The phrase “student success” is uttered so often in higher education circles that it can seem nothing more than a buzzword. Yet it is the very essence of what we aim to accomplish at Ģ������Ƶ State — enabling every student to proceed from first-year to the commencement stage.

Exactly how we do that has varied over time, as students’ needs and best practices both have changed. Some programs are tried and true, however. Our Alternatives for Individual Development program, out of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), is a summer bridge program for determined first-generation and low-income students, or those from underrepresented backgrounds. “I didn’t know what to expect, but those six weeks changed my life,” Urban Studies major Eva Diaz said recently, adding it provided her with a sense of purpose and encouragement. She is on track to graduate in 2027.

The OMA is also overseeing the re-establishment of another historically successful program known as TRIO. With a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the TRIO initiative will support academic success for low-income and first-generation students and those with disabilities. First-Year Seminar (FYS) is another way we build student resilience. Today, more faculty are teaching FYS courses, and an FYS Peer Mentor program has been re-activated. Through the program, peer mentor Abigail Vincent notes she’s able to “model what resilience looks like — showing up, staying focused, and learning to bounce back together. It’s about building trust and helping them believe they belong here.”

Such programs complement services offered through the Counseling Center and offices of Retention, Student Success, Student Accessibility, Inclusive Excellence and Belonging, and Student Involvement and Leadership Development (OSILD). These offices have also evolved to meet shifting needs. One example: the OSILD has overhauled the first-year orientation program, extending it beyond Opening Day and well into the academic year, with deeper connections to faculty and FYS.

Our goal in all of this is to provide the most comprehensive and personalized services possible, reducing the barriers that negatively impact student achievement. The results have been significant: In recent years, the percentage of students who continue their education from term to term has climbed to roughly 87%. This is quite an achievement. 

Yet coordinating these services for each student would result in additional gains. To do this, we’ve already lined up resources from the state and elsewhere, and we look forward to attracting additional support for these efforts from our donor community. 

“Student success” is no buzzword at Ģ������Ƶ State. Since we launched “Succeed in Four” about 15 years ago, it’s something we’ve pursued diligently, across divisions and departments, a common goal that unites us.

Sincerely,
Barry M. Maloney
President

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For 150 years now, a Ģ������Ƶ State education has helped individuals scale the ladders of economic success and social mobility. 

When founded in 1874 as the Ģ������Ƶ Normal School, we offered a no-cost, two-year program for those seeking to teach in the growing public schools. Teaching was an attractive alternative to factory or domestic service work for young women who sought employment rather than marriage as their path to economic self-sufficiency, and we helped many achieve just that. Among them was Jennie Cora Clough, class of 1878, our first Black student as well as the first Black teacher in Ģ������Ƶ. 

By 1932, after becoming Ģ������Ƶ State Teachers College, we phased out two- and three-year diplomas. With our four-year education degree costing 1 to 2 percent of an average teacher’s salary, many Massachusetts residents of lesser means took advantage of the opportunity to learn and then earn, whether they taught or not. Even then, our students understood that a bachelor’s degree is a transformative credential that opens doors.

Among those who parlayed an education degree into substantial financial success was Framingham resident James P. Sheehan ’55, USMC (ret.). With a scholarship to help him afford his $75-a-year tuition, he reportedly hitchhiked the 26 miles from home to campus. He entered the Marines upon graduation. During 22 years in the service, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and, after retiring, he launched a successful career as a venture capitalist. He is our university’s single largest donor, with a residence hall, the honors program, and our annual merit scholarships all bearing his name. 

By the 1970s, thousands of young people pursued degrees at Ģ������Ƶ State College every year. Gail Carberry ’70, Ed.D., worked her way through Ģ������Ƶ State, later earning master’s and doctoral degrees from UMass Amherst. She served as president of Quinsigamond Community College from 2006 until her retirement in 2017.

Ģ������Ƶ State has continued to be the college of choice for such hardworking students. Today, half of our degree-seeking undergraduates are Pell eligible and half are first generation. And we continue to invest in their success. With our recently announced ValuePlus promise, students from families earning $75,000 or less can likely attend for free.

We also have staff and programs dedicated to their success. About 50 years ago, for example, we established the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Graduates from then through today credit OMA for helping them thrive, among them Manasseh Konadu ’19, now an assistant attorney general for the State of Illinois, and Tayla Weeden ’23, who has worked at Boston Medical Center and is now a staff associate in Ģ������Ƶ State’s Office of Multicultural Affairs.

We take pride in helping our students get ahead—and we do it exceptionally well.
CollegeNet’s Social Mobility Index ranks Ģ������Ƶ in the top 15 percent of colleges nationwide. Lake Ellie may not be large enough to have rising tides—but Ģ������Ƶ State itself lifts many boats!  

Sincerely,
Barry M. Maloney
President

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By President Barry M. Maloney

When I look back at the many remarkable individuals who have graduated from Ģ������Ƶ State during our 150-year history, some common themes emerge, and together, they tell the story of who we are as Lancer Nation. It was the Reconstruction Era when our founding institution, the Ģ������Ƶ Normal School, opened its doors in 1874. Jennie Cora Clough, whose grandfather had been born into slavery in Lancaster, Mass., according to Remembering Massachusetts State Normal Schools: Pioneers in Teacher Education, courageously became our first Black student, graduating in 1878. She went on to be the first Black teacher in Ģ������Ƶ’s Public Schools, initially at the newly integrated Thomas Street Primary school, where the nationalities were “58 percent Irish, 21 percent American, 12 percent Canadian, and 6 percent English.”

A portrait of alumna Sarah Ella Wilson hangs at Belmont Community School where she taught for almost 50 years. Photo by Matt Wright ’10.

Sarah Ella Wilson’s story builds upon Clough’s legacy. Another in that first wave of Black alumni, she graduated 20 years after we opened, then taught at the Belmont Street School for almost 50 years, impacting generations of students of all backgrounds. One of them, local CEO Saul Feingold, recognized Wilson’s life-changing impact on his six-year-old self by establishing the Sarah Ella Wilson scholarship at Ģ������Ƶ State when he turned 86.

And Wilson served many others, as well, through participation in groups such as the Ģ������Ƶ Women’s Progressive Club, Home for Aged Colored People, and the local NAACP. Her leadership as vice president of the Ģ������Ƶ Inter-Racial Council and as treasurer of the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs helped lay a foundation for the women’s and civil rights movements here in Ģ������Ƶ. Courage to forge a bold path of her own, before women had the right to vote and when segregation was a fact of life. Leadership, in her classroom and the community. Giving back abundantly in both arenas.

Those qualities emerge repeatedly over our 150-year history. Nearly half of that time, we offered solely education credentials. Most of those education graduates were women earning degrees at a time when very few had them. Some helped pave the way for women’s entrée into the field of higher education.

Two who graduated from our second iteration, the Ģ������Ƶ State Teachers College, were part of that vanguard: Helen Shaughnessy ’43 and Vera Dowden Baldwin ’34, M.Ed. ’53, both of whom have campus buildings named for them (see page 38). They became teachers: Shaughnessy, in Leicester and Auburn schools; Dowden Baldwin in Leicester, Rochdale, and Ģ������Ƶ. Then both became leaders, as faculty and administrators at their alma mater. Shaughnessy served as an associate professor, chair, and associate dean for a total of 29 years. One of her protégées, Dr. Elaine Tateronis ’63 , M.Ed. ’74 once said: “She was a role model to us all.”

Lt. Gen. Kevin T. Campbell ’73

Chair of the Ģ������Ƶ State Foundation, retired Army Lt. Gen. Kevin T. Campbell ’73, entered Ģ������Ƶ State College’s geography program during an era of social movements and campus protests at home, while Americans fought in the Vietnam War. Until January of 1973, young men had been subject to the draft.

Campbell chose a path of service. He joined ROTC at Ģ������Ƶ State and was commissioned into the Air Defense Artillery branch of the Army. His leadership abilities were immediately apparent as he ascended the ranks, becoming the commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command. He went on to lead as a vice president and corporate lead executive for Northrop Grumman Corporation, following his retirement.

He now offers his considerable expertise to benefit Ģ������Ƶ State students in his role as Foundation Board chair, never forgetting where he came from.

Nearly 20 years later, another Ģ������Ƶ State graduate, Imoigele P. Aisiku ’92, went on to become a medical doctor and a visionary entrepreneur. He has paid it forward to benefit those pursuing STEM coursework at Ģ������Ƶ State. His commitment to higher education, no doubt, comes from his parents.

Imoigele’s father, Ģ������Ƶ State Professor Emeritus Joshua Unuigboje Aisiku, Ph.D., hailed from Nigeria and taught for 24 years in the Education Department. His mother Brenda Aisiku is a retired special education teacher who taught in the Ģ������Ƶ school system and was named Ģ������Ƶ Teacher of the Year in 2005.

Imo has a deep commitment to helping those who are pursuing careers in science, health, and technology—especially students of color, especially first-generation students and those of modest means. He has seen first-hand how families with deep pockets provide advantages that benefit some other medical school students. He’s making sure that those mandatory internship and “volunteer” hours so critical for medical school acceptance are paid opportunities for our students, so that they can achieve their dreams of advanced degrees, including M.D.s.

Geovanna Diaz-Chavez ’12, M.A. ’14

Ģ������Ƶ State is fortunate to have many alumni who are combining their desire to give back with their professions. Foundation Board member Geovanna Diaz-Chavez ’12, M.A. ’14, shows how it’s done. She founded Style & Comfort with her husband, Johnny Chavez ’13. The company combines her human resources experience with her family’s background in construction to offer affordable design and build services for those with mental or physical challenges. As one who accessed our Alternatives for Individual Development / Upward Bound program while a student, Diaz-Chavez is committed to giving back and has established a scholarship for a Latina student.

Like Clough, Wilson, Shaughnessy, and Dowden Baldwin before her, Diaz-Chavez didn’t hesitate to take that often difficult first step of pursuing higher education, even though few from her circle had done so. Many Lancers like Campbell have personally challenged themselves to take a difficult path in a difficult time or, like Aisiku, set their sights on a goal, like medical school, despite barriers to their success. From these courageous pathways, leaders emerged, the kind who credit those before them and around them for their success and abundantly give back.

Graduates of the Class of 2024 are no exception; they have all persevered through tough times. Most of them entered Ģ������Ƶ State when we were mostly remote and much of the world was locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I have no doubt theirs will be the stories we tell on our 200th anniversary, as they make their marks in the tradition of the brave, yet humble, and giving Lancer leaders who came before them.

Top image: President Barry Maloney celebrates the dedication of the Imoigele P. Aisiku, M.D., ’92 STEM Center in 2017 with Dr. Aisiku, an alumnus who has given generously in support of STEM education at Ģ������Ƶ State.

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The Normal School also established an ethos of service that remains central to who we are, as our 19th– and early 20th-century graduates filled the need for teachers to lead the many new public school classrooms. Those teachers, and the young people they taught, transformed society in the wake of Horace Mann’s educational revolution. Today, service learning and volunteerism are hallmarks of a Ģ������Ƶ State education; community engagement is something we were recently recognized for .

As the only public university in Ģ������Ƶ offering bachelor’s degrees, we are known by many businesses and nonprofits as a pipeline for well-qualified employees—those who can do as well as think—and these practices ensure our students are prepared for their careers from day one. We graduate about 1,000 bachelor’s-educated students every year. Many of them have benefited from internships with regional employers that then translate into full-time jobs upon graduation.

Our students also learn how to work with others because their classrooms are filled with those from varying socio-economic classes; ages; and ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. I’ll note that nearly 40 percent of our students identify as African, Latine, Asian, Native American and/or Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. A wide variety of life experiences and perspectives are represented here, as they are in most workplaces.

Our required liberal arts and sciences curriculum means every student learns how to think critically and communicate effectively. Over the past few years, we’ve instituted a MajorPlus requirement, having adapted our curriculum to ensure that undergraduates are able to complete two majors or a major and minor within four years, doubling their value to employers and their career and/or graduate school opportunities.

A 2022 survey of recent graduates showed that 98 percent of them were employed, pursuing further education, or both within three months of graduation. The economic impact of our collective alumni—around 90 percent of whom stay in the region for some period of time after graduation—is robust, not only in terms of providing the workforce but also by remaining in the state as taxpaying, well-informed citizens.

Experiential learning, critical thinking, ability to navigate diverse settings—these are just some of the qualities regional employers look for in their new hires, and our graduates are prepared to meet that demand.

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What an exciting time to be a student-athlete at Ģ������Ƶ! During the 2022-2023 seasons, women’s ice hockey, men’s basketball, and men’s soccer won conference titles; men’s ice hockey made it to the conference championship game for the first time in school history; and both women’s basketball and field hockey made it to their conference’s semi-final games. As this magazine goes to print, we’re seeing strong performances from our spring teams as well.

This competitive success represents the culmination of a decade of financial investments in facilities and field improvements that benefitted not only student-athletes but also student wellness in general. From 2011, when the university and the Ģ������Ƶ State Foundation partnered with the city to renovate Rockwood Field, to the multi-year Wellness Center project that culminated with its opening in 2016, to the “icing” of a deal for Lancer hockey at the Ģ������Ƶ Ice Center in 2017, to the 2019 refurbishing of the track and new turf, scoreboard, lighting, and sound system at Coughlin Field, these investments are now paying off.��

More important than any building, however, has been the human capital invested in our 20 varsity sports programs and in recreation and wellness. The Athletics Department’s dedicated administrators, led by Athletic Director Michael Mudd since 2014, and their hard-working and award-winning coaches have had an outsized impact on our students’ success. With the sad closure of Becker College in 2021, Mudd and the university saw an opportunity to continue support for a strong program for women’s ice hockey. We enrolled members of the women’s ice hockey team and hired their coach, Eliza Kelley. I was proud we were able to provide a new home for the Becker students, and they have excelled on the ice and in the classroom.

Women’s sports have a great tradition here at Ģ������Ƶ State, in no small part due to three-sport Ģ������Ƶ State Hall of Famer Ann Ash Zelesky ’73. In the wake of 50th anniversary celebrations of the passage of Title IX, which requires parity in school athletics programs, we were pleased to grant Zelesky an honorary doctorate at the 2023 commencement ceremony.��

Creating the environment students need to succeed at Ģ������Ƶ State is our number one goal as an institution. From the terms I served on the NCAA’s women’s basketball committee and on the Division III President’s Advisory Group, I learned that varsity sports can help universities attain a more diverse student body and that, in Division III especially, those who play succeed in the classroom and persist to graduation at higher rates than their non-varsity peers. And, as anyone who has attended a Midnight Madness basketball season kickoff can tell you, the school spirit that teams generate helps build Lancer pride among the entire Ģ������Ƶ State community. ��

Sincerely,

Barry M. Maloney
President

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President Maloney and Sen. Anne Gobi ’86. Photo by Nancy Sheehan

Dear Alumni and Friends,

The Ģ������Ƶ community recently marked the passing of my predecessor, Ģ������Ƶ State’s first and only female president, Janelle Ashley, Ph.D., who served from 2002 to 2011. As we reflect on her many important contributions to the university, I am reminded that not so long ago women faced significant barriers in education, especially at the collegiate level.

Ģ������Ƶ’s own Sen. Harriette Chandler, Ph.D., who received an honorary doctorate of public administration from Ģ������Ƶ State in 1988, and retired in January 2023, is another woman of the same era who broke ground in education. She graduated from college and attained advanced degrees at a time when men earned doctoral degrees at a rate roughly three times that of women.

Since those pioneering years, women have steadily advanced in higher education, and around 12 years ago, began outpacing men in U.S. doctoral programs. Today, they represent the majority of those enrolled in law school since 2016. I am privileged to work every day with a number of women who are advanced degree holders, from the four who sit on my executive cabinet, to our Dean of Science, Technology, and Health Linda Larrivee, Ph.D., to the hundreds of faculty who have taught thousands of Ģ������Ƶ students.

Sen. Harriette Chandler, Ph.D. Photo by Matt Wright ’10

Massachusetts also is a beneficiary. From the many law school-educated senators and representatives, like Ģ������Ƶ State alumna and chair of the Higher Education Committee, Sen. Anne Gobi ’86, to our first-ever elected female governor, Maura Healey, both of whom attended law school when women were underrepresented.

In Gov. Healey’s election campaign, she credited her years on basketball courts for her team approach. Fifty years ago, federal civil rights legislation Title IX outlawed gender discrimination in any school that accepts federal funding (virtually every college and high school). Without this law, Healey may not have had that athletic experience. Among those who’ve benefited from Title IX are my daughter Carden, now a collegiate field hockey coach, and Ģ������Ƶ State’s Vice President for Student Affairs, Julie Kazarian ’98, MA ’01, a Ģ������Ƶ State Hall of Fame track and field star, who won the Ģ������Ƶ City Championship in hammer all four years she competed (1995–1998).

Women have been gaining ground in classrooms ever since passage of those 20th-century laws and court rulings extending their equal rights in educational settings. With educational advancement comes career advancement, and higher education is stronger today as women have become equal partners in educational leadership and in the halls of political power. As Healey shatters the last political glass ceiling in Massachusetts, I have no doubt that remaining ones—notably those in boardrooms and C-suites—will also soon crumble.

Sincerely,

Barry M. Maloney
PRESIDENT

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