Chancellor's Scholar missing in action
BOSTON, Mass. -- (HR) Today, November 9, 2007, marked the instillation of J. Keith Motley, 51, as the 8th Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston and noticeably absent was alum Jamaican Councillor Emeritus and Chancellorian Scholar Hon. Wilmot Max Ramsay, 45, as some members of the ceremony inquired about the 2005 UMass Boston Graduate. Both Motley and Ramsay are persons of color.
Contacted today and asked if he would attend Chancellor Motley's installation ceremony, Ramsay seemed surprised and replied that he was not aware of "the investiture" until he received some calls earlier this morning.
"I guess the Alumni Office just forgot to include me or the invitation could have gotten lost in the mail. I think (that) I can speak for Alumni: It was just an oversight," Max Ramsay replied in a manner to deflect the issue. Continued Max Ramsay, "I would have attended sans invitation but my day's itinerary was already planned. I wish Chancellor Motley well." A maverick himself, Ramsay has been a textbook case study ever since his arrival at UMass/Boston in the fall of 1989 as a Chancellorian Scholar.
In 1989 Max Ramsay was appointed Secretary of the newly established Honors Program at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and became "the first person of color to be admitted" to the Program. That semester, he launched the "exclusive" The UMass Times newspaper which would later serve him personally as a journal of the Honors Program War of 1990 "sparked" as a result of unfounded plagiarism charges levied against Ramsay by Professor Fiora A. Bassanese, then head of the Italian Department.
Realizing her error, Bassanese "apologized" to Ramsay who, it is alleged, had begun to show signs of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Then Honors Program Director Professor James F. Brennan, it has been learned, stated, in disbelief, he "did not know that she [Bassanese] was like that." Also, then Deputy Provost and German Professor Emeritus Robert H. Spaethling, a Ramsay acquaintance, became a 'casualty' of the Honors Program War at UMass Boston.
Ramsay, in reference to the Honors Program War, has since labeled the War as "that devious plot." As one Ramsay classmate recently put it: "It [the Honors Program War] was a scheme to topple Councillor Max Ramsay. We knew what was happening but we had to be silent. He was the only person of color and though, at times, we tried to hint to him he was not, at the time, aware of such deceit. However, because he was honest, Lady Fortune supported his defense."
This conversation took place at the recently held 25th anniversary celebration of Wilmot Max Ramsay Week in Boston, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, October 3, 2007, when Wilmot Max Ramsay, president and executive director of Global Youth Trust, Inc., in delivering the main address, threatened legal action against UMass. Ramsay, it is understood, had "communicated" with embattled UMass Chairman Stephen P. Tocco on his "tenure" at UMass Boston. It is being argued that because Tocco and Bassanese are both Italian and white little or no action would materialize toward a settlement.
This tumultuous period lasted some 16 years with the intervention, in 2005, of then Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican Presidential Candidate, who ordered the "release" of Councillor Wilmot Max "Little David" Ramsay's "well earned" Diploma from UMass Boston. Ramsay graduated in Spanish and Political Science on Friday, June 3, 2005, while J. Keith Motley was Interim Chancellor at UMass Boston.
When asked if he, Ramsay, had ever spoken to Motley, in person, Ramsay replied: "For the record: The UMass Boston Honors Program War was so intense and fierce, from 1990 to 2005, that I was not given a chance to actually meet the gentleman. Yes, I saw him at my Commencement in 2005 on Friday, June 3rd but, for me, that was a most chaotic occasion which irked my consciousness. That Monday next, June 6th, I delivered my frank talk 'An Alternate Commencement Address' in Phyllis Wheatley Hall, [at UMass Boston]," remarked the astute Max Ramsay.
"I do believe that he [Chancellor Motley] will bring some well needed changes, such as: a better understanding of race relations to the corridors of UMass Boston. I am therefore optimistic toward this current Chancellorship at my alma mater," concluded an obviously pensive Councillor Max Ramsay.
Quipped a UMass Boston source: "Well, at least, Chancellor Motley has a sense of UMass; he, more than any other, should remember when he was passed over [as Interim Chancellor] for Michael Collins, MD, [in reference to the immediate former Chancellor]."
HERITAGE RESERVES was reliably informed that the J. Keith Motley Scholarship is to be created at UMass Boston.
And as if to celebrate the upcoming holiday on Monday, November 12, 2007, a Junior at UMass Boston remarked: "Max Ramsay is a Veteran. He proved the thesis."
Also attending today's Motley inauguration were Governor Deval L. Patrick, U.S. Senator John Kerry and Mayor Thomas Menino.
HERITAGE RESERVES did receive queries, later today, asking whether Max Ramsay attended Chancellor Motley's inauguration. Today marks the 21st anniversary of Councillor Max Ramsay's memorable and 'passionate plea,' in 1986, for youths "to abstain from the usage of hard drugs."
(Copyright @ HERITAGE RESERVES, Friday, November 9, 2007)
