University of Massachusetts
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University of Massachusetts

The University of Massachusetts (UMass) is the public university system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, a medical school in Worcester and a law school in Dartmouth), a satellite campus in Springfield and 25 smaller campuses throughout California and Washington with the University of Massachusetts Global. The system enrolled 73,593 students in fall 2023.

The University of Massachusetts system is governed by a president and a 22-member board of trustees. The system administration is in Boston and Shrewsbury. Each of the institutions in the system is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.

The University of Massachusetts is governed by a board of trustees that functions as a legislative body dealing mainly with questions of policy. The board establishes the general policies governing the university, but has delegated many powers to the president and, through the president, to campus administrators for day-to-day-operations. In certain rare instances when required by the Massachusetts General Laws, it may function as an appeal body.

The founding board had fourteen appointed members and four ex-officio members. Formerly, trustees were appointed by the legislature or the board itself; currently, members are appointed by the governor. The size of the board has fluctuated between twelve and twenty-four members. The current board is composed of nineteen voting members and three ex-officio non-voting members. Seventeen board members are appointed by the governor of the Commonwealth; at least five of those appointed must be alumni of the university, and one must be a representative of organized labor. The other two voting members are students. Overall, the board has five student members, elected for one-year terms, from the Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and Worcester campuses. Voting membership rotates among the campuses: two students are voting members and three others are non-voting members.

The president is the university's chief executive officer and works to advance its mission of education, research and public service. Marty Meehan became the 27th president of the five-campus, 73,000-student University of Massachusetts system on July 1, 2015.

Before the 1962 establishment of the medical school, the president was the administrator of the system's only campus in Amherst. When UMass Boston was organized in 1964, it was headed by a chancellor who reported to the president. In 1970, as part of a reorganization, day-to-day leadership responsibilities for UMass Amherst were transferred to a chancellor, with both chancellors reporting on an equal basis to the president. Today, the president administers five campuses.

The following persons have led what has become the University of Massachusetts system:

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