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July 15, 2004

Motley named interim UMass chancellor

Yawu Miller

UMass Boston President Jack Wilson announced that J. Keith Motley will serve as interim chancellor of the university after current chancellor Jo Ann Gora leaves the post August 1. Motley will be the first African American to lead a state university in Massachusetts.

Surrounded by family and speaking to an audience which included many of Motley’s friends from Boston’s black community, the interim chancellor faced two dozen union activists calling for a new contract with the university.

Smiling at the protesters, Motley issued a special welcome “to my colleagues at the back of the room.”

That conciliatory gesture elicited a favorable reaction from union steward Susan Brown.

“I think you're going to do a wonderful job,” she told Motley. “I’m thrilled for you and for us.”

The union members, who have worked more than two years without a contract, present just one of the challenges Motley will face during his interim term in office. Motley may also have to grapple with conflicts with both the university’s faculty and the surrounding communities.

UMass Boston Professor of Linguistics Donaldo Macedo said he is confident that Motley will rise to the challenges facing the university.

“I find Keith Motley to be a man of great integrity,” he said. “He’s highly collaborative. His appointment is symbolic and it underscores the urban mission of UMass Boston.”

As Macedo points out, Motley now holds the highest post an African American has ever held at the university, despite the school’s professed urban mission.

“This is the first time that a school that was created to serve the community has had a person of color as chancellor,” Macedo commented. “We’re really turning a page.”

While UMass Boston was created as a university for the working class people of the Greater Boston area, and still serves a student body that is diverse in age and race, the school is also in the midst of sweeping changes, ushered in during Gora’s two years in office.

Faculty members were critical of Gora when she outlined her goals for the school earlier this year. Many were particularly critical of her emphasis on retention at the university, which has an overall retention rate of 73 percent — not unusual for a public university.

Gora, however, focused on the 56 percent retention rate for white males, pledging to build dormitory space as an incentive for them to stay. Her pledge to build dormitory space in turn angered residents of the school’s surrounding community and the elected officials who represent them.

Motley said he plans to talk with members of the community about the university’s housing needs, noting that 1,600 students currently live in neighborhoods adjacent to the Red Line in Dorchester.

“We’ll work together to address these issues,” he said.

Gora’s chancellorship also stirred controversy among faculty members of color, 12 of whom left during her tenure there. The university’s board of trustees pledged to undertake a study of alleged racial bias at the school. The report, which was due out in January, has not yet been released.

While Gora has been seen by many at the university as a divisive figure, Motley, who stood flanked by Wilson and Gora during his address, indicated he would continue to build on Gora’s legacy, citing her emphasis on “research, retention and reputation.”

“Motley has given people the feeling that they’ll be heard and that the school won’t stray from its urban mission,” said adjunct Professor of Africana Studies Tony Van Der Meer. “He’s been a welcome face here.”

Motley, who now heads a committee charged with revisiting the school’s urban mission, said the school will remain committed to serving students from the Boston community.

“We’re expanding our scope, but we’ll never move away from our urban mission,” he said.

Motley, 48, has served as vice chancellor for student affairs for the past year after spending several years at Northeastern University.

He is the founder of the Roxbury Preparatory Charter School and chairs that school’s board of trustees. He also serves as chairman of the board of trustees of Newbury College in Brookline.

The first in his family to graduate from college, Motley holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northeastern and a doctorate from Boston College.

 

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