The countdown begins: marquee events to include awarding of Chancellor's Medals

Like grade school students returning from summer vacation, the UMass Chan campus community is filled with excitement about the possibilities that a new year promises, eagerness to catch up with old friends and anticipation about new challenges and adventures. The week of Sept. 13 marks the official launch of the new academic year, with events planned that focus on outstanding faculty and incoming students, celebrate new partnerships and recent accomplishments, and set the stage for the coming year.

The highlight of the week will be the presentation of three new, prestigious faculty awards—for teaching, scholarship and service—by Chancellor Michael F. Collins during his Convocation address on Thursday, Sept. 16, at 10 a.m. The names of the awardees are a closely guarded secret, known only by Chancellor Collins himself. The entire campus community is encouraged to attend the address.

“This is one of my favorite times of year on the UMass Chan campus. We honor outstanding faculty while welcoming new and distinguished students to the community, new and generous partners who are essential to our quest for transformational discovery and distinguished guests to share in conversations about what matters in education, research and health care,” said Chancellor Collins, senior vice president for the health sciences. “This is going to be a great week.”

The festivities get started with the student-centered “Dinner and Dialogue” on Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 5 p.m. in the Faculty Conference Room. The event is just that—an opportunity for students to get together for dinner and a discussion inspired by the book The Best Practice: How the New Quality Movement is Transforming Medicine by Charles Kenney, who will be a guest speaker at Convocation. The book, which highlights the importance of improving quality in the U.S. health care system, was the suggested summer read for the entire UMMS community, including all incoming students. It was chosen for its timeliness as the health care industry prepares for new challenges, medical students begin a new curriculum, nursing students embrace their expanded roles on health care teams and graduate students prepare for careers where translational research is front and center. There is a lot to talk about.

On Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m., six faculty members will become named professors at the annual Investiture ceremony, a celebration of new philanthropic partnerships that provide essential funding for research and education. Also on Wednesday, in celebration of another essential partnership, UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Health Care are jointly hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. to commemorate the opening of the Ambulatory Care Center, the new seven-story, 258,000-square-foot building that will house a mix of clinical care centers and clinical and translational research programs.

“The Ambulatory Care Center is the physical manifestation of the remarkable collaboration between the clinical system and the Medical School,” said John G. O’Brien, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care. “When patients walk into this beautiful, state-of-the-art building, they should feel confident knowing that UMass Memorial and UMass Medical School are working together to bring them the care they need today and the cures they hope for tomorrow.”

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