University of Massachusetts Abandons Controversial $218M Dorm Plan

BOSTON-There have never been dormitories on the University of Massachusetts’s Boston campus and it looks like there won’t be for a long while. The university’s $218 million plan to build dorms, which were part of a larger master plan for the state university, were dropped in an effort to be able to move forward on other projects.

This past March, Administration and Finance secretary Eric Kriss refused to sign off on a $371-million bond sale that was needed to fund the construction projects that were to take place at four University of Massachusetts campuses. The move took the university by surprise, but at the time a spokesperson for the governor’s administration told GlobeSt.com that the secretary had some “issues” with the plan.

Bill Wright, a spokesperson for the university, tells GlobeSt.com that Governor Mitt Romney’s opposition to the dorms coupled with local criticism of the plan prompted the university to abandon it. Wright emphasizes that the other projects in the master plan have been retained. The other projects, which would cost an estimated $93 million, involve a science research center at the Amherst campus; athletic fields at the Dartmouth campus and a parking garage at the Lowell campus.

Wright says that the university has not received any assurances from the governor’s administration that it will sign off on the bond bill now, which is the only step needed for the projects to proceed. Heidi Perlman, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Education, tells GlobeSt.com that “nobody is signing off on anything.” She says that prior approval for UMass’s master plan has been rescinded and that the university will now need to get approval for each individual construction project.