UWW / Springfield Center

UMass - Springfield -

UWW/Springfield – 1st Incarnation (1975 – 2007):

UWW first came to Springfield in 1975, operating from an office at Springfield Technical Community College.  Mary Harris was the first Center Coordinator, and UWW continued to operate an essentially one person operation there until 199?, when Kate Koski, a UWW grad herself, took over.  Soon, she was joined by Ada Medina, then by Elaine Anderson, at which point Kate came back to Amherst.  Elaine continued to run the Center, with assistance from Cindy Suopis, who coordinated our on site program at MassMutual. There was briefly an onsite program at BayState Medical, too.  The Springfield Center was closed as UWW moved online in 200?.

UWW/Springfield – 2nd Incarnation (2014 – ):

In 2013, UWW was strongly encouraged by UMass President Caret to return to Springfield. The Tower Square branch of UMass is modeled after the “Universities at Shady Grove” from Maryland’s state university system, which President Caret was actively involved in prior to accepting the position at UMass.  Chancellor Subbaswamy offered to support the staffing required to get UWW operations there up and running for five years, and so UWW came back to Tower Square in Springfield, admitting its first cohort in September 2014.  Jim Carroll was hired as a UWW instructor/advisor for the Springfield Center, and José Ortega was added to recruit.

Several faculty from the UWW home office in Hadley taught courses in Springfield this first year, among them Mitch Boucher and Jacqueline Castledyne, who were also instrumental in developing programs in Springfield around social justice issues.

UMass – Springfield is being seen as a continuation of university programs already centered in Springfield and the goal is to offer more courses that are in demand for the area.  The program is intended to attract students who have completed an associate’s degree from a local community college and reduce their travel time to UMass Amherst.

There were about 250 students registered for the Springfield campus at the Tower Square location when it opened in September 2014.  Students physically attend classes in Springfield but are videolinked into lectures occurring in Amherst or on other UMass campuses, a form of distance learning. Classes in nursing and health, fine arts and the creative economy, natural sciences, engineering, green industries, management, sports and education, are to be offered in this new venue, the press release said.

“The course offerings at the Springfield center will include online courses and University Without Walls, a program at the Amherst campus that helps adults finish their first bachelor’s degree.”

Local businesses are excited for the “economic engine” that UMass is bringing to Springfield.  These folks are hopeful that the talent of the people who attend this program will stay in the area.

Deana Wyse and Rick Hendra, Fall/Winter ’14

(this summary draws on J. Kinney’s article in the Springfield Republican  of 10/15/13, for which these authors are grateful. )

Articles about the new Springfield Center:

http://connect.masslive.com/user/jkinney/posts.html

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/09/umasscenter_at_springfield_wel.html

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/11/umass_chooses_tower_square_as.html

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/umass_names_springfield_native.html

What Happened to the Old Springfield Center? Reflections…