Ramsay threatens UMass with legal action
In giving the keynote address to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his honorary Week in Boston, Massachusetts, former Jamaican Councillor Wilmot Max Ramsay threatened legal action against his alma mater, the University of Massachusetts Boston due to his “pain and suffering” since he studied as a Chancellorian Scholar at UMass Boston.
“With there being a new administration in Boston, I hereby serve notice that if we cannot reach a compromise on the matter of a settlement, then unfortunately the matter could end like a child taking a parent to court; UMass Boston being my alma mater,” Max Ramsay said to applause.
Ramsay said that he had already “communicated with Chairman Stephen P. Tocco of the Board of Trustees and [that] the matter is far from over.”
Max Ramsay went on to say: “Yes, it is true that newly-elected Governor Deval Patrick (of Massachusetts) received an honorary degree this past June from UMass Boston and thus himself becoming a fellow alumnus as well, and as such, an appeal to the new governor is indeed timely as the matter of my health comes first. The trauma suffered has been unbearable.”
Continued Max Ramsay: “We cannot seek to train linguists, politicians and diplomats under these hostile and controlled conditions. Thanks to former Governor Mitt Romney who led the charge for the release of my diploma. Not until the matter of race is tackled seriously before true respect and equality will be achieved in the United States.”
The Ramsay-UMass Boston rift, which started in the spring of 1990, is widely known as The Honors Program War as it involved Max Ramsay as the secretary of the UMass/Boston Honors Program when he was charged with plagiarism by Professor Fiora A. Bassanese and a scheme involving Professor Robert H. Spaethling, the Deputy Provost of UMass Boston and Professor James F. Brennan, the Director of the Honors Program. Ramsay also became “the first person of color to be admitted” to the Honors Program at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Bassanese apologized to Ramsay “but the mental damage was already done.”
An attendee at Wednesday night’s celebration likened the Honors Program War at UMass Boston unto Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice” especially due to the extraction of the major players being German, Italian and Jamaican (Pole).
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