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Date: 4/26/2022
AMHERST – The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) hosted an in-person ceremony on April 14 as part of the year-long celebration of the school’s University Without Walls (UWW) 50th year of operation.
The UWW was a national educational experiment created in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities (UECU). The UECU was a group of schools invested in progressive change and experiments in higher education. One of the original 19 schools with a UWW program, UMass accepted its first group of 30 bachelor’s degree students in September of 1971. UMass is now just one of two original schools with the same UWW program, but the original experiment helped motivate the higher education landscape to establish widespread non-traditional programs.
Melanie DeSilva, UMass’ UWW director of marketing, communications and recruitment, has worked in the program for over a decade. She said she was drawn to work with the UWW because of its core mission of providing higher education to non-traditional students and saw the powerful impacts that opportunity can have in her personal life.
“My former mother-in-law, who is beloved to me, graduated with her bachelor’s degree through UWW in 2003 at the age of 63,” DeSilva said. “It had been a long road for her and UWW helped her achieve her dream of a college degree. She was a single mother, full-time working adult, caregiver to her mother, and first-generation college student who took classes off and on when she could at community colleges over the years until she found UWW. I will never forget her graduation day and what a proud and joyous occasion it was.”
UWW has evolved to offer professional development opportunities, summer programs, certificates, undergraduate and graduate degree programs, non-degree courses, and high school and pre-college programs in addition to its original degree completion program. UWW also administers all summer and winter session courses for the university. They serve over 10,000 students every year.
“It’s about equity and access; it’s about tearing down walls and making it possible for everyone to have a fair shot at earning a college degree; it’s about leveling the playing field, and creating real, genuine opportunities for non-traditional students to be successful,” DeSilva said. “And it’s not just non-traditional students seeking options and flexibility in higher education. All students – traditional or non-traditional, on-campus or online – want flexible learning opportunities and UWW is delivering.”
DeSilva added that UWW’s original program called Interdisciplinary Studies and the Bachelor’s Degree with Individualized Concentration for on-campus students are two of UWW’s most popular offerings. The 2021 U.S. News and World Report ranked UMass No. 21 in best online bachelor’s programs and No. 3 in best online bachelor’s in business programs.
“As a first-generation student myself, I appreciate the transformative opportunities that UWW offers to non-traditional learners who might not otherwise have had them,” said Associate Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies Joe Bartolomeo. “Although I had long been aware of UWW, my current role, which began in 2020, has greatly enhanced my understanding of UWW’s mission and the dedication and success with which the faculty and staff pursue it. For students, this results in a happy combination of academic excellence, accessibility, and support.”