University of Massachusetts-Amherst

University of Massachusetts-Amherst Summary

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst or simply UMass) is a land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. In 2007, an undergraduate student filed, in the United States district court, Springfield, Massachusetts, claims against UMass alleging the university and particularly a graduate student, Jeremy D. UMass Amherst is part of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes, borrow books, work with professors, etc., at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges. The honors college provides students the opportunity to intensify their UMass academic curriculum. The CC provides honors students an accelerated pace of learning to supplement their course load at UMASS and an additional community of students to interact with outside of their academic department. Home to over 25,000 students, faculty and staff, the campus (42°23′20″N, 72°31′40″W) extends about a mile from the Campus Center in all directions. South Campus 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. Student Union The Student Union Building houses most of the University’s Registered Student Organizations (RSO’s) and it is the home of the Student Government Association. Other facilities include the Campus Design and Copy (CD&C) center, a convenience store, a ball room, and a student lounge. Lincoln Campus Center is located adjacent to the Student Union and is accessible via passageways from both the Student Union as well as from the main level of the parking garage. On the concourse level are the campus store, restrooms, graduate student lounge, which serves beer, and the Bluewall, which contains a cafe, a smoothie stand and a fair trade coffee stand. This level is a high-traffic area throughout most of the day with students and faculty not only using it as a ‘pass through’ from one building to another, but also as the central hub of on-campus life. The top floor of the Campus Center, “The Top of the Campus” is currently undergoing a complete renovation. Campus Center Hotel Above the concourse level is the Campus Center Hotel(official website), a five-level full service facility with 116 rooms, including two suites located in the Campus Center. The Campus Center Hotel is the training ground for the university’s Hospitality and Tourism Management students. North Campus The north side of campus is mostly dedicated to science and engineering, and many buildings there are newer than their counterparts in the humanities. 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, North Campus looks more “high-tech” than the rest of campus. Campus Bus System The PVTA bus system serves not only the University of Massachusetts campus, but also the surrounding colleges and communities. This bus system is run primarily by University students and is free for students, which allows them to easily get to classes at the other four colleges. At UMass Amherst, first and second year students are required to live on campus. Housing is open to all full-time undergraduate students, regardless of year. Upper-class students who have continuously lived on campus during their first and sophomore years are guaranteed housing as long as they choose to live on campus. If, however, a student is admitted after their sophomore year, or moves off campus, and wants to move back onto campus, they are not guaranteed housing, but instead must go through a housing lottery, since demand outstrips supply. Students living on the UMass campus live in one of the six residential areas: North, Sylvan, Northeast, Central, Orchard Hill, Southwest. This is a nine-month housing area, which allows students to remain on campus from September to May. Sylvan is adjacent to the North Residential Area, and before the opening of North in 2006, was the newest residential area on campus, construction having been completed in the early 1970s. Sylvan is also home to the Sylvan Snack Bar (SSB) one of seven of the student run businesses on campus. The SSB delivers food right to students doors in the Sylvan living area. The snack bar, located in the basement of the McNamara building, provides great food and a student hang out for the Sylvan residents. Buildings of note in Northeast include Knowlton, which is an all female dorm, Hamlin, which is an all male dorm, as well as Lewis House, which provides international students with 9-month housing. Also of particular interest is the 2 in 20 floor in the fourth floor of Mary Lyon House, which houses some Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered students and their allies. Many students from the Commonwealth College honors program live in Orchard Hill as part of Learning Communities. Field also houses Sweets ‘n More, a student run business on campus. Southwest is the largest residential area, and it houses half of the four campus dining commons currently in operation (Hampshire in the north and the newly-renovated Berkshire in the south; Southwest is composed of five 22-story towers (Kennedy and Coolidge are side-by-side in the north and John Quincy Adams, John Adams and Washington are arranged in a cluster in the south) and 11 smaller residence halls, also known as low-rises (the height of which varies from building to building), holding a total of around 5,500 students. Southwest houses approximately 50% of the students living on campus. After both victories and losses by the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox in 2002, 2003 and 2004, as well as after the December 2006 UMass defeat in the NCAA Division I-AA football championship game, students held large impromptu festive gatherings (also referred to as riots) in the Southwest Mall which led to injuries, incidents of property destruction, and significant police involvement. Parking at UMass is open to all students for a fee. 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. The Office of Information Technologies (OIT) provides all faculty, staff, and students with an OIT account which provides access to a variety of services including email (UMail), online storage space (UDrive), web hosting space, and blogging space. Field Athletic “Club” Groups Baseball Club, Bicycle Racing Club, Crew Club, Curling Team, Fencing Team, Figure Skating Club, Men’s Lacrosse Club, Rugby Club, Tae Kwon Do Team, Tennis Club, Volleyball Club (Men’s), Water Polo Club (Men’s), Water Polo Club (Women’s), Women’s Ice Hockey, Women’s Rugby Club, Women’s Volleyball Club, Wrestling Club, Ultimate (Zoodisc) The Student Government Association (SGA) is the undergraduate student governmental body, and provides funding for the many registered student organizations (RSOs) and agencies, including the Student Legal Services Office (SLSO) and the Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy (SCERA). The SGA also makes formal recommendations on matters of Administration policy and advocates for undergraduate students to the Administration, non-student organizations, and local and state government. The SGA has three branches: the President and Executive Cabinet, the Undergraduate Student Senate, and the Student Judiciary. Each of the campus’s five residential areas has an area government, and there is also a Commuter Area Government to serve commuter students. They also represent the needs and interests of students in their areas to the Administration, Housing Services, and the SGA. House councils also engage in social programming for their halls or clusters, and advocate to housing staff in regards to concerns of students in their hall/cluster. UMass Amherst has many registered student organizations (RSOs). These are funded by the Student Government Association (SGA), from the activity fee that all students pay. See also: List of UMass Amherst Alumni While some students at UMass add to its reputation as a party school, others among the undergraduate and graduate population have also received press for their activism, including rallies to repeal the imposition of a Student and Exchange Visitor Information System Fee in 2003-2004, to protest for a more favorable contract for graduate employees in 2005, protesting tuition and fee hikes, making the university the second most expensive for in-state students (behind the University of Vermont) and many other campus issues. second, the news program calculated the rate of violent crime by dividing the number of crimes by the total enrollment rather than by the number of on-campus residents.”’Just as you would not include visitors, commuters, and tourists to calculate the crime rate among a city’s population, neither should an aggregate number including off-campus students be included in a calculation of an on-campus crime rate”, O’Malley, the general counsel, wrote to ABC News.

Summary content courtesy of Wikipedia.

University of Massachusetts-Amherst Academics

There’s never a reason to feel alone in your studies either, since there are academic support services like Extensive Undergraduate Evening or Early Morning Classes, Learning Center, Remedial Instruction, Study Skills Assistance, Tutoring and Writing Center. In addition, when any student is looking for some counseling or other types of support, Adult (re-entering) student services, Alcohol/Substance Abuse Counseling, Career Counseling, Employment Service, Financial Aid Counseling, Freshman Orientation Program, Health Services, Legal Services, Minority Student Services, On-Campus Daycare, Personal Counseling, Placement Service, Veterans Counselor and Women’s Services can help. The university has disability services as well, so be sure to inquire about them if needed. University of Massachusetts Amherst is unique in its study options. An instance of this, the university has a Accelerated Program, Cross-Registration, Distance Learning, Double Major, Dual Enrollment of High School Students, ESL, Honors Program, Independent Study, Internships, Liberal Arts/Career Combination, ROTC, Air Force, ROTC, Army, Student-Designed Major, Study Abroad, Teacher Certification and Visiting/Exchange Student Program.

The following are the types of degrees and majors offered at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Business, Management, & Marketing:

Accounting, Business Administration/Management, Finance/Banking, Hospitality Administration/Management, Marketing Management

English Language and Literature:

English Language & Literature – General

Foreign Language and Literature:

Chinese, Classics, Comparative Literature, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Linguistics, Portuguese, Spanish

Computer Science:

Computer Science

Multiple or Interdisciplinary:

Biological/Physical Sciences

Parks, Recreation, and Fitness:

Exercise Sciences, Sport/Fitness Administration

Education:

Education – General

Mathematics:

Mathematics – General

Communications & Journalism:

Communications/Rhetoric, Journalism

School of Visual and Performing Arts:

Art History/Criticism/Conservation, Dance, Drama/Theater Arts, Fine/Studio Arts, Interior Design, Music – General

Philosphy and Religion:

Jewish/Judaic Studies, Philosophy

Physical Sciences:

Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, Physics

Popular majors:

one hundred percent agriculture, fourteen percent business per marketing, thirteen percent social sciences, seven percent communications per journalism, seven percent education, six percent engineering, six percent psychology, five percent biology, five percent health professions

History:

History – General

Health and Clinical Sciences:

Clinical Laboratory Science, Communication Disorders, Nursing (RN), Predentistry, Premedicine, Preveterinary Medicine

Psychology:

Psycholog