UMass makes right call in selecting new president

Martin Meehan

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Martin Meehan will not be the first politician to head the five-campus University of Massachusetts. That honor belongs to William Bulger, the powerful South Boston politician and former president of the state Senate, who was appointed by Gov. William Weld in 1996, then resigned seven years later when Gov. Mitt Romney eventually forced him out.

The big difference between Meehan and Bulger is that Meehan has had the experience of running an institution of higher learning, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and has done an effective job over his eight years in that role. During Meehan’s tenure , the school’s fundraising grew by 83 percent from 2007 to 2012, new buildings and new programs were brought on line, and the school moved the needle on its ranking among national universities — from 183rd to 156th — during that five-year period in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings.

That bodes well for the rest of the system, which, like much of the higher education industry, faces the challenge of continuously increasing costs.

UMass, meanwhile, is also grappling with a debt load of about $3 billion following a decade-long building boom, which included the $400 million Albert Sherman Center at UMass Medical School in Worcester.

Last week, State House News Service reported, both Meehan and his predecessor, Robert Caret, cited a backlog of deferred maintenance on all the campuses, which are home to an aging network of buildings and dormitories. Caret explicitly said that the building boom could be coming to an end as the system approaches its debt limit, and that he doubts university leaders or the board of trustees would be willing to increase the system's current 8 percent debt cap. Moving that ratio higher carries with it the risk of a shift in the system's bond rating, which would add more costs to future projects.

Indeed, earlier this year, Moody’s Investor’s Service gave a negative outlook on close to $500 million in building bonds, citing UMass’s need for more cash and uncertainty over support from the state budget.

Amid these constraints, enrollment across the five campuses grew 30 percent between 2004 and 2014 to just over 73,600 students. The demands on the system have increased, but its capacity to fund the infrastructure investments to match that growth is severely challenged.

One additional hurdle Meehan will have to clear is maintaining the flow of federal research funding to UMass Medical School amid continuing calls for budget restraint in Washington. His 14 years of experience in the Congress should help in that effort as Central Massachusetts seeks to grab a bigger piece of the action in the growing life sciences industry.

Last week, Meehan endorsed a system-wide expansion of online education, which has the potential to lower the costs of delivering education, thus helping UMass further strengthen its financial footing.

Based on his experience and resume of success at Lowell, and his political savvy, contacts and skills, the selection of Meehan was the right call for the UMass board. We hope he can leverage his accomplishments in Lowell to bring both growth and further smart investments to the other campuses in Worcester, Amherst, Dartmouth and Boston.

(CORRECTION: The original version misstated the cost of the Albert Sherman Center.)