Letter: It’s Time for UMass to Address the Chronic Shortage of On-campus Housing

The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Manager and Planning Board, the Chancellor of UMass Amherst, and selected members of the UMass Amherst Planning team on September 12, 2025.

The recently published UMass Amherst Strategic Plan outlines a compelling vision for education, innovation, stewardship, and community engagement but is strikingly silent on one of the community’s most urgent crises: the chronic shortage of on-campus student housing. This omission stands in sharp contrast to the daily realities Amherst faces and the very stewardship values the university claims as guiding principles.

As Amherst’s year-round population has declined to just 13,000 residents out of a census figure of 42,000—thanks in large part to student housing pressures—local schools have seen their enrollment cut in half within a few short years. Families can no longer compete with student-serving landlords for what little housing remains. The town’s tax base is further squeezed because these 29,000 nine-month residents do not contribute to the upkeep of our crumbling roads and stressed infrastructure, or to the police and fire services they rely upon; PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) contributions remain inadequate given the scale of university impact.

Legal and financial barriers affecting campus housing expansion have eased: private-public partnerships are now possible, removing what many once considered the major obstacle to building more dormitory capacity. Meanwhile, the need could not be clearer. Student protests this past year, including outdoor sleep-ins on campus, have underlined this acute demand.

For UMass Amherst to fulfill its stated role as a responsible and innovative steighward—benefiting the “common good”—it must directly address its fair share of the housing burden. The university should now act: prioritize, plan, and construct significant new on-campus housing to ease pressure on Amherst’s neighborhoods, support sustainable local demographics, and demonstrate genuine partnership with its host community. This is not just an opportunity, but a responsibility UMass can no longer afford to ignore.

Ira Bryck

Ira Bryck has lived in Amherst since 1993, ran the Family Business Center for 25 years, hosted the “Western Mass. Business Show” on WHMP for seven years, now coaches business leaders, and is a big fan of Amherst’s downtown.