- Massachusetts State Senator Stanley C. Rosenberg ’77
State Senator Stanley C. Rosenberg ’77 has a passion for UMass Amherst that’s deeply personal. “It’s in my blood,” says the 59-year-old Democrat. He has either worked on campus or been its advocate since he graduated 32 years ago. “The campus was a door-opener for a significant portion of my generation. This was our leg up,” he explains. “Without it we would have had little or no opportunity.” For Rosenberg, who grew up living with a foster family in Revere and Malden, UMass and its offer of financial aid was his best option.
Rosenberg is the latest in a productive line of influential state legislators who have wielded their power to help the campus grow, some now honored with buildings named after them, such as William D. Mullins, Christian A. Herter, and Philip F. Whitmore ’15. Though no edifice yet bears his name (buildings are not named for sitting legislators), Rosenberg is credited with nimble jockeying in the State House to pass bond bills for five of the newest buildings on campus: Mullins Center, Integrated Sciences Building, The Silvio O. Conte National Polymer Research Center, Computer Science Research Center, and Engineering Laboratory II. And he has secured support for two more: A life sciences building scheduled to begin construction next spring, and a classroom building on the drawing board. Loss of funding for these buildings would have set back the campus’s quest to rank among the nation’s top public research universities.
Rosenberg’s key issues are foster care and adoption, recycling, the environment, and gay rights. Being a key legislative strategist on passing same-sex marriage for gays was the “experience of a lifetime,” he says. “The people of the Commonwealth opened their minds and hearts and realized that to deny civil rights was wrong.”
Rosenberg’s accomplishments are all the more impressive taking place 100 miles from the state’s nerve center in Boston where some still think of the flagship campus as “Mass Aggie” and the town as “The People’s Republic of Amherst.” Rosenberg says, “No question the quality of the campus and its reputation has improved.” Still, he says, getting people to pay attention requires a consistent vigilant effort. Those efforts are assisted by some 20 alumni who serve in the state legislature. Senator Michael W. Morrissey ’76 from Quincy says Rosenberg is obligated to work on behalf of UMass Amherst for a variety of reasons, including it being the largest employer in the district: “He works every day and night for the university.”
It was at UMass Amherst that Rosenberg lost the only election of his career in a bid for a seat on the Student Government Association (SGA). Undaunted, he found a way to serve by being appointed to the SGA finance committee as well as the Fine Arts Council. Twenty-two years of elected service later, his polished political skills have earned him considerable clout and appointments to leadership positions.
The people he represents value him, too; he has a record of winning reelection by handsome margins in one of the state’s largest districts.
