Dr. Robert C. Holub introduced as new Chancellor
S.P. Sullivan, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 5/6/08 Section: News
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"No one is more delighted than I to welcome you," he said before the announcement of the new chancellor.
President Jack Wilson then introduced Dr. Robert C. Holub, who had been approved earlier Monday morning by the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees after having been recommended to the board by Wilson.
Holub, currently the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, fielded questions pertaining to university funding, undergraduate education and student safety, among others.
Holub spoke first about public higher education, for which he said he has a "particular passion."
"Public higher education has experienced a steady ascendency," said Holub. "There are more students educated at public universities every year, and the percentage of students who are educated at public universities increases every year."
"Public higher education in my view is the most powerful dimension of the American Dream, which allows individuals with talent and ambition to achieve success no matter where they start in life," said Holub,
Holub said that an investment in public higher education provides - better than private institutions - an opportunity to "alleviate health issues, augment the wealth of the state and even to increase things such as volunteerism."
"Truly, public higher education is the key to a citizenry that is healthy, wealthy and wise," he said.
Holub also spoke about funding, a particularly large issue for the University after the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM) brought several hundred UMass students to Boston to lobby for affordable public higher education.
"At the end of the day, it's just as important or more important to use the funding that you have in as effective a manner as possible. My experience is that if you use the funding that you have effectively, that you are going to be able to secure more funding, both private and public funding, more easily," he added. "So I think those kinds of decisions are going to be paramount for me."
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