first City Tournament title. The tournament, one of the longest running
amateur golf events in the United States, celebrated its 80th
Anniversary this year. Members from four local private golf
clubs competed over three days with the final round held at
Vesper Country Club. The father-son combination of Tom
Lamond ’07, left, and Mark Lamond ’75, right, added to the
excitement with Tom finishing in 7th place and Mark in
10th place. Ken is a former captain of the UML golf team
while Tom is a current player on the school’s team.
All three men are members of Mount Pleasant
Golf Club. After having graduated with an
Industrial Technology
degree, Ken is currently
president of a contract
technical recruiting
firm in Dracut.
tioner’s Sharp Cutting Edge
Award and the Outstanding
Nurse Award for Clinical
Practice by the Merrimack
Valley Area Health education Council. The Nurse
Practitioner Journal has
featured her as one of the
nation’s 25 most influential
nurse practitioners.
1991
Amy Blanchette Fitzgibbon’s husband, Robert
Fitzgibbon III ’92 is director
of operations in charge of
information technology,
customer service and order
entry with Creative Playthings, Inc. In his spare
time, he enjoys being with,
Amy and their son, Robert
Fitzgibbon IV (Robbie),
who was born in May 2003.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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Gregg Martin Moomjian
received his master of
software engineering from
Brandeis University in May.
He is a software engineer
with General Dynamics
C4 Systems in Needham
Heights.
Lieutenant Commander
Demetrius P. Rizos was
recently named head of the
department of Nephrology
and Hypertension at Naval
Medical Center San Diego.
Dr. Rizos lives in San Diego
with his wife, Susan, and
their son, Nicholas.
1992
Rayanne Drouin is
the associate director of
admissions at Worcester
State College.
Robert Fitzgibbon III is
director of operations in
charge of information technology, customer service and
order entry with Creative
Playthings, Inc. In his spare
time, he enjoys spending
time with his wife, Amy
(Blanchette) ’91 and their
son, Robert Fitzgibbon IV
(Robbie), who was born in
May 2003. He has also been
restoring the barn in which
they live in Westboro.
America—ice hockey player
under Coach Bruce Crowder, have been married for
eight years.
1998
J’Aime Prudhomme Walker
and her husband, Dean, welcomed the birth of their son,
Andrew Dean, on April 22.
They reside in Hiram,
Maine, where J’aime is a
special education teacher.
2000
1994
Michael Scola graduated
from the 11th Municipal
Police Officer Academy in
December. He has been
appointed a police officer
for the City of Gloucester.
He continues to live in
Gloucester with his wife,
Shawna, and 4-year-old
daughter, Cali Elyse.
1996
As the first female Chief
of Staff for the City of
Orlando, Cheryl Ricardo
Henry oversees the activities of the mayor’s office,
managing special projects
and policy initiatives, and
serves as liaison between the
mayor’s Office and city commissioners. Henry previously
served as director of the
Office of Communications
and Neighborhood
Enhancement for the City
of Orlando. Prior to joining the Mayor’s staff, she
served as vice president of
marketing communications
for Curley & Pynn.
Cheryl and her husband,
Shane Henry ’94, all—
Cheryl Coolidge, associate
professor in the Department
of Natural Sciences at Colby-Sawyer College, received
the 2005 Jack Jensen Award
for Teaching Excellence.
The Jensen Award is the college’s highest recognition for
teaching. Prof. Coolidge
teaches a variety of science
courses, including biochemistry, chemical principles,
environmental issues,
organic chemistry, and a
pathway course on science,
technology and society.
2001
Michael De Sa has been
named sales representative
for the New England, New
Jersey, eastern
New York and
eastern Pennsylvania territory
of the Teknor
Color Company.
Teknor, a subsidiary of Teknor
Apex Co., manufactures
standard and custom colorants for a wide range of
thermoplastic resins used in
appliances, toys, housewares,
packaging and wire and
cable applications.
De Sa, in his new job,
will be based in Fall River.
2003
James Gleason and Kristen
E. Kelly (’04) were married
in June at the Parish of St.
Rita in Lowell. James earned
a master’s of science at Simmons College in 2005 and is
a sociological research data
collector at UMass Boston.
Kristen is the
gallery and
events manager at the
Revolving
Museum in
downtown Lowell.
2004
Kristen E. Kelly and James
Gleason (’03) were married
Fatter: A 30-day Overhaul
of the Mindset that has
Sabotaged Your Fitness &
Weight-Loss Success, was
published by King Printing
in Lowell in November
2004. Her Web site is
www.homeexercisecoach.
com. Gina lives in
Amesbury.
in June at the Parish of St.
Rita in Lowell. Kristen is the
gallery and events manager
at the Revolving Museum in
downtown Lowell. James
earned a master’s of science
at Simmons College in
2005 and is a sociological
research data collector at
UMass Boston.
2005
Charlie Lyle is a graphic
designer at Boston Beer
Works/Sam Adams.
was a member of the nursing
faculty from 1976 until
1982. She currently is a
professor of nursing at San
Antonio College, and a
women’s health nurse
practitioner (University of
Texas-El Paso) in practice
with Planned Parenthood
of South Texas.
Gina Paolino established
an in-home personal-training business, Home Bodies,
in January 2004. She runs
her business full-time and
is also a published author.
Her book, Mind over
Nicole Paolino Bowe is
a registered nurse in the
oncology unit at Mount
Auburn Hospital and
is getting married on
August 5, 2006.
Former Faculty
Sheryd Woltman Jackson
In Memoriam
1923
Gladys Axon
1927
Harriet Dunn
1927
Mary Hallaren
1929
Mary Kiernan
1929
Charlotte Langley
1931
Gerald Ivers
1934
Lottie Hackett
1935
Elizabeth Corcoran
1935
Rose Klueber
1937
Paul Regan
1937
Mona Rowell
1940
Gertrude Maroney
1943
William Sidebottom
1945
Ann Parke
1950
Paul Dubin
1953
Frances Dooley
1953
Clara Fuschetti
1954
Jean Munro
1958
Cecile McCarthy
1958
Lorraine Rauh
1959
Albertine Charron
1960
Ronald Raposo
1962
Bruce Tylus
1969
William Burns
1969
Myra Chapas
1970
Lloyd Maranville Jr
1971
Jean Baghdayan
1971
Mary Keon
1972
Katherine Barry
1972
Michael Labianca
1972
Kenneth Prout
1973
Emanuel Ebner Jr
1974
Ann Fitzpatrick
1976
Thomas Carroll
1978
Walter Nutter
1978
Mary Perkins
1980
Michael Shay
1984
Evelyn Adam
1985
John Stahl
1986
Michael Roberts
1987
Gary Morse
1988
Tong-fang Lee
1988
Brian Taylor
1994
Pamela Griffin
1999
Andrea Harvey
We apologize sincerely to James C. Weatherbee ’60, and James C. Koumpouras
’84 for incorrectly reporting them deceased in the last issue of the magazine.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused them or their
families, and are happy to report them alive and well.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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37
ClassNotes
ClassNotes
Ringersen’s Act Arrests the Crowd’s
Attention at Elwood’s Place
In Framingham, the
Music Man Plays On
Elwood’s Dixie Bar B Que in Delray
Beach, Fla., packs them in every
Thursday night.
By Geoffrey Douglas
It’s not slick architecture that
attracts them.
For nearly 40 years now, since he
first took the job at Framingham High
School—as band director—in 1968,
George Perrone has been making
music. For himself and for others, as
player and as teacher, in New England
and around the world.
He has played bass for the Merrimack Philarmonic, earned a master’s
degree in music from Harvard—following his bachelor’s from Lowell
State Teachers’ College in 1964—led
student bands on trips all over Europe,
played the Russian National Anthem
in the Palace of Peter the Great (he
has lost count of his trips to Russia, he
says) and directed two generations of
kids in their mastering of the drums,
the piano, the cello, the tuba, the
trumpet, the sax and the guitar.
Most recently, he directed the FHS
band’s rhythm section in a sevenminute performance at the Fleet Center—before an ABC-TV audience—to
introduce a Celtics game this spring.
(“They started playing at halftime of
the football games,” Perrone told a
reporter not long ago, “and it got to
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UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
George Perrone
the point where they were the featured act”.) A week before that, the
nine vocalists of the high school’s a
cappella choir, again under Perrone’s
that involves more deskwork than he
sometimes would like. And he’s a widowed dad to a 12-year-old son he’d
like to spend more time with: “I take
him with me on trips whenever I can.
He was just with me in Spain, where
we went with a choral group. But really, with the job and all, it’s been tough
to find the hours to spend together.”
That’s about to change. Starting
this September, George Perrone is
stepping down from the fine arts
directorship to devote more time to
parenting. But he’s not giving up his
“Being with the kids, helping them, watching them grow
and perform—that’s what’s kept me going all these years.”
— George Perrone
direction, sang at the dedication of
the newly-reopened John Adams
Courthouse in Boston, between
speeches by Sen. Edward Kennedy
and the Speaker of the Massachusetts
House.
In addition to all this, he has
served for some years now as the fine
arts director at FHS, a job, he says,
FA L L 2 0 0 5
work with the band, or with the
choral group:
“I couldn’t leave that. That’s the
stuff that’s really fun. Being with the
kids, helping them, watching them
grow and perform—that’s what’s kept
me going all these years.”
“It was a very successful band,” he
says. “I could make $300 to $400 a
weekend. It was a big band with a horn
section and everything. We played all
over the state.”
Elwood’s used to be a gas station.
The old hydraulic car lift is now the
bar. Otherwise, the building has a
canvas roof and three walls.
The fourth side is open to the street,
East Atlantic Avenue.
That’s when he started dabbling
with the Elvis impersonation.
What the crowd of more than 200
— men, women, bikers, families —
come to see is ULowell alumnus Scott
Ringersen. When he takes the stage in
a white leather pantsuit with rhinestones and bellbottoms, and belts out
his opening number, the place goes
wild.
When he graduated in 1981, though,
his dream of becoming a policeman in
Massachusetts ran up against Proposition 2 1/2.
Ringersen, who has been a Delray
Beach police officer for 23 years, is also
an Elvis Presley impersonator.
“The bass player would come back
and play the drums, and I’d go up front
and sing three or four Elvis songs,” he
says. “Everybody seemed to like it.”
“Policemen with 10 years experience
were being laid off,” Ringersen says.
“So I came down here to Florida in
1982, took the test and was hired
right away.”
The job kept him busy and he was
out of music for a decade.
But he’s not just another Elvis impersonator. Florida Monthly magazine
named him Best of Florida Entertainer
the last two years. His act is considered so good that he’s played engagements in Las Vegas and on a Royal
Caribbean cruise ship, as well as at
venues in the Bahamas, Michigan and
Atlanta, Ga.
“But it was still in me,” he says.
“Karaoke was starting up, and people
would call me up on stage and I’d sing.
Once you’re in the spotlight, it’s
always in you.”
Music has been a part of Ringersen’s
life for a long time.
By this time, Ringersen had been
married but divorced after 13 years,
and he had the couple’s two girls,
Jaclyn and Madison.
After graduating from Chelmsford
High School in 1977, he enrolled in
the Criminal Justice program at
ULowell because, he says, “I wanted to
be a cop.”
Because money was tight at home,
he played drums and sang in a wedding
band to pay for his tuition and other
college expenses.
By Jack McDonough
Scott Ringersen
karaoke at Elwood’s.
“I got paid but it wasn’t the best job.
You always have to deal with a bunch
of drunks.”
Meanwhile, he says, “I started to
build up my vocal cords. They’re like
muscles. You’ve got to train them.
“First I’d do three songs, then build
up to a set. Then two sets. Then I
could go three hours if I had to. Plus,
the more you sing and practice, the
higher and lower your range can go.”
So, for a while he’d MC the
karaoke sessions and finish up with
some Elvis songs.
“Some fans get so emotionally caught up in the show
that they start screaming as I walk on stage.”
— Scott Ringersen
“I was broke,” he says of that period.
“I wanted a part-time job and I kept
looking for a year and a half. I’d seen a
lot of Elvis impersonators who were
terrible — but they were working. I
knew I could do better than them.
Along about this time he got a
job as master of ceremonies for
Then, he says, when he got enough
Elvis songs to do an hour-long set, he
went to Elwood and said, “Let me do
an Elvis show and the rest of the
night I’ll do karaoke.”
Elwood agreed, and pretty soon it
was all Elvis and no karaoke for
Ringersen. He’s been performing the
act now for seven years.
His costumes, he says, are “very
expensive but excellent.” For
competitive reasons, he prefers not
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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39
ClassNotes
ClassNotes
to divulge the identity of his supplier.
“I come out with my guitar on and do
an opening number, but then I put it
down for the rest of the act,” he says.
“Actually, Elvis just used it as a prop
after 1970. He was just a marginal player at best. Even on the Ed Sullivan
show in the 1950s. He carried a folk
guitar but the one you heard was electric. He played chords but you really
couldn’t hear it. The sound you heard
was the back-up guitar.”
It was Elvis’ voice, not his
guitar, that captivated audiences.
“Elvis fans are the most loyal fans
there could ever be,” says Ringersen.
“He is more popular now than when he
was alive. If they like your performance
they certainly let you know.
“Some fans get so emotionally caught
up in the show that they start screaming as I walk on stage.”
The toughest part of the entertainment gig, Ringersen says, is working
two jobs – singing at the Dixie Bar B
Que and at private parties, and being a
policeman. His law enforcement schedule calls for 23 hours on patrol one
week and 57 the next.
“It’s a killer,” he says. “The last year
or so I’ve been doing a lot of Elvis
appearances and with the day job it’s
hard work.”
Even on the job – patrolling the
streets in a cruiser, with sideburns and
sunglasses – Ringersen is easily identified as Elvis.
“Even in uniform, people recognize
me all the time,” he says. “My two
careers never conflict, but sometimes
the Elvis appearance works to my
advantage. When I walk into a situation, I’m not just a police officer, I’m
an entertainer who’s also a cop.”
When he first started out, a few of his
fellow officers may have thought his
Elvis routine was stupid, he recalls, but
“about everyone has seen the show
now and they’re fine with it. They
think it’s all right.”
And there’s always one place where
he’s neither a performer or a policeman. That’s home, where he goes at
the end of the day to be with his
daughters, 12-year-old Madison and
15-year-old Jaclyn. And their mixed
breed dog, whose name, of course,
is Elvis.
Taking Stock, Changing Course—and Making a Difference
Don Rhine’s life, five years ago, had found its groove.
A master’s degree in electrical engineering from UMass
Lowell in ’93, followed by an MBA from the University
of Rochester; then a job at Price Waterhouse (“mostly
accounting and finance,” as he recalls it) that came with a
six-figure salary and the promise of a partnership. Life was
good. Or so it must have seemed to anyone looking on.
But something was missing. “The satisfaction wasn’t
there,” is how he explains it today. “The money was good,
everything else was in place—it was just hard to feel that I
was making much of a difference in the world.”
So, one day five years ago, Don Rhine took his accounting
knowledge, his engineering degree and his “deep-held
belief” in the importance of education, and put them where
he thought they’d do the most good. Today, at a fraction of
the salary, he is a teacher of math and physics at Tyngsboro
High School.
And a big part of what he teaches, especially in the last
three years—since UMass Lowell’s first-ever assistive technology design fair [ATDF] in the spring of 2003—is how the
principles of the classroom sciences can apply, in a meaningful way, to the everyday lives of disabled people.
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The design fair, now in its third year, is a unique program—possibly the only one of its kind in the U.S.—that
challenges local high school students to address the problems of those with special needs. Tyngsboro High, which
has sent students since the first year the University hosted
the fair (each time under Don Rhine’s tutelage), was
represented by four teams at this year’s fair, which took place
May 21 at Cumnock Hall.
One group, says Rhine, designed a device to perform
manual tasks for a burn victim whose hands and fingers were
no longer mobile; another assembled a collapsible
wheelchair ramp for a handicapped person (“Unfortunately,
he died before we’d finished; but we’ll find someone else to
give it to”), while a third team modified a VCR to make it
programmable by Special Ed students.
“It’s all pretty basic stuff,” says Don Rhine. “But it
performs an important function. And it’s a lot of fun for
the kids.”
It is also, he would no doubt say, a lot more satisfying than
crunching numbers—no matter what the pay.
Mary Hallaren, WAC Leader and Early Feminist,
Was a ‘Towering Figure’ of WWII Years
By Geoffrey Douglas
On the day Pearl Harbor was
attacked, December 7, 1941, Mary
Hallaren was teaching a junior high
school class in remedial reading somewhere in Massachusetts. She gave her
notice that week; when school finished the following June, she enlisted
in the only service that would accept
her at the time,
the Women’s
Army Auxiliary
Corps—standing
on her toes to
meet the height
requirement, then
telling a recruiter
who doubted her,
“You don’t have
to be six feet tall
to have a brain that works.”
That was the start of a 20-year military career, by the end of which she
had established herself—as Tom
Brokaw would write decades later in
The Greatest Generation—as “a towering figure, a godmother to the women
who continued to struggle to find their
places in the male-dominated military
establishment.”
Separate Battalion. Soon after, in the
spring of ’44, she sailed for London,
where she served with the Eighth Air
Force during the Germans’ V-1 and
V-2 bombardments. In March 1945,
she was named WAC director for the
European theatre (the “Auxiliary” designation by then had been dropped),
with 9,000 troops under her command.
By the time she returned to the U.S.
following the war, “the little colonel,”
as she was widely known—she had
been promoted again—was a much-
“That was right at the beginning of the women’s movement.
It was ahead of its time, and so was Mary.” — Ruth Herman
Hallaren, who died in February at
the age of 97, was born in Lowell,
graduated from Lowell State Teachers
College in 1927, then went on to
study at both Harvard and BU. But
her career in education ended abruptly
with the war. After her enlistment,
followed by boot camp at the WAAC
Officer Candidate School in Des
Moines, she served briefly in the U.S.,
then—by now a captain—was named
commanding officer of the WAAC
honored officer: the Bronze Star, the
Legion of Merit, the Croix de Guerre
for service in France.
But her most crucial legacy may
have been her postwar service. Working with Gens. Dwight Eisenhower
and George C. Marshall in those first
months after the Allied victory, she
led a group of officers and civilians
against stiff resistance—both in
Congress and among the public—to
pass the Women’s Armed Services
Integration Act. Signed into law in
1948, this measure enabled the entry
of women into the regular armed services for the first time in U.S. history.
Col. Hallaren was named the top
WAC officer in 1947, and led the
corps through the Korean War before
stepping down as director in 1953.
She retired from the Army seven
years later.
But she did not go away. In 1965,
by then 57 years old, she became the
first executive director of Women in
Community Service (WICS), a
nationally-based, non-profit coalition
which, under her direction, took on
as its mission the plight of poor
and marginalized U.S. women and
children.
“That was right at the beginning
of the women’s movement,” Ruth
Herman, a later WICS director, told a
reporter not long after Mary Hallaren’s
death. “It was ahead of its time, and
so was Mary.”
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ClassNotes
FeatureStory
For This Builder’s Clients: ‘Few Surprises, a Good Experience’
When Joe Albanese founded his own company three years
ago this fall, after more than a decade in the construction
trade—as project manager, project executive and partner at
three different Bay State firms—he did so with at least one
firm resolve: that the new company would not, as he had seen
others do so often, promote its best people so high into the
organization that they all but lost contact with clients.
“It is the senior builders who know [best] how to attack a
project,” says Albanese today. “I want them intimately
involved in all the projects we do.”
And if there is a trademark of Commodore Builders, Joe
Albanese’s new company, it is just that. Senior builders attend
client meetings, answer phones, go on job sites—whatever it
takes to stay in touch with the clients who pay the bills.
And the results, say Albanese, speak for themselves.
“Our projects start and finish on or before schedule; budgets
come in on target. There are few surprises. Clients have a
good experience, and are quick to recommend us to others.
This way, we assure that a trusting, long-term relationship
is built.”
Albanese, a 1984 civil-engineering graduate from U Lowell,
is long- and well-versed in leadership roles. As commanding
officer of a Navy mobile construction battalion, then later in
his various management jobs, he has experienced the building
process from all sides. Recently
undertaking a renovation to convert a 117,000 square-foot
facility into a new office and manufacturing firm, the
Commodore team was faced with a 16-week deadline to meet
the client’s needs. The deadline was met. On another occasion—in January of last year—Commodore was selected from
among numerous bidders to complete 76,000 square feet of
corporate office space, as well as a 4,000 square-foot data center, in the space of 18 weeks. Again, the project was completed on-time and to the client’s satisfaction.
“We continue to be amazed by the quality of your work and
integrity,” says one client, Paul Flaherty of the Bryman Institute. Another, Robert McNair, senior vice president of
Symmes, Maini, McKee Associates, writes that his project was
on “a tight budget and an equally tight schedule,”
but that Commodore’s performance was nothing short
of “outstanding.”
Public Higher Education on the Rise: Legislators See Heightened
Role for UMass and State & Community Colleges
he students at the University of Massachusetts and in
our public colleges are the
workforce of tomorrow—they are the
future of the Commonwealth,” said
Sen. Steven C. Panagiotakos in releasing the results of a comprehensive
study of public higher education before
a capacity-crowd at the State House
this past spring. The Report of the State
Senate Task Force of Public Higher Education recommends, among many other
actions, that the state should provide
“T
Chancellor William T. Hogan joined Sen. Steven C. Panagiotakos at the State
House for the release of the Report of the Senate Task Force on Public Higher
Education.
For Joe Albanese, such testimonials are gratifying, but may
not come as much of a surprise: “My most important role at
Commodore,” he says, “is to beat the drum for project execution and client service. But while we beat the drum, we want
to be sure to keep our humility. Industry has seen what corporate arrogance can do…”
went to press, Gov. Mitt Romney
proposed spending $400 million of
the current state budget surplus on
building improvements and new
construction for public higher
education, including $21 million for
a nanomanufacturing research center
at UMass Lowell.)
an additional $400 million over the
next five to seven years to close the
funding gap for UMass and the community and state colleges.
The Task Force also recommended
$2.9 billion in capital spending for
projects at campuses around the state,
targeted funding for science and technology initiatives, new policies for
tuition retention and control of
student costs, and other initiatives
concerning workforce development,
financial aid and governance. (As this
issue of the UMass Lowell Magazine
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UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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In his new book, The Flight of the
Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent, regional development
scholar Richard Florida writes; “Universities are the intellectual hubs of
the creative economy. America’s vital
university system is the source of much
of our best scientific, social, and cre-
remarkable job fostering the other two
T’s of economic growth: talent and tolerance… But how many political and
business leaders…are ready to act on
this? … As a result, higher education
doesn’t make the cut in tough economic times. State after state consistently cuts its public higher education
budget, and the resulting system of
American universities is made less and
less accessible to those whom it could
benefit the most. … China and India,
in the meantime, are pumping money
into their universities and graduate
schools.”
Massachusetts has responded. The
“The students at the University of Massachusetts and in
our public colleges are the workforce of tomorrow—
they are the future of the Commonwealth.”
— Sen. Steven C. Panagiotakos
ative leadership….The tendency to see
universities primarily as the laboratories of new research and technology
has grown particularly acute in the last
twenty years. …Universities also do a
state is moving in a new direction.
Political, educational, business and
labor leaders joined together in the
past year to make the case for public
higher education. At hearings, in stud-
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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43
FeatureStory
FeatureStory
funding for the public higher education system (Sen. Panagiotakos is the
Senate’s vice chair). The Senate chair
is Sen. Robert O’Leary, the son of former Lowell State College
President Daniel O’Leary.
The senator grew up in
Lowell and now represents
the Cape Cod area.
ies, and through their public statements, visionary leaders, astute analysts and thoughtful public- and
private-sector officials emphasized
that the Commonwealth
must renew and strengthen its commitment to its
public university and colleges.
As the committee met
With Sen. Stan Rosenwith chancellors, students,
berg of Amherst, Panafaculty, and alumni,
giotakos co-chaired the
explains Rep. Murphy, it
Task Force, holding hearbecame clear that the chalings at which education
lenges in education were
officials, business leaders,
universal, from class size to
alumni and others testiinteraction with teachers,
fied about the condition Rep. Kevin Murphy of
House chairman
from
better pay for faculty
and needs of public higher Lowell,
of legislature’s joint
and staff to affordability for
education. In 2004, Mas- committee on Higher
students and families. For
sachusetts ranked 49th in Education.
example, he says, “Fewer full-time facthe nation in state spending on higher
ulty means less office time for advising
education per $1,000 of state income
students, which affects the quality of
and 47th in the nation in state spendthe individual student’s experience.”
ing on higher education per capita.
Noting the newly released study by
Ours was the only state that was
the Senate Task Force, Murphy said
spending less on public higher educathis spring that the Commonwealth
tion last year than it was spending
had to make a significant commit10 years ago, according to the Task
ment to UMass and the state’s colForce.
“Investment at the state level is absolutely necessary for
Massachusetts to compete.” — Chancellor William T. Hogan
“Investment at the state level is
absolutely necessary for Massachusetts
to compete,” says UMass Lowell
Chancellor William T. Hogan. “Private colleges and universities are not
producing enough well-trained people
for the Massachusetts workforce.
State-built and state-supported
research facilities that are rationally
distributed around the regions can
make a positive impact on Massachusetts,” adds Dr. Hogan.
As the House of Representatives’
chairman of the new joint committee
on Higher Education, Rep. Kevin
Murphy of Lowell called for increased
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UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
leges, one that is comparable to the
commitment made by the legislature
to K-12 education in the past decade.
And the legislature did just that. At
the end of June, Gov. Mitt Romney
signed a state budget that increases
funds for higher education by $41.7
budget also includes a $2.3 million
increase for scholarships, including
$300,000 more for Gilbert Grants for
needy students and $1 million in new
scholarships for early education workers. The budget continues funding the
Board of Higher Education’s Nursing
and Allied Health Education initiative to address the nursing and nursing faculty shortage in the state.
Even with this significant step, the
Boston Globe noted, “spending for
higher education will remain 23 percent under the amount allotted five
years ago.” According to the Senate
report and Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation, “Between 2001 and 2004
the campuses lost approximately 32.6
percent of their state support, adjusted
for inflation.” This reduction followed
a one-third decline in state support
between 1989 and 1992, when a deep
recession cut into state tax revenues.
As a result of these combined losses,
faculty and staff numbers dropped and
students had fewer academic options.
“We made great strides with the
new budget, especially in the area of
affordability,” says Rep. Murphy.
“Funding is the key issue when it
comes to affordability as well as better
compensation for faculty and staff.
In recent discussions with University
President Jack Wilson, he emphasized
to me that the increased funding
means that students will not see significant increases in fees, as they have
in the recent past.” Committee members will hold hearings around the
state this fall and launch a public
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas
L. Friedman describes America’s “quiet
crisis” in the decline of science and
technology education that will affect
the nation’s future competitiveness:
“….[W]e should be embarking on an
all-hands-on-deck, no-holds-barred,
no budget-too-large crash program for
science and engineering education
immediately.” Friedman cites the 2004
Trends in International Mathematics
and Science Study that “showed the
American labor force to be weaker in
science than those of its peer countries.” Countries in Asia are the ones
making strides in advanced science
and mathematics, he adds.
of excellence in the UMass system.
William H. Guenther, president of
Mass Insight Corporation, says, “We
need to build concentrations of talent
around certain industries—pools of talent that can compete internationally.”
Commenting on the situation in
Massachusetts, Donna Cupelo, president of Verizon (Mass. and R.I.), said,
“We want Massachusetts to be ahead
in the tech race, but the feeling is that
we are not keeping pace.”
creating once and for all the kind of
world-class opportunities our students,
professors, and staff deserve.”
“We cannot allow states that have
made public higher education a realpriority to supplant us as one of the
central stations for the new economytrain,” says Panagiotakos.
Business leaders such as Ray Stata,
chairman of the board of Analog
Devices, emphasize the need to
improve the state’s competitiveness
through increased funding for centers
Rosenberg adds, “It is my greatest
hope that this budget will be remembered as the first step toward rebuilding our public education system and
Senate Task Force members
appointed by Senate President Robert
Travaglini included, in addition to the
co-chairs, Sen. Robert Antonioni,
Sen. Steven Baddour, Sen. O’Leary,
Sen. David Magnani (retired), Sen.
Joan Menard, Sen. Mark Montigny
and Sen. Bruce Tarr.
®
ALUMNI HOLIDAYS 2006 TRAVEL PROGRAMS
T HE U NIVERSITY OF M ASSACHUSETTS , L OWELL INVITES YOU TO TRAVEL WITH A LUMNI AND F RIENDS ...
Andulucia
Scotland
April 17 - 26, 2006
Greek Isles
May 14 - 22, 2006
May 30 - June 10, 2006
Amid the wonders of southern Spain, visit Seville, Marbella and Granada.
From Loch Lomond to Edinburgh,
admire beautiful western Scotland.
Marvel at ancient ruins in the
Mediterranean. Then enjoy Athens.
$2,395*, plus air
$2,095*, plus air
$2,895*, plus air
Italian Rivieara
Peter the Great
Sicily, The Cultural Season
July 1 - 9, 2006
September 2 - 14, 2006
November 4 - 13, 2006
Experience Italy’s romance in
Genoa and the Cinque Terra.
$2,495*, plus air
“We made great strides with the new budget, especially
in the area of affordability.” — Rep. Kevin Murphy
million, which translates into approximately $18 million for the University
system, of which the Lowell campus
will receive a boost of $2.5 million
over last year’s state funding. The new
FA L L 2 0 0 5
Noting that 85 percent of Massachusetts public higher education
graduates live and work in the state,
the Task Force emphasized “affordability, quality, and jobs” in its report.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to see that
students are better prepared to stay
ahead of the economic curve,” says
Panagiotakos.
From Moscow, sail through Yaroslavl along Discover the melting pot of Sicily from
Palermo to Cefalù. Later explore Rome.
the Volga River to cultural St. Petersburg.
$2,395*, plus air
$1,995*, plus air
*All prices are approximate per person, from Boston,
based on double occupancy.
advocacy campaign on behalf of the
public higher education system.
Writing in The World Is Flat: A Brief
History of the Twenty-First Century,
For further information please contact University of Massachusetts-Lowell
Office of Alumni Relations 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA 01854 978-934-3140
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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45
UMass Lowell Alumni Gift Items
For additional merchandise, visit us online
at http://umlowell.bkstore.com
UMass Lowell Alumni Gift Items
Order Form
Name
Day Phone
Class Year
Address
City/State/Zip
□ Visa □ MC □ Amex □ Discover □ check enclosed (payable to
UMass Lowell Bookstore)
Baseball hat.
Our number one selling
baseball hat. The “L” Hat is
available in Red or Navy and
has the Riverhawk logo on the
back. $24.98 Item #11
Credit Card #
Exp. Date
Signature
Big Cotton Navy Crew
Gear For Sports navy crew with embroidered
logo. Available with Lowell Tech or University
of Lowell logo. Sizes S-XXL. $39.98 Item #2
Champion Heavy Weight Sweatshirt
Screen-printed collegiate sweatshirt
available in gray only. S-XXL. $44.98
Item #3
Champion Hooded Sweatshirt
50/50 fleece hooded sweatshirt
Sizes: S/M/L/XL/XXL
Color: Gray $34.99 Item #1
Item #
Golf Wind Jacket.
Gear For Sports durable navy embroidered
wind jacket. Available with Lowell Tech or
University of Lowell logo. Available in
M-XXL. $49.98 Item #10
Quantity
Description
School/Building
Color
Size
Item #
Price
Quantity
Description
School/Building
Heavy Weight Golf Shirt.
Navy golf shirt with embroidered left chest logo.
Available with Lowell Tech or University of Lowell
logo. S-XXL. $34.98 Item #4
University Picture
Framed picture available with picture of
Southwick, Cumnock or Coburn Hall. Available
in 10x12 pen & ink style for $85 or full color
painted for $140. Personalization is available
on the pen & ink drawing for an additional $10.
Item #5
Champion 50/50 Sweatshirt
Screen-printed collegiate sweatshirt available
in charcoal gray. S-XXL. $24.99 Item #6
Color
University Chairs.
Black with cherry arms
and back lasered seal
Item #13A Armchair $369.98
Item #13B Boston Rocker
$369.98
Champion Tee Shirt
UMass Lowell screen-printed tee shirt.
Available in gray, red or blue.
Sizes S-XXL. $14.98 Item #12
Size
Item #
Price
Quantity
Description
For UPS shipping to your
residence, please add $25.
Allow 6-8 weeks for delivery.
Available with University of
Massachusetts Lowell,
Lowell Textile Institute,
University of Lowell, Lowell
State College, and Lowell
Technological Institute seals.
School/Building
Color
Size
Price
Merchandise Total
MA residents add 5% tax to all non-clothing items
Add shipping and handling + $25 for mailing chairs
Total Amount
Please allow 3- 4 weeks for delivery.
Prices subject to change.
Shipping and Handling:
$6.95 for the first item.
Beautiful large woven tapestry with pictures of Coburn, Southwick,
Cumnock Halls and the Tsongas Arena. $64.98 Item #7
46
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
FA L L 2 0 0 5
Hanes Heavy Weight Tees
Gray heavy weight tees available in Lowell
Tech and ULowell imprint. $14.98. S-XXL
Similar graphic is available on a gray MV
sport tee for Lowell State at a clearance
price of $8.39. Item #9
Paid Advertisement
$1.95 for each additional item.
Alumni Decals
UMass Lowell Alumni River Hawk decal.
UMass Lowell Alumni square decal.
University of Lowell Alumni decal. $1.49
each Postage & Handling on
this item is 50 cents. Item #14
University chairs
Alumni Keychain
UMass Lowell logo alumni
metal keychain. $5.98
Postage & Handling on this
item is $1.95. Item #15
Paid Advertisement
✂
UMass Lowell Tapestry
Rolled Blanket
UMass logo fleece sweatshirt
blanket available in red, blue,
pink or ocean tie-dye. $29.98
Item #8
Cut along dotted line and
return to above address.
$25.
Mail or fax all orders to:
UMass Lowell Bookstore
One University Avenue
Lowell, MA 01854
Fax: (978) 934-6914
For questions on merchandise
please call the UML Bookstore
at 978-934-2623 or e-mail us at
[email protected].
You may also order merchandise
directly on our website at
http://www.umlowell.bkstore.com.
UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE
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47