Marty Meehan Conversation
Marty Meehan, UMass Lowell ’78 and Chancellor, was a recent guest at the
Glenn Mangurian.: Welcome.
Chancellor Meehan: Great to be here.
Glenn M.: How did you get from
Chancellor Meehan: You’ve done your homework on me! In my youth, my goal was to become a school teacher. My father, my sisters and I were the first generation of college grads. Early on, my father and mother instilled in us that we were going to go to college and that we were going to graduate.
Glenn M.: I read that you were the president of the student body in high school.
Chancellor Meehan: Yes. I got involved in student government, really from the beginning, in high school. In high school my grades could have been a little higher than they were. I got involved in a lot of extracurricular, government-relations types of things.
Glenn M.: Did you attend Lowell Tech?
Chancellor Meehan: I was admitted to
Glenn M.: What kind of student were you?
Chancellor Meehan: I was a good student. I focused when I got there. As it does for so many people, education had a transformational effect on my life. I knew that if I didn't buckle down academically, I wasn't going to achieve all the things I wanted to achieve. So I studied hard.
My parents were surprised how well I did. I think I had a 3.4 grade point average the first semester. I began thinking about going to graduate school.
Glenn M.: When did you shift from deciding to be a teacher to deciding to be an attorney?
Chancellor Meehan: Well, I majored in education, but I had a dual major in political science. I did my student teaching at
When did I decide I wanted to be an attorney? I think I always felt that if I were going to run for office, or if I were going to be involved in politics, I didn't want my livelihood to be determined by the whims of the voters and the election. I wanted to make sure that I had the skills and training I would need to have a career in something other than politics.
Glenn M.: What were some of the things you did between graduation and running for Congress?
Chancellor Meehan: I worked for Congressman Jim Shannon, who was elected in 1978. He was only 26 years old when he got elected to Congress. Tip O'Neill put him on the Ways and Means Committee. I got a master's degree in public administration while working for Jim Shannon. I then decided to go to law school and got admitted to
Glenn M.: What's it like being a congressman?
Chancellor Meehan: Well, there are good days and bad days. It's a very busy life. Today in Congress, members usually go back and forth to their districts. It makes for a tough travel schedule. When I worked for Jim Shannon, most members stayed in
When I got elected, travel patterns had changed dramatically. Members would travel back and forth to their district much more frequently. It's a grueling schedule. Fundraising is critical all the time. Money is needed, not just to maintain your district; anyone who wants to be considered for higher office needs to raise a lot of money to be competitive.
I wouldn't trade my congressional experience for anything. I got to meet with leaders of most major countries in the world. I had the opportunity to work with presidents, cabinet secretaries and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.
Today, Congress is a diverse place. Congressional representative serve their constituencies. There was a conservative Republican named Jim Hansen, from
Glenn M.: What legislation, if you look back, were you most proud of?
Chancellor Meehan: From a legislative perspective, I'm probably best known for writing the Campaign Finance Reform Act with John McCain, Russ Feingold and Chris Shays. It got a lot of attention in the country. It was considered landmark legislation. It was not a bill that I co-sponsored; it was a bill that I co-authored with the other three.
In terms of legacy, I wrote a bill to protect the
Glenn M.: You talked about going across the aisle. Which members of the Republican Party did you have the most respect for and best relationship with?
Chancellor Meehan: This could get me in trouble! I mentioned my relationship with Jim Hanson. I worked closely with John McCain for a long time. Frankly, the John McCain that I see on the campaign trail is a little different than the John McCain that I worked with. He was a maverick. He was unpredictable. He was tough—a very, very tough guy. I really enjoyed working with him.
I worked with other members as well: Peter King, who is a Republican from
Glenn M.: What do you make of the environment in
Chancellor Meehan: Well, I think it's polluted with partisanship. It makes it difficult to get things done. Both parties start focusing on the next election the day after the previous election. I don't think that's good for governing. If there were a way to take out the election part of it, for at least a year, so that people in
Glenn M.: Let's assume that the economic rescue bill that's on the table today is going to get passed. What do you see as the impact on the regulatory environment going forward?
Chancellor Meehan: If nothing else, I think that both parties sense that regulation is really important. There are all kinds of other issues: one is the issue of derivatives. What kind of regulation will there be? Smart, meaningful regulation will probably be the end result. I don't think anyone is really happy about the rescue bill. There’s a rush to deal with a crisis and get something passed in a short time. But on the other side, most members that I've talked to feel they have to do something to calm the markets and try to bring some stability. And that's right. This economic situation is unprecedented if you really examine the magnitude of the problem. So in the end, I think, they have to vote for it, but no one knows what the effect actually will be. You think about $700 billion. If it doesn’t go well, what will the financial impact be on the country? The stakes are enormous.
Glenn M.: As you've watched the presidential campaign over the last 18 month, what has surprised you?
Chancellor Meehan: I'm surprised at the way that John McCain morphed early on in the campaign to become a very conservative Republican. This John McCain is not the John McCain I worked with. Now, that having been said, in order to get the Republican nomination, you have to be for certain things, and one of them is for tax cuts.
At the time the Bush tax cuts passed, John McCain said they went too far and opposed those tax cuts. I think that surprised me. The primary on the Democratic side was fascinating to watch. I thought Hillary Clinton got better and better as the campaign went on. It was quite a primary race to watch. I was happy that I wasn't a member of Congress during the primaries. I know both of them. I would probably have had to endorse one of them. It was nice to be able to say that those of us in academia don't get involved in partisan races.
Glenn M.: Let me shift to UMass Lowell. How has the school changed from when you were a student?
Chancellor Meehan: One of my greatest concerns is that physically it hasn't changed very much at all. We don’t have new buildings. I took a tour with my wife and two children on a Sunday afternoon as I was getting ready for an interview with the search committee. We were on the North Campus looking at the buildings, and my wife said, "I hope there's another campus." I said, "Well, the South Campus," and we went to the South Campus. and she said, "You've got a lot of work to do here. When is the last time they built a new academic building?" I said, "Well, it's been about 32 years." And she said, "How in the world are going to change that?" Fortunately we have a governor who is really committed to turning this around and has passed a higher education bond bill. Physically, we need to change the campus. We need to create more dorms. The strength of the
Glenn M.: I was going to say, you have some good alliances with the
Chancellor Meehan: Yes, we have a project: Mass Medical Device Development-M2D2, a great program that involves working with medical-devise companies in the area. What's interesting is, we've lost a lot of the medical-device jobs to
Glenn M.: What other priorities do you have for the campus?
Chancellor Meehan: Well, this year we're in the process of coming up with a strategic plan. Let me talk about four priorities.
First, enrollment and retention
We want to become world class, not withstanding whatever happens to the state budget. We need to grow enrollment to create the revenue to pay the debt service on our new buildings and to grow our programs. This year we're growing enrollment by 21%. We’re also working to increase the number of transfer students into UMass Lowell. We want to make sure that the average SAT scores and grade point average go up. We’re also focused on student retention. We’re developing learning communities where we get faculty and tutors to help freshman succeed.
Second, on campus housing
We're split about 75%-25% with commuters and people who live on campus. We need to get that to 50/50 over the next five years. We did a housing study and discovered we nee to create 2,200 beds over the next five years in order to get to 50/50. I might point out that the
Third, academic facilities
We're going to build a new nano-bio manufacturing center. We would like to build a new business school. We're going to build a new academic building on the South Campus. All those things will obviously require us to be entrepreneurial in terms of increasing revenue and raising money privately.
Fourth, fundraising
Every place I go to speak I say, "There's zero money from the state for housing." Thirty percent of our budget at
Glenn M.: How about campus reach into the community beyond
Chancellor Meehan: Absolutely! Another priority is to expand our reach. I’ll give you an example. We developed a program to appeal to more residents in southern
We have to make our universities more diverse—not just its students, but also its faculty and staff—and we’re beginning that process. Forty percent of the incoming freshman at UMass Lowell are students of color.
Glenn M.: How are the UMass Lowell River Hawks hockey team going to do this year?
Chancellor Meehan: We are nationally rated this year as we were most of the season last year. We have vouchers for everyone who’s here today to attend a hockey game!
During my first interview with President Wilson, his first question was, "What do you think we should do about the hockey program?" I literally didn't know what his position was. I said, "Well, I could argue it either way." The program had lost $750,000.00. Frankly, I had met President Wilson and other officials at University hockey games, and there just weren't enough people there. I mentioned the problems with the program, and he said, "Yes, but hockey has had a history in
We're going to continue to build the program. Why is hockey important? Recently, I met with Jonathan Kraft, vice president of the New England Patriots. I said, "I want to talk to you about the
We now have a collaboration with the Kraft group around internships and full-time jobs for our students. It’s important to note that the first thing Jonathan commented on was our hockey team. It's important to have a sports program that engages students and helps to increase student life at the university. The team lost only one senior this year, so I expect we’ll be ranked nationally most or all of the year. I'm hopeful that we can get a home playoff game.
Glenn M.: How about a women's hockey team?
Chancellor Meehan: That's something that we’re looking at. However, we're moving first on women's crew. The
Women's hockey is something we can think about later. Frankly, I think we probably need more ice time available to us. Hockey is an expensive sport. Crew is expensive too. In terms of growing enrollment and increasing the prestige of the campus, our focus for this year is on women's Division II crew. That's going to be a fabulous program for us. Increasingly, high schools have such programs and women who want crew at their university. We're losing those young women that we need to have on our campus. That's our first move, vis-à-vis women's sports.
Glenn M.: Let me open it up to the audience, any questions you have for the chancellor.
Audience Participant: What do you think of the upcoming ballot question that would repeal the state's income tax?
Chancellor Meehan: It would have a devastating impact on higher education. There is no question about that. I hope that there's going to be a campaign on this to educate voters. We could not possibly survive that kind of draconian measure. You can't say you want to invest in higher education and then eliminate the income tax. Where would the revenue come from? We would have to dramatically increase tuition and fees if that referendum were to pass. So I'm hopeful that we'll see a smart, substantive campaign to deal with those issues. I understand people are frustrated. Sometimes when people get frustrated, they just want to shake things up and “fix it later.” I don't think the legislature will fix it later if this passes. I think voting “no” on this question is important to the university and frankly, it's important to the quality of education in this state.
Audience Participant: Do you think
Chancellor Meehan: Yes, particularly the Senate. The Senate did a study on higher education a few years ago. I think Governor Patrick is more committed to higher education than any other governor in the history of the state. The problem is, once you become governor, you have to balance the budget. A lot of different interests are competing for dollars. The bond bill and the l
It's really difficult when you look at the projected decline in state revenue. For example, consider capital gains revenue. State capital gains tax revenue represents anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of the revenue for
Glenn M.: Higher education includes the community colleges where the governor would like to eliminate tuition. So you have those dollars that you're competing for as well.
Chancellor Meehan: Yes. I voted in the Congress and embraced President Clinton's plan to make the first 14 years of education accessible, affordable and free. So I support those efforts. This is all the more reason why we need to be entrepreneurial on our campus. We need to think about how we can increase revenue.
I'm taking my first trip to
Audience Participant: Would you encourage young people to get involved in public service?
Chancellor Meehan: Absolutely, I would. Our democracy depends on young people getting engaged and involved. The campaign of Deval Patrick in this state and the campaign of Barak Obama nationall have really ignited and engaged young people all over the country. These campaigns have utilized technology to reach our youth. I absolutely would urge young people to get involved in campaigns and public service.
I was on the
As part of their mission,