The University of Massachusetts is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, and to kick off the celebratory festivities, the University is holding Founder’s Week this week, which is an expansion of the annual Founder’s Day celebrations.
The events – which include a film screening and the formal inauguration of Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy – begin today and continue through next Monday.
A series of Earth Day-themed events kick off this year’s festivities. The Earth Day celebrations will include “a student festival and concert series held in the Founders Day tent, and a Trashion Show featuring student-designed outfits made from recycled materials,” according the the UMass website. The student festival and Founder’s Day tent will be located this afternoon on the Goodell Lawn.
The “Trashion Show” will be held from 2 to 2:45 p.m., and will be hosted by Varshini Prakash from the UMass Amherst Campus Sustainability Initiative. “Students who designed clothing made from materials that would be considered trash or recyclables will model their creations and compete for a prize,” a UMass press release stated. “The student with the best costume will receive a gift certificate presented by senior Josefine Nowitz of Ashland, winner of a recent national ‘Female Leaders in Sustainability’ contest.”
According to the release, “special sesquicentennial T-shirts made from recycled bottles will also be for sale.”
Earth Day festivities will finish off at 7 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium with an evening keynote address, film screening and book signing by author and filmmaker Annie Leonard. According to the sesquicentennial website, Leonard is coming to UMass “to show and discuss her world-renowned animated film ‘The Story of Stuff.’”
Founder’s Week activities continue on Tuesday with a book signing and special sesquicentennial lecture and discussion by UMass professors Max Page and Marla Miller. Page and Miller, who are members of the architecture and history departments, according to the UMass Events website, will be presenting research from and signing copies of their latest publication, “University of Massachusetts Amherst: an Architectural Tour,” in their lecture event titled, “Beauty, Cravings, Virtue: A Celebration of the Architectural Legacy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst,” at 4 p.m. in the Bernie Dallas Room at Goodell Hall.
Thursday of Founder’s Week will be known as Stockbridge Day, or Celebration of Agriculture Day at UMass, according to a UMass press release. Beginning at 12:30 p.m., a groundbreaking ceremony and celebratory lunch will be held for the University’s new Agricultural Learning Center.
According to a UMass news release, “The 50-acre working farm will serve as an outdoor classroom for educating future farmers grounded in the latest research and farming, horticultural, nursery and landscape techniques.”
Speakers attending the groundbreaking, according to the release, include Subbaswamy; Dean of the College of Natural Sciences Steven Goodwin; Director of the Stockbridge School’s Center for Agriculture Stephen Herbert; and 88-year-old Alice Wysocki, who, according to the release, is a “member of the class of 1948, the first to graduate from the newly-named University of Massachusetts.”
The release states that the event will include horse-drawn cart rides around the property, which is comprised of land from four former farms.
A “full slate of activities” is in store for University alumni returning to campus this Friday for Alumni Weekend. The weekend portion of Founder’s Week includes “reunion classes, a reception with Chancellor Subbaswamy, the Alumni Association Scholarship reception and social, and the chance to catch spring sports action,” according to the UMass website.
According to the UMass release, on Friday there will also be groundbreaking ceremonies held for the Football Performance Center at 10 a.m. at McGuirk Stadium, as well as the Basketball Champions Center at 1:30 p.m. at the Boyden Practice Field south of the Mullins Center.
Weekend festivities also include the formal inauguration of Subbaswamy, who will be sworn in officially at a ceremony in the Mullins Center at 11 a.m. on Saturday. As a scheduled Founder’s Week event, “Subbaswamy’s inauguration will bring national, statewide, and local alumni and leaders of academia, politics and business to celebrate this historic occasion for the UMass Amherst campus,” according to the UMass website.
An international food reception is set to follow the ceremony.
Founder’s Week ends on what is known as Founder’s Day next Monday, which marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. According to the UMass website, a “Celebrate UMass Campus Cookout” will be held on the Goodell Lawn beginning at 11 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m. There will be free food and beverages served, as well as UMass birthday cake modeled after the design of the Old Chapel.
George Felder can be reached at [email protected].
Mark • Jun 25, 2013 at 12:40 pm
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Melissa M. Gaspar '77 • Apr 30, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Happy 150th birthday UMASS! I enjoyed my years of study there and it is exciting to see how much the school has grown and expanded. I am very proud the school is developing edible landscapes and being environmentally responsible. There is a lot to be proud of and I enjoy reading about the new developments. One small suggestion: I wish you mentioned Charles L. Flint in your brief history. He helped save the college in late 1879-1880 when the college was having financial difficulties. I think that is worthy of mention. Keep up the good work.