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Joint Committee on Higher Education; Hearing on the University of Massachusetts; Testimony of Chris Anderson, MHTC
Testimony of Christopher R. Anderson, President
Massachusetts High Technology Council, Inc.
October 11, 2005
Thank you, Chairman O’Leary and Chairman Murphy for the opportunity to discuss how we can help the University of Massachusetts reach its potential as one of the world’s premier public university systems.
The Massachusetts High Technology Council was formed in 1977 by high tech CEO’s whose mission is to help make Massachusetts the most competitive place in which to create, operate, and expand high tech businesses. That remains our mission today. Council members employ hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in all of Massachusetts’s key technology sectors, including computer hardware, life sciences, software, medical products, semiconductor, and telecommunications. Our board includes the executive leadership of tech employers such as Analog Devices, Boston Scientific, EMC, Genzyme, Sun Microsystems and Thermo Electron.
Each year, High Tech Council CEOs rate their top policy priorities through our annual survey. We break out the survey into policy areas which are critical to a competitive high tech economy: Fiscal/economic policy, workforce training and education, public infrastructure and health care.
In our past two annual surveys, technology CEOs have listed improving the state’s public higher education system – particularly the University of Massachusetts system – as a top public policy priority. There is an increasing understanding among top technology leaders that we cannot simply rely on MIT, Harvard and other Boston-area top private universities to generate our workforce and technological advancement; UMASS must emerge as a consistent world-class producer as well.
In 2002, some of the state’s top technology leaders, including Analog Devices’ Ray Stata and EMC’s Michael Ruettgers, wrote a letter to the final gubernatorial candidates requesting that science and technology issues as a priority of the new administration. That letter (attached) galvanized the effort to create a statewide, technology-based economic development strategy for Massachusetts. One of the core initiatives the CEOs outlined was to “accelerate the development of the UMASS system as a leading-edge technology university.”
We strengthened the role for UMASS in 2003, when the High Tech Council’s leadership united against a proposal by the Romney Administration to eliminate the UMASS President’s office. We felt that the preserving the five-campus system was the only way for UMASS to reach its full potential. And I believe the progress of the system since that time has proven the rationale for a five-campus system and a strong President’s office.
The Governor and Legislature have certainly recognized the importance of UMASS as an economic engine for Massachusetts. As we heard earlier, the state must ensure that the University has the proper resources and administrative authority to allow the system to compete with the top public – and private – universities in the world.
As we work on improvements to UMASS we need to conduct a review of K-12 and higher education in the context of creating a competitive workforce and diverse economy, including reforms needed in k-12, the creation of an early education system, and coordinating the delivery of state resources in support of a variety of niche programs that address the needs of the K-16 continuum (CITI, STEM, BATEC, Biotech, and the Council-member funded Howard P. Foley High Technology Professor at UMASS Lowell).
The University of Massachusetts has always had strong – if under-the-radar – Research & Development capabilities. Under the leadership of Jack Wilson, the University’s R&D success has dramatically increas
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