The Boston Globe - 11.03.2020

A10 Editorial The Boston Globe WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020

L

ast month, Marcelo

Suárez-Orozco, a

dean in the California

public university

system, was chosen

as the new chancellor of the

University of Massachusetts

Boston. As the first Latino

chosen to lead a campus in this

state’s public university system,

he has an inspirational life

journey, which took him from

Argentinian immigrant to

academia.

“I pinch myself. I am a kid

who came to this country at age

17. It’s really the power of
    education, the power of public
    education,” said Suárez-Orozco,
    when he was named chancellor.
    Harnessing and maximizing
    the power of public education
    for today’s UMass Boston
    students won’t be easy. But the
    university is a critical pathway to

opportunity, especially for low-

income students. UMass Boston

is headed in the right direction,

and the community needs

Suárez-Orozco to be successful to

keep it on that trajectory.

The Boston campus is still

weighed down by millions of

dollars of debt and the cost of

fixing a crumbling underground

garage. But when Suárez-Orozco

starts his new job, he will take

over a campus that’s in much

better shape than it was a few

years ago.

For that, he can thank

Katherine Newman, who was

dispatched to UMass Boston as

interim chancellor in 2018 by

Marty Meehan, president of the

UMass system, after a search for

a new leader collapsed due to

faculty opposition.

During her tenure, Newman

oversaw some program funding

cuts and voluntary buyouts to

save money, and increased

parking fees — none of which

made her popular on campus.

She was in the running for the

permanent job but withdrew

just before the search committee

announced the finalists. In the

end, Suárez-Orozco was the sole

finalist. Now he benefits from

not only Newman’s tough budget

choices, but the steps she took to

grow online programs, increase

student enrollment, and identify

new revenue sources.

When Newman took over as

interim chancellor, the campus

was torn apart and a new

student dorm — the first in

UMass Boston history — was

still under construction. Today,

the dorm is open, and a

revitalized campus is coming

back together. But the core of

UMass Boston still sits atop a

structurally unsound

underground garage. In order to

rebuild it, the science building

will have to be torn down. That

means UMass Boston faces

another big construction project.

Currently, the $155 million

construction cost is split evenly

between UMass

and the state.

Last year, UMass

announced it has

a long-term lease

with a private

developer for the

Bayside Expo

Center near the

Boston campus.

The money from

the $235 million

deal has been

promised to

UMass Boston,

and it might be

used to help pay

for the garage

project — but

that has yet to be

finalized. One of

the major

constants in UMass Boston’s

history has been endless

construction woes, something

Suárez-Orozco can hopefully put

in the rearview mirror.

The acquisition of the

bankrupt Mount Ida College by

the University of Massachusetts

Amherst remains a sore spot for

UMass Boston. After the 2018

purchase, UMass Amherst

started offering classes on the

Newton campus, including some

graduate-level business courses

that UMass Boston faculty view

as unwelcome competition.

To counter that, Newman

spearheaded a move to put

together a consortium of six

private colleges that will offer

students a more affordable

pathway to a graduate degree

while boosting UMass Boston

enrollment. The two state

schools shouldn’t be

competitors, and Suárez-Orozco

will need to be a forceful

advocate for his campus.

UMass Boston is in a better

place today than it was two years

ago. Now its up to Suárez-Orozco

to take the university to the next

level.

Welcome to UMass

Boston, chancellor

I

n a country consumed with the new

coronavirus, chaos reigns. An absence of clear,

consistent, and credible national guidance has

left states, localities, and institutions largely to

go it alone.

At some point, we’ll adjust, adopt new routines,

and muddle through. Perhaps we’ll even tease some

consensus lessons out of this imminent and

unpredictable pandemic.

But it should also prompt some contemplation of a

more potentially disruptive long-term crisis: climate

change. Some are acting proactively to forestall the

spread of Covid-19. Massachusetts Governor Charlie

Baker declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.In

dozens of districts around the nation, education offi-

cials are canceling school. Santa

Clara County, Calif., has banned

gatherings of more than 1,000.

Professional sports teams have

banned reporters from locker

rooms, and there’s now talk of

games without fans.

Others are taking a tailor-

the-response-to-the-risk

approach. New York City Mayor

Bill de Blasio, for example, has

declared that schools will remain open unless and

until a student contracts the virus, whereupon school-

specific decisions will be made. That, even as New

York State has established a “containment area” in

New Rochelle, where the National Guard will clean

buildings and deliver food to quarantined residents.

In homes and houses around the country, parents

are desperately trying to protect their families from a

disease about which much remains unknown. In the

White House, Donald Trump is frantically trying to

protect his presidency from an epidemic he

downplayed for too long. One development serves as

an apt metaphor for Trump’s troubles: Mark

Meadows, the latest in his revolving-door roster of

chiefs of staff, has been in self-imposed quarantine

after possible exposure to the very virus the president

had previously claimed was under control and not a

big deal.

So far, Trump’s belated focus on this public health

emergency has largely meant turning the

administration’s effort over to Vice President Mike

Pence, while Trump himself tries to talk down

coronavirus fears and talk up the stock market.

Where it all ends, no one knows. But it’s an

instructive lens through which to view a crisis we can

prepare for: climate change.

Conservatives are busy twitting House Speaker

Nancy Pelosi for declaring on Monday that

“civilization as we know it” is at stake in this election.

Yes, that’s hyperbolic in terms of democracy. Yet

look at the disarray the coronavirus has already visited

upon this unprepared country. And then consider that

we have only about a decade to take the dramatic

actions necessary to keep the effects of climate change

frombecominghugelydisruptive.

Mind you, those effects are already being felt, from

extreme storms to crippling heat waves to crop-killing

drought to devastating fires to rising sea levels. But

without forceful action, worse is to come. Much worse

for hundreds of millions.

Unlike the uncertainty that surrounds Covid-19,

economists have identified one effective policy

component for combating climate change: a carbon

tax that will factor the

environmental cost of fossil

fuels into their use. That will

greatly accelerate the shift to

greener energy.

We also know that this na-

tion will have to invest heavily

in climate-resistant infrastruc-

ture, and not just to fend off ris-

ing seas on the coasts but also

to deal with floods in the heart-

land. Instead of a big infrastructure bill, though, we

are borrowing to fund a large tax cut geared mostly at

corporations and upper earners.

And while a group of GOP elder statesmen has

proposed a (refundable) carbon tax — and though

Trump’s Republican primary challenger, Bill Weld,

supports one — that effort has had no impact on the

party’s current officeholders.

Instead, a president who denies climate change has

made it clear he will do nothing to combat it. Quite

the contrary, from taking the United States out of the

Paris climate agreement to revoking Barack Obama’s

Clean Power Plan to his efforts to prop up the coal

industry, Trump’s irresponsible actions are impeding

the world’s climate effort.

So far, however, this presidential campaign has

progressed without a sharp focus on this fundamental

difference between the parties. The Democrats

recognize the looming climate crisis and are

determined to act. Donald Trump’s Republican Party

does not and will not.

At a time when the challenge of the coronavirus has

underscored the importance of science, preparation,

and planning, the choice really couldn’t be clearer.

Scot Lehigh is a Globe columnist. He can be reached

at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter

@GlobeScotLehigh.

SCOT LEHIGH

The coronavirus emergency

should make us

act on the climate crisis

Editorial

F

or much of the past

year, the broad sto-

ryline of the 2020

Democratic presi-

dential campaign

has been that Democrats are

united in a fierce determina-

tion to oust President Trump

but divided over how best to do

so. To the “progressive” camp,

the Trump presidency repre-

sents a crisis that can be halted

and reversed only with the

boldest, most sweeping chang-

es in US policy. The “moderate”

camp, by contrast, believes that

the only way to beat Trump is

with a candidate who can ap-

peal to more than just hardcore

Democrats — who can reach in-

dependents and even some

centrist Republicans with a

program that eschews radical

excess, appeals to the sober

mainstream, and holds out the

promise, in a famous phrase

from American presidential

history, of a return to normalcy.

The nomination battle has

effectively come down to a two-

man race: Senator Bernie Sand-

ersofVermontoccupiesthe

progressive lane and former

vice president Joe Biden is run-

ning in the moderate lane. No

one doubts Sanders’ leftist cre-

dentials. But is Biden really a

moderate?

To hear some leftists tell it,

Biden is not only moderate, but

intolerably so. When, at one

progressive conference, he was

described as seeking “middle

ground” on climate policy,

Democratic firebrand Alexan-

dria Ocasio-Cortez was con-

temptuous: “I will be damned if

the same politicians who re-

fused to act come back today

and say we need a middle-of-

the-road approach to save our

lives.”

Biden may seem hopelessly

accommodationist to those on

the Democratic Party’s leftmost

fringe. But in reality, he is run-

ning on a platform far more

progressive — i.e., farlessmod-

erate — than any Democratic

presidential nominee in history.

One of Biden’s foremost sell-

ing points is the eight years he

spent as vice president in the

last Democratic administra-

tion. In St. Louis over the week-

end, he spooneristically pro-

claimed himself an “O’Biden-

Bama Democrat.” If Biden wins

the nomination, he can count

on robust support from

Obama, perhaps the most be-

loved figure within the Demo-

cratic Party today.

Yet on issue after issue,

Biden has veered sharply from

Obama’s path.

On health insurance, for ex-

ample, Obama rejected a public

option as part of the Affordable

Care Act and repeatedly

stressed the importance of

maintaining private coverage.

But Biden favors a public op-

tion open to everyone, includ-

ing the majority of Americans

with employer-sponsored

health coverage.

Biden supports government-

funded health care even for un-

authoritzed immigrants, some-

thing Obama never came close

to proposing. He supports a

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Biden would be the most

progressive Democratic

nominee in history.

Opinion

BOSTONGLOBE.COM/OPINION

Uncertainty surrounds

Covid-19. But the action

required to combat

climate change is clear

and unequivocal.

‘Moderate’ Joe

Biden has moved

way to the left

JEFF JACOBY

UMASS

Marcelo Suárez-Orozco