Invest in the school, or it will always be divided from the ‘haves’

I entered the University of Massachusetts Boston as an 18-year-old, straight out of high school, in the mid-1990s. While I met some wonderful people there, faculty and students alike, and took some amazing classes, I feel, in retrospect, that the UMass Boston experience at that time fell far short of the university experience available to students with the means to attend one of the area’s private schools or to pursue their education at the UMass campus in Amherst. Furthermore, many families struggled even then to pay for UMass Boston, and that was at a time when the cost of living in the Boston area was far more manageable than it is today.

Massachusetts needs to reprioritize quality higher education as indispensable, and to that end, the people must demand substantial increases of resources to our tertiary educational institutions. Without this level of support, the new UMass Boston will never truly become the beacon of high-quality, affordable higher education that its founders envisioned.

If we are to remain obstinate in refusing UMass Boston the support it needs, we may as well be honest with ourselves and the world and freely admit that here in Massachusetts, we only really care that rich students can go to college.

Marc Callis

Winthrop

Faculty, staff want transparency and answers too, perhaps more than anyone

UMass Boston probably wouldn’t be facing this budget deficit if the public truly did “foot the bill’’ or, for that matter, 50 percent of the cost, or even a third (“With Motley gone, UMass Boston deserves clarity,’’ Editorial, April 7). It’s often our first-generation and working-class students and students of color, and their families, who are incurring debt to pay rising tuition, and thus footing the bill.

I moved here seven years ago from a faculty position in a red state whose disdain for higher education is overt, and yet that state outranks Massachusetts in funding. When I moved to this progressive state, I assumed that the investment in Boston’s only public university would be unflagging.

On a shoestring budget, we annually prepare 17,000 students to become teachers, scientists, artists, nurses, business leaders, and other professionals. As faculty, our lives have become a daily scramble for resources in the midst of perpetual uncertainty, all while trying to guard the quality education we have been providing. Perhaps more than anyone, UMass Boston faculty and staff want transparency and answers for our budget predicament; undoubtedly, some poor decisions were made in a hopeful time of academic growth.

At the same time, poor state support for higher education moves us closer to becoming yet another institution that relies on escalating tuition. And just how does a university raise money from Massachusetts residents who have bought into the myth that the state is footing the bill for our public universities (perpetuating the illusion that economically disadvantaged students have comparable access to education)?

For many of these students, UMass Boston is the only and best option for a quality higher education. In spite of the spartan resources, I am amazed and inspired by what I see accomplished each day. Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be as well.

Sharon Horne

Auburndale

The writer is a professor of mental health counseling and the director of the counseling psychology program at UMass Boston.

Does state-of-the-art have to be beyond this school’s reach?

Columbia University’s two newest buildings were designed by Renzo Piano, one of the world’s leading architects, and the total expansion is estimated to cost $6.3 billion. A palace of light, they’re calling it. And then there’s Northeastern’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. It was featured in the January issue of Architect Magazine. I won’t even bother to mention the buildings across the river at Harvard and MIT.

As the Globe reported last June, the wealth gap in Massachusetts is one of the highest in the nation, with top earners making about 30 times as much as the bottom 99 percent. After decades of working in buildings literally crumbling above and below them, students at the University of Massachusetts Boston are finally getting facilities that offer the state-of-the-art equipment they will need to master in order to remain competitive once they leave the campus.

The public discussion around the financial stresses at UMass Boston reminds me of George Orwell’s observation: “It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.’’ The Globe has pointed out that state support for this wonderful institution has shrunk from about 70 percent to under 30 percent of its operating costs. That’s the number we should be looking at.

Askold Melnyczuk

Medford

The writer is director of the creative writing program at UMass Boston.