University of Massachusetts - Facilities

Great New Rec Center

Visit the new rec center built just last year!! Tons of new equipment, streaming awesome music throughout whole building. Or go the Mullins Center for some cheap ice skating (3 dollars for renting skates, free if you have skates)

The Campus Center Has a Great Atmosphere, Along With the Library

The Campus Center/Student Union building is a great center of activities. It's vast halls contain everything one would need, from multiple restaurants to a full store and even a barber shop. Ballrooms and places to relax are abound. The library is an amazing center for study. Their massive downstairs study center, with an incredible amount of computers and tables to sit at for people with laptops contribute to a great atmosphere to do your studies in. Along with their massive book collection, each floor has areas to sit down and do work, and some floors are dedicated solely to independent and group work.

Classrooms are nice

Some of the buildings seem outdated, but the classrooms are generally nice. However, they're always way too hot in the fall and spring. It seems like the AC and heat go on at the worst times possible. There's constantly new development of buildings, including a state-of-the-art athletic facility.

Science Building

The new Science Building on campus is great for many uses. It has state-of-the-art facilities in the labs, unique lecture halls and smaller classrooms, as well as large spaces for quiet independent study. One could spend large amounts of the day in here, and find everything s/he needs easily!

Facilities

There are certainly older parts of campus that can be unpleasant aesthetically, such as the style of Southwest (outer of the buildings) and Sylvan (overall, especially the size of the suite rooms) residence halls and the basement bathrooms of Stockbridge, but I can't not support the philosophy of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it". The old looks of Central and Orchard Hill I think are awesome. Internal renovation may be a consideration down the road, but the campus has earned 01003. Anyone complaining about dining is, in my opinion, out of their right mind. The library - duh. It's the tallest of academics in the world. Sure, the original planners miscalculated the huge weight of the books, but the issue is not by ANY means pressing. I'd worry more about the slow movement of tectonic plates. As for athletics and recreation... we're set - same argument as dining. UMass overall is not the newest campus, but by no means has it fallen behind. The style is all that I can think of as lacking, but that's not even close to a complaint. School architecture is far from timeless. Green initiative needs to be academically and financially pushed by the Admin, because the student body as a whole is not at the point where it can educate itself on those topics. I am completely behind raising fees to support efficient projects unnamed.