University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts traces its roots to the Massachusetts Agricultural College, founded in 1863 (though the first classes were not held until four years later, in 1867).

The agricultural college grew quickly, particularly after the turn of the twentieth century. A broader curriculum was introduced to serve the increased enrollment, and in 1931 the name was changed to Massachusetts State College.

In 1947, the state college was reorganized into a statewide, public university system (UMass). Today, the UMass system comprises five campuses and one center. The five campuses are in Amherst (the flagship campus), in Boston, in Dartmouth, in Lowell, and in Worcester (UMass Medical School). The special center is in Springfield; administratively, it is a satellite campus of UMass-Amherst.

UMass-Amherst is also part of a five-college consortium whose students are permitted to take each other’s classes and check out books from each other’s libraries. The other four colleges are Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College.

UMass-Amherst has a student body approaching 31,000.

Prominent UMass-Amherst-associated individuals include the following:

• Poets, Ted Hughes & James Tate
• Philosopher, Robert Paul Wolff
• Painter, Chuck Close
• Folk singer, Buffy St. Marie
• Singer and songwriter, Natalie Cole
• Jazz musicians, Taj Mahal (Henry Fredericks) & Max Roach
• Screenwriter, William Monahan
• Actors, Bill Cosby, Bill Paxton, Bill Pullman & Richard Gere
• Physicists, Russell Hulse (Nobel laureate), Joseph Taylor, Jr. (Nobel laureate)
• Evolutionary theorist, Lynn Margulis
• Entomologist and behavioral neuroscientist, Vincent Dethier
• TV reporter, Jake Tapper
• Former General Electric Chairman, Jack Welch
• Former US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairperson, Sheila Bair