A Welcome Message from Jack Wilson, UMass President

Posted on March 26, 2008 by David Gray

It is with a combined sense of privilege and delight that I introduce this guest post. It is a most important narrative because of the global message it delivers and because the source of it is an individual with perhaps the deepest knowledge and understanding of the University of Massachusetts today. The writer is Jack M. Wilson, President of the five-campus, 60,000-student University of Massachusetts. As most of you know, President Wilson was the founding CEO of UMassOnline. As the individual in whose footsteps I follow, it is with distinct pleasure I am able to welcome him back here for the purpose of sharing his encounters with UMass alumni around the world fulfilling their careers, making a difference, applying their knowledge, and bringing real change to their communities and their countries.

In many ways, my predecessor, colleague, mentor and friend Jack Wilson needs no further introduction. But that would shortchange a distinguished, lifelong career in higher education during which he has achieved much, and done much to advance the University of Massachusetts’ global reputation for excellence, propelled by his vision, his energy, and his compelling advocacy for our institution. Therefore, I urge you to take a moment, at this link, to become more familiar with all of his many achievements.

President Wilson sends us this blog post from Japan where, this week, he delivered the commencement address at Kyushu University.

President Jack Wilson UMass has always been a global university. One of the most important milestones in our history was when the University’s third President, William Smith Clark went to Hokkaido in 1876, to help found the Sapporo Agricultural College, now known as Hokkaido University. It has been a busy four years for the University and I have had to cancel two previously scheduled trips to Japan. I am delighted to be travelling there this week as a guest of Kyushu University, where I was invited by Dr. Tisato Kajiyama, President of Kyushu University to give the commencement address, which can be read here.

One of the pleasant serendipities of travel as the President of UMass is the prospect of seeing University alumni who are leading major institutions and changing the world in so many ways. This trip will be no exception. President Kajiyama is an old friend, but more importantly, he is a distinguished alumnus of UMass Amherst and was the first doctoral graduate of the Polymer Science and Engineering program there. His impressive career in Polymer Science has taken him all over the world. He now also serves as Vice President of The Japan Association of National Universities. I will also carry greetings from Governor Deval Patrick to the Governor of Hokkaido, our sister state, and may even put in a good word for the establishment of direct air travel between Japan and Boston. Yesterday I was pleased to be able to reciprocate my hosts’ hospitality by attending the second Red Sox game in Tokyo with several of our alumni leaders in Japan and officials of Hokkaido University. Later today, I will participate in a summit of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, and Vietnamese Universities and this evening I will meet with a group of UMass alumni in Tokyo. Tomorrow I will visit Hokkaido University, our sister University and will meet not only with University officials, but also with a few UMass exchange students.

That is the way it is at UMass. Everywhere I go I encounter our alumni, faculty, and students. When I went into a South African township a few years ago to visit the local youth leaders of the AIDS Treatment Action Campaign, they told me that 26 UMass Boston students had just left. When I went into a South African Medical School to discuss prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, I sat down to lunch with nurses from UMass Medical School who were there as volunteers to train nurse practitioners for the overwhelming needs in Africa. When I visited the Hessen Minister of Education, Udo Corts, in Germany, he brought a group of UMass Dartmouth students with him who were already studying at universities there, and I was able to visit with faculty from each of our campuses who were working on projects. In China, I have twice been able to sit down with Presidents of major universities who are also UMass graduates. In India, we have licensed our new rabies vaccine from the Mass Biologics labs to help drastically reduce the cost of treatment and increase the ability to address an epidemic of rabies there. I could go on about our programs in Portugal, Brazil, the Azores, Russia, Iraq, Ireland, and so many other places.

My visits to Kyushu University and Hokkaido University are only the most recent events in a long and strong relationship between our countries that is enriched by our students, our alumni, and our faculty. Our students and our graduates are not only prepared to live in a global world, they are prepared to change that world and have been doing it for over a century. We plan to do everything we can to help them to do that, whether it is right here in Massachusetts, somewhere in the United States, or anywhere in the world.

Jack M. Wilson Ph.D.
President, University of Massachusetts