Mass Media, The (Newspaper) - June 12, 1969, Boston, Massachusetts The MASS MEDIA the truth thatt make you UNIVERSITY OF June SPECIAL COMMENCEMENT SUPPLEMENT The First Days The first days in the existence of the University of Massachusetts at Boston can only be described as something bordering between total confusion and chaos Arriving at the old gas building in September of 1965 baffled students were met by more baffled students all of whom carried a little letter that began Congratulations Everyone was just milling around the main and at the time only building introducing themselves to each other Finally someone said to go over to the Statler Hilton Hotel Trooping over there number three pencils in hand the students seated themselves for the usual precollege testing At around high noon there was a break supposedly for lunch However it was only that one either a brought his own lunch or b recently came into a substantial heritage as the prices of the Sta tiers specially prepared meals hot dogs and were exorbitant After testing a few days later the first class registered at U M B A class of approximately 1200 At registration there was no advice or advisors to be had Students stood around trying to figure put was needed for school were something of a novelty and accordingly at times became rather dangerous with students being suffocated crushed between doors and elevators becoming stuck rather frequently between floors Whenever anyone wanted to know what a certain policy was it had to be initiated first providing of course on of course on who could find out how to do that It was rather overwhelming to be faced with no guidelines and no guides Something akin to crossing a foreign country without a map Journeys to advisors proved fruitless because often they would have even less knowledge of what courses were needed etc than would the student Those students who managed to entering the university were Lobby of the Main Building Spring 1965 How Do You Start A Tradition One student was attempting to sign up for the Italian course that someone somewhere along the line had said would be offered After a quick visit to the registrar she was informed that there was no Italian course but she could take German Returning she preceded to sign up for German only to be told that there was no German course She could if she wished take Russian at nights and get credit for it While she was still trying to figure out what that had to do with her taking Italian she was informed that there was definitely a Spanish course That being fairly close to Italian she signed up Many of her fellow students found themselves in much the same position Opening day was postponed for a week perhaps because it was virtually impossible to get into the building without taking ones life into ones hands due to massive construction When school finally did commence class at times resembled a combat zone Professors would constantly find themselves attempting to be heard over various drills hammers saws etc Occasionally for added color a workman would come pounding through a hole on the wall grinning broadly usually in the middle of a French class Anything beyond the class rooms was nonexistent for the first few months The cafeteria and library were masses of rubble Both were in the main building our only building at the Elevators in the faced with the awesome task of creating a student government clubs and club policy various forms of communication among students etc The faculty and the administration were in the same state of confusion and disorder Activity ranged from a state of limbo to one of frenzied action such as the response of students and faculty to an article in the Boston Globe referring to the University as a train station The feeling of division from the mother campus in Amherst was present from opening day UMB was going to go its own way as much as possible it was going to call the shots Thus many requirements were changed from those of Amherst Many of the guidelines established by Amherst were ignored From the start a very nationalistic type of feeling prevailed How much of this separateness was really achieved is a matter for discussion but the feeling was there and as such gave those attempting to establish organizations an increased feeling of aloneness With this feeling of separateness from Amherst did not come unfortunately a feeling of unity Thus it was even harder to get things under way The constitution desperately needed was not ready until the following spring In fact nothing really got rolling until the spring of 1966 when some of the absolute confusion began to wear away One way is with outstanding people who bring honor to their organization through the odds The University of Massachusetts at Boston the citys newest university has an abundance of this breed in its first graduating class of more than 500 students receiving their diplomas Thursday is Harry Trask of Cohasset a 41yearold father of seven children and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer for a Boston daily paper Harry wouldnt let the burden of a large family a fulltime job and a heart attack he suffered in July of 1968 keep him from his goal of a college education He came up a winner after beating down every obstacle UMass Boston is important to the areas black community and the case of Robert N White 34 of Boston helps tell why Bob is one of the black students in the graduating class whose achievements both in and out of school have sewn the seeds of a tradition for others to uphold From a family Bob spent the first 20 years of his life in the Lennox St Housing Project in Lower Roxbury He was graduated from Boston Latin School and given a scholarship to a private university in Boston barely dented the steep tuition at the private university and Bob had to drop out for financial reasons He joined the Army served in Korea and came back home to a job When UMass Boston opened in 1965 Bob enrolled If there had been a UMass Boston when I was graduated from high school I could have swung Bob explained And there are a lot of people like me here A student leader at UMass Boston Bob also worked 25 to 30 hours a week fighting poverty in Bostons underprivileged areas hi his spare time He is mother Mrs Ulbrich returned to the university as both a teacher of french and an honor student Miss Hazel M McFerson 27 of Roxbury might serve as an example of accomplishment to other students who might not think they have a chance in college 1 was told I codirector of the Upward Bound program During his four years at the university he maintained a high scholastic average and was awarded a departmental prize for special achievement in history He is planning to attend Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and a might find the start of a tradition worth building in the story of Mrs Monique Ulbrich 35 a native of Paris France now living in Brighton I think that whatever you feel you have to do you find time to said Mrs Ulbrich a recipient of senior honors Her philosophy must work A registered nurse Mrs Ulbrich came to UMass Boston in 1965 to start the health service at the university She later left the health service to have a baby her third child Despite her workload as said Miss McFerson a black student I worked for five years at menial jobs before I was recruited by this She came to UMass Boston as a special admissions student and didnt waste her chance She studied long hours to catch up with her classmates and also served the community in METCO and Upward Bound programs working some 25 hours a week If it wasnt for this university I would be the most angry black person in the she said The teachers here took an interest in me and helped me develop as a i The Mother Building
