■ Alice Nash and Leonce Ndikumana awarded Fulbright grants, page 4 Inside ■ Looking back at 18 years of the Chronicle and Stan Sherer photos, pages 6-9 The Campus Chronicle Vol. XVIII, No. 37 June 27, 2003 for the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts A farewell message Legislature cuts UMass by $80.5m Daniel J. Fitzgibbons to our readers CHRONICLE STAFF An already grim budget situa- Lombardi to seek fee hike, For the past week I’ve tried attracted a legion of fans with tion took a turn for the worse to write dispassionately about his amazing ability to capture June 13 as legislators approved a the terrible budget cuts that are striking images of life on cam- conference committee proposal makes deeper reductions forcing the closure of the pus. Chris is the backbone of that cuts funding for the Univer- Sarah R. Buchholz dollars to $1.25 million. Chronicle, but after 17 years the Chronicle operation. She sity system by 18.5 percent or CHRONICLE STAFF Athletics was cut $50,000 in with the paper, I feel as if kept the books, put the finish- $80.5 million. addition to $2.5 million already there’s been a death in the fam- ing touches on layout, ordered The $22.3 billion fiscal 2004 Chancellor John V. Lombardi on the table. Director Ian ily. supplies, managed a succes- state budget package passed eas- announced an additional $5.66 McCaw said Athletics has de- In the three weeks since the sion of computer systems, ily, with the House voting 118-37 million in budget reductions in a veloped five possible “wide- Chronicle topped the chancel- learned mind-numbing People- in favor of the measure and the June 24 memo to the campus. ranging” models/strategies for lor’s initial list of budget cuts, Soft protocols, submitted travel Senate approving the plan by a The reductions, paired with cutting its budget. my staff and I have come to re- vouchers, maintained our mail- vote of 32-6. The budget is now the $15.8 million in cuts “They involve both changes alize that the sense of over- ing and distribution lists and before Gov. Mitt Romney, who Lombardi previously an- in intercollegiate programs and whelming loss we feel is shared produced the Weekly Bulletin has 10 days to sign the budget, nounced for a total of $21.5 mil- personnel reduction,” McCaw by many people on and off and Campus Calendar pages issue vetoes or suggest changes. lion, put the campus just over said. campus. Faculty, retirees, clas- each week. I also am deeply If Romney leaves the UMass half-way toward covering a $41 Both the Campus Chronicle sified and professional staff, grateful for the invaluable as- funding intact, the maintenance million gap in funding for fiscal and a category labeled “Design legislators, and alumni have sistance and backup provided appropriation for the five-campus year 2004. and Production” were cut an ad- called or written to express by associate editor Sarah system will drop from The reductions came in the ditional $40,000. The cut to the their appreciation for our work Buchholz and former assistant $436,276,144 to $355,764,464, form of staff, programming, Chronicle is a salary line. Steve and to share our sadness that, editors Beth Goldstein, Chris- which includes an estimated $28 and non-tenure track faculty. Robbins, director of Creative with this issue, it is coming to tina Lillios, Rob Galvin and Mal million in tuition paid by out-of- Lombardi has said he will avoid Services, said the nature of the an end. Provost. Without them, I would state students that the Amherst cuts to tenured and tenure-track design and production cut has During its early years, the never have had a vacation. campus will be allowed to retain faculty if at all possible. yet to be determined. Chronicle was a weekly experi- Our heartfelt thanks also to as part of a two-year pilot pro- Advancement and Alumni Marie Hess, retiring deputy ment in institutional communi- the “Friends of the Chronicle,” gram. Under the experimental pro- Affairs saw their budget cut director of the Fine Arts Center, cation. There was, quite rightly, who are listed on page 6. This gram, the state will bear the fringe more than double from $180,600 said the additional cuts to the a great deal of suspicion about group supported us in a variety benefit costs for employees paid to $380,600. Research Affairs FAC were “such a shock.” the “administration paper” and of ways, including earlier this from the funds during fiscal 2004. took a $200,000 hit raising its “It’s almost 50 percent of our its reporting. As time passed month when many of them The legislative budget level budget reduction half a million. campus support,” she said. “It’s and administrations changed, bombarded the chancellor with funds Commonwealth College at The capital plan reduction was all state money, so that’s all the Chronicle developed into eloquent pleas to preserve their $1.715 million, but contains no doubled to total $1.6 million, salaries.” something different than most community newspaper. funding for the endowed chair academic affairs will lose an ad- Hess said the FAC would try in-house organs. We were al- As our readers reminded us, matching fund incentive program ditional $50,000 to bring its to mitigate the personnel cuts lowed a level of autonomy to information is a commodity or library acquisitions. losses to date to $1.56 million, by spreading the reductions to report the news in a straight- within large organizations. In a Funding for the state scholar- and the estimated reduction to programming and maintenance, forward, fair and even-handed place as balkanized and Byzan- ship program was reduced $9.2 central university assessment , PAGE 3 manner. With our credibility es- tine as UMass Amherst can be, million to $82.4 million and the was increased by half a million SEE CUTS tablished, the Chronicle be- the Chronicle has been the earmark for the UMass system for came an important counter- “town green,” a central point needs-based financial aid reduced point to the student paper and for discussion and debate or by $1 million to $8.6 million. vice to qualify for higher pension July 15 to Sept. 1 with a Dec. 31 provided readers with a cam- simply staying informed about Lawmakers also approved an benefits. The program will include retirement date for higher educa- pus perspective on issues of- what’s happening on the other early retirement incentive allow- employees paid from federal, trust tion employees. The measure al- ten ignored in the local press. side of campus. ing state employees to add five and capital funds. lows the University president or In recent years, I have One of our friends, profes- years to their age or years of ser- The application window is SEE BUDGET, PAGE 3 sometimes described the sor emeritus of Classics Eliza- Chronicle as published by the beth Will, recently summed up administration, but “owned” her feelings about the by its readers, who suggested Chronicle: stories, wrote letters, criticized “I think I’ve never been as- or praised our work, and em- sociated with a university that braced the idea of a community is less unified in spirit. I was in newspaper that served all cam- the Faculty Senate and on the pus employees. As our 1997 Graduate Council and several readership survey showed, 90 university committees, but I percent of the readers — and honestly never felt I was in the 100 percent of administrators same institution as the scien- — said they were better in- tists, engineers, etc., whom I formed about campus news sometimes met. At Penn State, and information by reading the a comparable institution, Texas, paper. And 90 percent of those and Iowa, however, there was surveyed rated the Chronicle much more solidarity. For once excellent or good. each week, you made UMass, That success is the product too, seem like a single institu- of a talented staff, including tion.” founding editor Michael E.C. I cannot think of higher Gery, whose vision guided the praise for what the Chronicle paper through its early years, staff and I have done for the and our two veterans, photog- last 717 issues. It was an honor Stan Sherer photo rapher Stan Sherer and office to serve you. Preserving the past manager Chris Davies. Along Graduate student Kalyani Nunnahas has scanned over 6,000 photographs from the Ar- with being the Chronicle’s Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, editor chives collection this year. The digital Images Catalog of Special Collections and Ar- goodwill ambassador, Stan has chives was launched just last week. As of June 20, there are 11,477 images on the site (www.library.umass.edu/cgi-bin/aka/imagefinder.cgi). 2 June 27, 2003 The Campus Chronicle Letters to the Chronicle Loss of Chronicle is a ‘tragic consequence’ The last word from Rob Brooks I am writing with a heavy heart to ex- would have missed a number of events, in- Dear Campus Chronicle old friend, more of greater service — for, for what- press my gratitude –– and I am certain that cluding on occasion defenses of disserta- Good-bye, and thank you for your ever reasons, I wanted to stay connected of a great number of faculty and staff as tions, and I would have had far less oppor- many years of good and faithful service to the University in some ways, and you well as those who work here at the Renais- tunity to be proud of the campus’s record.