When the University of Massachusetts purchased Mount Ida College in May of 2018, students on both campuses were unsure of what this meant for their futures. Now, almost two years since the acquisition, the flagship campus’ new satellite location is being used by dozens of students, both undergraduates and graduates, to enhance their collegiate experience.

All of the students living on campus this semester are located in New Hall, the only dormitory currently in use. It houses 45 students in total: 24 from the veterinary technology program and 21 others from the Amherst campus. Jenny Reynolds, the internship coordinator on the Mount Ida campus, explained that there was significant room to grow the use of the campus.

“We have beds right now for about 800 students. We have a long way to go before we reach capacity,” she said.

The newest addition to UMass’ list of majors, a bachelor of science degree in veterinary technology, will become available to incoming and current UMass students in the academic year of 2020-21, according to the UMass website.

“The vet tech program was a Mount Ida College program that UMass Amherst took on to ‘teach out’ the students who were currently there and will now be a program that UMass Amherst runs,” explained Reynolds. “The idea is that students will start on the Amherst campus, and spend their first two years in Amherst and their second two years here.”

The current veterinary technology students are taking classes on campus, and some participate in internships around the area as well.

The Amherst campus students come from a variety of majors and fields. Most of the students are either from the college of social and behavioral sciences or the school of public health and health sciences.

“There’s [also] a number of Isenberg students who are here who are doing internships in accounting, and they’ll be here only part of the semester,” added Reynolds.

Last but not least, a few students from UMass’ Arts Extension program are living on the Newton campus while interning as well. Most of the students from SBS and Public Health are completing a professional development class while on campus, but students had the opportunity to also enroll in online classes in order to fulfill major requirements.

The spring of 2019, which was the first year of UMass’s ownership of the Mount Ida campus, did not yield as much success as this one. According to Reynolds, “It’s exciting because last year we had SBS and Public Health here with about half the number of students living on campus that we have this year, so we’re growing, which is great. This is exactly what we want to keep doing.”

Graduate students also have a presence on the Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst in the form of various master’s degree programs. These include statistics and business and analytics, as well as courses in geographic information science and technology and building and construction technology. Although these are the only current graduate level programs available, Reynolds says “lots of discussion about future programs” are taking place in the current planning process.

“We have a long way to go, but I think we’re going to get there,” she said. “The more students are encouraged on the Amherst side to do experiential learning, internship things, I think that’ll help grow it too.”

Sara Abdelouahed can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @AbdelouahedSara.