[MassHistPres] UMass Construction in Trouble

[Joseph Larson]

NEWS FROM PRESERVE UMASS

March 26, 2011

 

UMASS CONSTRUCTION IN TROUBLE

 

Failure of UMass administrators to comply with state regulations requiring
notification to the Massachusetts Historical Commission prior to selecting a
final site for all new construction has led to unintended impacts on
research projects in buildings near the proposed sites of the new Teaching
Facility and the Commonwealth Honors College.

 

Since last September Preserve UMass (PUMA) has been urging the UMass Amherst
campus administration, without success, to comply with the provisions of the
Massachusetts Code of Regulations that require all state agencies to notify
and confer with the Massachusetts Historical Commission on site selection of
all new construction. Notification is supposed to occur early in the
project's planning stages and before the University takes actions that would
foreclose the opportunity for full consideration of all alternative sites.
[Code references: 950 CMR 71.00 at 71.02; 71.02 (1); 71.07; and71.07 (4)]

 

The campus administration, represented by the departing Vice Chancellor for
Administration and Finance, has refused to comply with the Code, made final
selections of the sites of the two new buildings, and handed both projects
over to other state agencies (Division of Capital Assets Management and the
UMass Building Authority) that will manage the construction. Failure to make
timely notification and to seek broad public discussion of the site
selection has led to problems well beyond matters of historic preservation.
As a result the project may have adverse impacts on historic resources at
the Teaching Facility site, but also seriously impact government funded
research in laboratories adjacent to both the Teaching Facility and the
Commonwealth Honors College sites.

 

During a March 22 public forum on the new campus master plan, led by the
Director of Campus Planning, faculty researchers housed in laboratories
adjacent to the proposed Commonwealth College site complained that they had
not been consulted on the site selection. They stated that months of
construction vibration will result in closure of their research. In
addition, those whose research involves human behavior will lose the parking
for their cooperators when they arrive for appointments. All indicated that
the university will have to return grants and contracts awarded by agencies
who sponsor their research. At the Teaching facility site, faculty in the
Department of Physics sent a memorandum on March 8 to the Vice Chancellor
for Research stating that construction of the new teaching facility within
30 feet of Hasbrouck Laboratory will exceed National Institute of Science
and Technology standards and disrupt conduct of vibration sensitive
government funded physics research at that laboratory.

 

PUMA has consistently urged Code compliance by the university for historic
preservation reasons. But administrators at the upper levels of the campus
administration have consistently conducted site selections during the summer
months when many faculty members are engaged in off-campus research and
scholarship. They have avoided any public or Code mandated discussion. PUMA
spokesperson Joseph Larson notes that Deputy Chancellor Todd Diacon was
quoted in the February 1 issue of the Daily Hampshire Gazette and in the
February 4 issue of the Amherst Bulletin as assuring Town of Amherst
officials that the university is seeking "informed conversation" on the
joint UMass/Town Gateway Project. According to Larson, "PUMA welcomes
evidence that some administrators understand that informed conversation is
an important administrative policy. It is also an objective of the
Massachusetts Code requirements that other UMass administrators ignore. It
would seem wise, and Code compliant, to apply this policy to all university
construction projects."

 

 

 

Joseph S. Larson, Ph.D. '56 G'58

Corresponding Secretary

Preserve UMass

27 Arnold Road

Pelham, MA. 01002-9757

larson at tei.umass.edu

 

 

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