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University Launches Haynes
Distinguished Professorship in Urban Studies
By DeWayne Lehman
UMass Honors Reverend Michael E. Haynes by Norman Lang on Vimeo.
The University of Massachusetts Boston last Fall kicked off the fundraising efforts for the new Michael E. Haynes Distinguished Professorship in Urban Studies with a gala event paying tribute to the civil rights leader, former state representative, and longtime pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church.
Chancellor J. Keith Motley hosted the November 7 event at the World Trade Center, which drew more than 300 people, including a broad spectrum of local and national community leaders, family, and friends. The gala marked the launch of the new Haynes Professorship in the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies and the effort to raise $2.5 million to endow the professorship.
The Haynes Professorship will bring to UMass Boston a distinguished scholar in the area of underserved urban youth development, with special emphasis on education, healthcare, and other areas of public policy focused on strengthening urban communities. The Haynes professor will develop new research and explore opportunities to engage McCormack Graduate School students in addressing the multiple health, social, and academic challenges specific to the development of urban youth.
"The addition of the Haynes Distinguished Professorship in Urban Studies provides not only a significant opportunity to further our urban mission; it will also enable UMass Boston to capitalize on the strength of our existing programs for Boston's youth," Chancellor Motley said in addressing the audience. "I invite each of you to be our partner in this noble endeavor. Together, and with great respect for his decades-long battle for the development of Boston's urban young people, you can help us continue Dr. Haynes' critical work."
A Roxbury native, Reverend Haynes earned a reputation in the 1950s as a tireless advocate for troubled youth, inspiring hundreds of young people to stay in school, pull themselves out of poverty, and lead purposeful lives helping others. He joined the ministerial staff of the Twelfth Baptist Church in 1951, where he met the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was pursuing his doctorate at Boston University. Dr. King became a close friend and the two worked closely in the civil rights movement thereafter.
From 1964 to 2004, he served as senior pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church and is currently pastor emeritus. Reverend Haynes also represented Roxbury and the South End of Boston as a state representative, was a member of numerous groups including the Attorney General¹s Committee on Drug Addiction, and the Mayor¹s Committee on Violence.
"The Haynes professor will roll up his or her sleeves and organize and participate in actual hands-on programs-- both domestically and nationally-- that will carry on the Mike Haynes' legacy of reaching out and gripping at-risk kids and refusing to let them go," said McCormack School Dean Steve Crosby. "The work of the Mike Haynes chair is deeply and fundamentally compatible with the mission of the McCormack Graduate School, particularly our Centers on Social Policy and our Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation. We are intensely proud to have been asked to be the home of the Reverend Michael E. Haynes Distinguished Professorship." Vice Chancellor of Athletics Charlie Titus, a member of the gala committee and advocate for establishing the professorship, offered another, more personal perspective.
"Like you, I deeply respect Reverend Haynes for all that he has done in his tremendous life of service," said Titus. "But to me, the connection runs much deeper. Uncle Mike is my mentor, my role model, I am a member of his extended family‹and above all else, he is my inspiration. Because of Uncle Mike, I am a better husband, a better father, a better basketball coach, and a better educational administrator. What Uncle Mike did for me, he did for countless other young people in the inner city. We are all extremely proud of and grateful for the incredible gift he gave to each of us." The Office of University Advancement is working to continue the fundraising for the Haynes Professorship.
Continuing a tradition of community engagement
Supporting UMass Boston's strategic goal to enhance its community engagement, the university seeks to raise $2.5 million to fully fund the Reverend Michael E. Haynes Distinguished Professorship in Urban Studies.
Released in fall 2007, UMass Boston Renewal: Building the Student-Centered, Urban Public University of the New Century notes as one of the university's four strategic goals, "to support high-level research and communication, and to identify and promote signature examples of campus community engagement, with community understood in local, national, and global terms."
This document further states:
- UMass Boston was deliberately and explicitly placed into relationship with external communities in its founding documents, which emphasized the university’s urban mission and its responsibilities to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Since its birth, our campus has eagerly sought opportunities to interact with neighbors, cities and towns, organizations, and business concerns. No longer limited by the boundaries of the Commonwealth, UMass Boston has worked with communities elsewhere in the country and indeed, the world. Our campus collaborates with partners – especially in urban communities – to create opportunities, solve problems and build on community strengths.
- As we plan for the future, we will seek ways of strengthening campus-community engagement. We must find ways to more effectively coordinate and develop partnerships with external groups and institutions that advance the university’s urban mission. We must also become more purposeful by focusing on high-quality, high-impact projects, rather than diffusing our energy and attention among many projects, some of which will never give rise to substantial
outcomes.
The Haynes Professorship is one vital way that UMass Boston will achieve its goals of community engagement. Join us to bring this powerful vehicle for improving society to fruition.
To learn more about how you can support the Haynes Professorship, contact Gina Cappello,
Associate Vice Chancellor at 617-287-5335.
Make a Gift to the Haynes Professorship
(Please select "Other" and note Haynes Professorship)
UMass Boston extends its gratitude for the Haynes Professorship Gala sponsors: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, CCI/Crosby Publishing, Don and Paula Wright.