Meehan calls technology important in state's future.

Byline: Anna L. Griffin

FITCHBURG - Technology provided the fuel yesterday for a lunch presentation by Martin T. Meehan, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

"Massachusetts is an innovation economy," said Mr. Meehan, who represented the 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2007. "Technology plays a key role in it."

Mr. Meehan, a 1978 graduate of UMass-Lowell, spoke to an audience of 100 at a program sponsored by the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Meehan said the 12,000-student university generates $466 million in economic activity.

"Eighty-five percent of our graduates stay in-state for five years; after that, the number falls to 65 percent," Mr. Meehan said. The lack of jobs is the chief reason graduates leave the state, he said.

"That's something we have to address. How do we keep our graduates here?"

Mr. Meehan said the university is attempting to blend past successes with ideas that show promise.

"We have a very good music program. We have the technology program in place. So what we put together is a master's degree program in sound technology. And graduates of that program have won Grammy's," he observed.

Mr. Meehan spoke about the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center, known as M2D2. The center offers the state's smaller medical device companies access to researchers and resources at the UMass campuses in Lowell and Worcester.

By helping develop viable products from conception to commercialization, M2D2 helps inventors and executives avoid the trap of the "Valley of Death," which is when a good concept fails because of lack of money or resources, he said.

Mr. Meehan said growing enrollment will be a challenge as the number of students who will be college-age will decline in coming years.

"We have a slight population bump now of college-age kids, but that is going to go into decline, so colleges will have to become competitive," he said. Currently, 75 percent of students who attend UMass-Lowell are commuters. He would like to see the ratio decline to 50 percent commuters and 50 percent on campus.

To make that happen, the university needs to increase both dormitory and campus facilities, he said.

State universities and colleges also need to do a better job with "customer service," he said.

"Private colleges and universities are doing this already, treating students as if they were customers," Mr. Meehan said. "We need to be doing this as well."

In response to a question about declining student population - and whether drawing students from overseas would be an answer - Mr. Meehan noted there are already many international students at the school. He said he felt a diverse student population served many purposes.

"Just having the opportunity to interact with someone from another culture is a benefit," he said. "It mirrors what is happening in our world today."

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: UMass-Lowell president Martin T. Meehan addresses a lunch meeting in Fitchburg yesterday.

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR