UMass Takes Big Steps To Expand its Footprint

John Mullin already had a number of titles at UMass Amherst — dean of the graduate school, director of the Center for Economic Development, and professor of Urban Planning — when Chancellor Robert Holub decided he needed one more.
That would be as ‘point person’ for the so-called Springfield Initiative, or, as Mullin called it least once, “the Springfield thing.”
This is an ongoing effort by the university to become more involved in matters affecting the region’s largest city and unofficial capital, in matters pertaining to economic development, certainly, but also many others, especially education and creating a greater pipeline between Springfield’s high schools and community college and the Amherst campus.
As he talked about the project in both broad and specific terms, Mullin told BusinessWest that he and Holub started discussing the Springfield initiative more than 18 months ago. In August 2009, after perhaps a year of round-table discussions, the chancellor said, in effect, that it was time to stop talking and stop doing.
Thus, Mullin has been busy blueprinting and executing several initiatives that cover one or more of five basic goals, he said. They are:
• Bringing more UMass Amherst spinoff companies to Springfield, especially those that are technology- and ‘green’-oriented;
• Expanding the university’s footprint and making it far more visible within the City of Homes;
• Taking steps within the broad realm Mullin called the “creative arts”;
• Expanding efforts at the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI), created in conjunction with Baystate Health; and
• Increasing the flow of students from Springfield to the Amherst campus.
The partnership forged between Springfield Technical Community College and UMass Amherst to essentially co-manage the incubator at the Scibelli Enterprise Center (see related story, page 6) could cross over into at least a few of those strategic initiatives, said Mullins, listing startups and increased visibility for starters.
The newest tenant in the decade-old incubator is Texifter, a UMass Amherst spinoff focusing on test analysis, and there could be many others to follow, said Mullin, noting that the university is trying to steer many fledgling companies born from research on the campus to Springfield.
The City of Homes was the preferred landing point for Qteros, a venture working to revolutionize production of cellulosic ethanol, and the university came close, he said, with the eventual site of the company’s research facility becoming a location in Chicopee.
Regarding visibility, Mullin said it is an important factor moving forward because while the university has been involved in dozens of projects impacting Springfield over the years, most of them have gone on under the radar.
“We do a ton of things in the community and especially in Springfield,” he explained. “We’d get a grant, we’d do something, and then go home. There was often no real evidence that we were there.”
A few recent projects, and a few more on the drawing board, should change that, he said. The university’s relocation of its Design Center to a building in Court Square, done with state grants and contributions from the city, is one example, and there will likely be others in that same area.
The university is eyeing the historic First Church at the west end of Court Square, or at least the back end of it, for classroom space, and could have two rooms in use for the fall semester, said Mullin.
Meanwhile, discussions are underway to move WFCR, the five-college public radio station now headquartered on the Amherst campus, to the so-called parsonage building adjacent to the church, bringing its 20 employees with it. The station would still have a presence on the campus, including production capabilities, in keeping with the wishes of the five colleges, said Mullin, adding that an announcement is likely in the next few weeks.
“This is being done not only to help Springfield, but also out of recognition that Springfield is the centerpoint of WFCR’s listenership,” he explained. “One-third of its listeners come from Northern Connecticut.”
Continuing its work in Court Square, the university has agreed to place exhibits from its art students on the ground floor of 1350 Main St., also known as One Financial Plaza and the Sovereign Bank Building.
“If all goes as planned, by September of this year, we’ll be on all three enclosed sides of Court Square,” said Mullin, noting that the university is eyeing projects in other neighborhoods, including placement of a wellness center involving UMass nursing students, probably along the State Street corridor.
In the creative-arts realm, the university is planning the art exhibits at 1350 Main, as well as other initiatives, including one called simply the ‘sneakers project.’
Modeled after the ornamental fiberglass cows that have graced the streets of several cities and Easthampton’s bears, the project entails the creation of 20 five-foot-long sneakers that will be placed throughout downtown Springfield around the time of this fall’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
Conducted in conjunction with the Springfield Business Improvement District, the sneakers project will feature a competition among artists painting the giant footwear, and sponsorships to raise funds.
As for the PVLSI, Mullin said plans are advancing to place a biosciences incubator on the third floor of that facility, located on Main Street near the Chicopee line. However, that project is dependent on state funding. “The price tag is about $5 million, and we’re hoping that this will be funded and that we’ll moving forward sooner or later.”
While all of the above is important from a business and economic-development perspective, perhaps the most important aspect of the Springfield Initiative is the educational component, said Mullin.
“We’re in the education business, plain and simple,” he explained. “The other projects are fine as far as colleges and universities as economic engines are concerned, but education is what we do.”
Elaborating, he said the university wants its enrollment numbers to more-accurately reflect state demographics, and this means effectively doubling the number of Springfield students attending the university. It hopes to do this through a project modeled after an initiative in Chelsea, another lower-income city, by which funds are obtained through private sources to essentially cover the difference between what a Pell grant would cover and what a student’s parents would be expected to pay.
“The intent of this is to have any top-flight candidate for UMass to come free — meaning free in the sense that parents would not have to pay,” he explained, adding that the goal is to have such a plan in place within a few years. “It’s not the 70% to 80% that a Pell grant would cover that’s our concern, but the 20% or 30% that someone else has to put up. If we can come up with that, we’re in business.”
Meanwhile, there will other initiatives to close the distance between Springfield and Amherst for potential students, interns, and other constituencies, in both a figurative and literal sense, he said, noting, for example, talks with the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority to possible provide free bus service from Springfield to the five-college area (where transit service is already free for students), and vice versa. A feasibility study on such a program might be undertaken as early as this fall.
“To kids in high school in Springfield, UMass might as well be 100 miles away,” he said. “We want to become much closer.”
Much closer and much more visible.

George O’Brien can be reached at
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