The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst) is a university in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the main campus of the University of Massachusetts system, the others being UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Lowell, and the UMass Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts.
UMass Amherst is also associated with four other area colleges in a collaboration known as the Five Colleges. The school colors are maroon and white, sometimes replaced by gray. The mascot is the Minuteman, and is represented by a man in the school colors wearing typical minuteman costume.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is classified as a Research I university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, reflecting the breadth of the University's programs, including offerings of over 90 undergraduate and 65 graduate areas of study. The University has distinguished itself in several areas, offering nationally recognized programs in, among other areas, linguistics, computer science, polymer science, creative writing, social thought and political economy (STPEC), and labor studies. The University's library is the tallest library in the world, and is home of the memoirs and papers of the distinguished African-American activist W.E.B. DuBois as well as being the depository for other important collections, such as the papers of the late Congressman Silvio O. Conte.
The University is home to its own newspaper (The Daily Collegian), radio station (WMUA 91.1), and television station (UVC-TV 19)—all are almost totally student-run.
History
The University was founded in 1863 under the provisions of the Federal Morrill Land Grant University Act to provide instruction to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the "agricultural, mechanical, and military arts". Accordingly, the University was initially named the Massachusetts Agricultural College (or M.A.C.). It was known as this until 1931, due to an increase in enrollment and support from the Commonwealth, it was renamed the Massachusetts State College.
Five Colleges
UMass Amherst is a part of what is known as the Five Colleges, along with Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith Colleges. All Five Colleges are located within a 10 mile radius of Amherst center, and are accessible by public bus. Students attending any of the Five Colleges have access to the facilities of all five, for example they may borrow books from any of the libraries and can take courses at all five schools. Some undergraduate or graduate departments are shared among the five, including the astronomy department ([1]) and students have the opportunity to work with professors from any of the schools.
Buildings and Layout
Home to over 20,000 students, faculty and staff the campus extends about a mile from the Campus Center in all directions. Significant amounts of land are owned by the University in the nearby town of Sunderland. In 2004 this prompted Governor Mitt Romney to propose an ambitious expansion project in which the size and population of the University would almost double as it took over the role of the state's community college system which Romney has begun to consolidate and dismantle. While this proposal received the support of the student government, town residents are exceedingly resistant to any such plan as it would increase the already critical traffic congestion in the center of town. The university also owns land throughout the Pioneer Valley for agricultural and ecological research.
The campus may be thought of as a series of concentric rings. In the outermost ring are parking lots, the admissions center, playing fields and barns for the animal science program. In the middle ring there are the five residential areas and dining commons. The innermost ring had most of the classroom buildings and research labs.
The Isenberg School of Management has its buildings in the southernmost part of campus near the Visitors Center and the Newman Center, the Catholic student center. In addition to being the site of the main administration building, Whitmore, the southeast side of campus has buildings mainly dedicated to the humanities and fine arts. Buildings include Herter, Bartlett, Mahar and the Fine Arts Center (Abbreviated "FAC"). Between Whitmore, the FAC and Isenberg lies the Haigis Mall, a local stop on both the PVTA and Peter Pan bus lines. The buildings on the southwest side of campus house the college of social and behavioral science. These include Totman, Dickinson and Tobin.
The 26 story WEB Dubois library and the Old Chapel are the notable buildings in the center of campus. The buildings in the center of campus are mainly used by the Commonwealth Honors College, Goodell and Machmer. The Campus Center Hotel is the training ground for the University's Hospitality and Tourism Management students. The Student Union Building houses most of the student-run businesses and co-ops. Additionally, the Physical Plant and parking garage are in the center of campus. South College, the home of UMass' world renowned linguistics department is the oldest building on campus. The library was intended to be an annex to South College.
The north side of campus is mostly dedicated to science and engineering, and many buildings there are newer than their counterparts in the humanities. The Physics Department primarily uses Hasbrouk Lab, located at 666 North Pleasant Street. The Lederle Graduate Research Tower is the largest building on the north side, housing the Math department on its sixteenth floor. As a joke, the sixteenth floor is prominently labelled 4^2. The Computer Science department recently moved into an airy new building built for them on the edge of campus, though classes are usually taught elsewhere. Between the imposing concrete LGRT, the second-story walkway from it to its sister structure the LGRC, the glass-and-aluminum Computer Science building, and other new buildings for the Engineering and Polymer Science departments, the north part of campus has a more "high tech" look than the rest.
Residential Life
Students living on the UMass campus live in one of the five residential areas: Southwest, Central, Orchard Hill, Northeast and Sylvan.
Southwest is the largest residential area, having two dining commons attached to it. It is composed of five highrise towers and many lowrise buildings, holding thousands of students between them. In 2003 the participation in the infamous Southwest Riots was bolstered by students pulling fire alarms in some of the towers. Southwest has a reputation for being the loudest and wildest residential area.
Central and Orchard Hill are to the east of campus.
Northeast is very close to where the math, physics and computer science classes are held.
Sylvan is in the woods a short way up the road from Northeast. Rooms in Sylvan are arranged into 6 to 8-person suites.
On campus there are two major gyms, the Totman Center near Northeast and Sylvan and the Boyden Gym to the south. Major sporting events, such as UMass's hockey and basketball team games, are held in the Mullins Center, amidst the fields to the west.
The UMass campus is huge, which annoys students who take twenty minutes to walk from one end to the other. Even so, there isn't much space for cars. Some students choose to take the PVTA bus around campus.
IT
UMass Amherst is a member of Internet 2.
At UMass, SPIRE is a web-based system used to register for courses, as well as a variety of other tasks. In the winter of 2003, the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) rolled out the SPIRE system, which is based on Peoplesoft's student information system. Reactions were initially favorable, but over the next year people began criticizing it for its confusing user interface (UI), among other issues. An attempt at resolving some of the UI complaints over the summer caused more serious problems. SPIRE was unavailable for most of the first week of the Fall 2004 semester. Some have claimed that Spire was purchased as the result of an executive conflict of interest. Peoplesoft is currently being sued by Cleveland State University for fraud.
Some classes have OWL (Online Web-based Learning) assignments. Giving homework through the OWL system allows students to see whether and where they failed and gives them an opportunity to fix their work faster than traditional paper-based homework assignments. However, it is not without its drawbacks. The professor will need to write in every possible answer OWL will accept, allowing for the possibility that a student would get the right answer, but leave it in the wrong format.
Some classes use WebCT, a web-based portal system. A WebCT page for a class usually includes a web forum in which students can discuss assignments.
Some computer science classes use TWiki as their course web page.
For some lectures, students are required to purchase a PRS transmitter from the campus store or certain locations in Amherst. A PRS trasmitter, similar to a TV remote control, allows students to answer multiple-choice questions during lectures, providing a level of feedback.
OIT supports MacOS and Windows, but not Linux or other operating systems. However, most OIT employees are sympathetic to Linux users.