Focusing on Transformation, UMass Boston Celebrates Chancellor Suárez-Orozco’s Inauguration

He arrived in the United States as a 17-year-old immigrant kid who spoke no English, sent here by parents seeking to save him from Argentina’s gathering Dirty War. He enrolled in the California Community College System and later transferred to the University of California Berkeley to receive an AB, MA, and PhD, all while he swept floors, cleaned houses, and painted walls to make ends meet.

As Marcelo Suárez-Orozco stood amongst his faculty, students, colleagues, family, and friends at his inauguration ceremony, he looked back at where he came from and how it has made him the scholar and administrator he is today.

“Today, serving as chancellor of UMass Boston is the job I have prepared for all my life. In our Beacons—so many of whom are first-generation college students, speak English as a second language, and come from abroad to study in America—I see myself a half-century ago,” he said. “As I look back, I see my journey as a version of a uniquely American story, of second chances and the life-changing power of a public research university.

“My journey affirms the claim that education is a vital public good, essential for flourishing, engagement, and above all, giving back.”

Chancellor Suárez-Orozco was formally installed as the ninth chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston in a ceremony in the Clark Athletic Center on April 5, with dignitaries including Governor Maura Healey, UMass President Martin Meehan, UMass Board of Trustees Chair Stephen Karam, Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler, and Congressman Stephen Lynch by his side.

Watch the inauguration ceremony on UMass Boston's YouTube channel.

The event also featured video messages from dignitaries and colleagues, such as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and His Holiness Pope Francis, who appointed Suárez-Orozco as an Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Suárez-Orozco, an internationally renowned educator and researcher whose work focuses on the study of mass migration, globalization, and education, assumed the role of UMass Boston's chancellor on August 1, 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He previously served as the inaugural UCLA Wasserman dean at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.

While the pandemic and other matters postponed the inauguration, finally able to celebrate almost four years later, Chancellor Suárez-Orozco said it was fitting to wait for the new campus Quad to open. The new sustainable green quad, the culmination of 15 years of planning, features sloping green lawns, hundreds of trees, a network of ADA-compliant pathways, a staircase and elevator to Healey Library, and a new student lounge space in the Clark Athletic Center.

“I have been anticipating this day with excitement,” he said, adding later: “For me, this is a harbinger of UMass Boston 2.0. Today marks a new era, symbolized by the beautiful new Quad we opened this morning, and by a vision of higher education that is truly for the times.”

Governor Maura Healey spoke of how at an inauguration, often our words focus on the potential a leader brings.

“Today, after nearly four years on the job, we can affirm and celebrate that potential through your achievements, and we can look forward to more with such confidence and such hope,” she said. “Chancellor, under your leadership, UMass Boston has come through a global pandemic and reopened stronger than ever.”

President Meehan called Chancellor Suárez-Orozco a “leader for these times.”

“UMass Boston, under Chancellor Suárez-Orozco’s leadership, is focused on the problems that confront us, making major contributions to areas including the environment, health and health disparities, cancer therapy, and imploring the emerging world of AI,” he said. “UMass Boston has become an indispensable educational resource for this region and far beyond. Its educational and economic impact is profound, particularly given that 80 percent of UMass Boston graduates remain here in Massachusetts.”

Provost Joseph Berger pointed to the extraordinary accomplishments the chancellor has presided over in the last four years, which he called “nothing short of transformative.”

In 2022, the university released a ten-year Strategic Plan, For the Times. Both research funding and philanthropic giving are at record levels, enrollment remains strong, retention is improving, and career and internship opportunities for students and graduates are expanding.

“What sets him apart beyond his keen intellect, his extraordinary facility in all institutional settings, his skills as a consensus builder and his patience, is his unshakeable faith in the power of public education to prepare the next generation of leaders, innovators, and most importantly - citizens,” Berger said. “The chancellor has embraced our role as the key partner in addressing the priorities of Boston and the Commonwealth.”

Along with the inauguration ceremony, Chancellor Suárez-Orozco also hosted an academic symposium focused on three pressing issues— climate resilience, education for the future, and confronting inequity in healthcare.

Former White House Climate Advisor and UMass Boston alumna Gina McCarthy, who sat on the climate panel, congratulated the chancellor and the university.

“I think you are really the person for the times, and I can’t thank you enough because this was the most meaningful education I’ve ever received,” she said. “And I just hope that you stay here and recognize that there are so many other students here that will follow. … I think you have the opportunity of a lifetime to help them have a life as rich as I have had. And so, I thank you for jumping in. I’m so excited.”

The chancellor used his inauguration to affirm the university’s commitment to the City of Boston and the Commonwealth.

“We can’t have a jewel of a city without a premier public research university as a trusted partner. We share your vision for the Commonwealth and the city of Boston,” he said. “In these turbulent times, we are your Beacons, lighting the path to safe harbor.”

He also made a pledge to the students in the Commonwealth and beyond.

“We are the university that serves first-generation-to-college students, international students, returning students of all ages, veterans, immigrants, and refugees. We are the university that serves students other schools overlook and underserve,” he said. “And we are the university that delivers quality education at a competitive price point that will prepare students for lives of consequence.

“As we say in the old country, mi casa es su casa.”