Cybersecurity Education/Health & Wellness Center

In 1973, the Massachusetts Board of Regional Community Colleges chose the property of the Elizabeth Seton High School in Wellesley Hills for MassBay’s permanent campus. For more than 50 years, the dedicated staff and faculty of MassBay have transitioned the Catholic girls high school facility into a modern institution of higher learning. The rectory has become a student lounge and computer center.  Old classrooms are now modern engineering and biotechnology labs. Other spaces have been outfitted into a high-tech cyber range and an eSports room. MassBay has constructed a specialized space, “The Bunker,” for our Veteran students; a lactation room; even a meditation room for students needing a quiet space to relieve stress. 

The Cybersecurity Education/Health & Wellness Center will transform the Wellesley campus with a modern facility that will house several key programs: our nationally recognized Cybersecurity program, our athletics offerings, and our widely acclaimed Institute for Trauma, Adversity, and Resilience in Higher Education.

Athletics

The MassBay Buccaneers have a long and proud athletics tradition. Enrolled students can choose from cross country, golf, men’s basketball and soccer, women’s volleyball, and coed unified and esports. A member of the National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) Region 21 conference (Division III), students enhance their college experience by engaging in high-level competition with other regional two-year higher ed institutions. MassBay facilities are severely lacking. With only a partial court basketball facility and a soccer field that doesn’t meet NJCAA qualifications, there are no true home games for our basketball, volleyball, or soccer teams.

We envision a new space that will be a transformational boost to our athletics programs, and a pride-inducing on-campus facility that will unite and inspire current and future students and alumni. We expect the new Center will also feature spaces for wellness programming including yoga studios, a weightroom, and much more.

This facility will also enable MassBay to establish partnerships with youth and community sports and wellness groups in Wellesley and throughout MetroWest, ensuring a vibrant, bustling, year-round wellness center for us all.

Cybersecurity

MassBay offers one of the most decorated cybersecurity programs in New England. Offering the only Associate Degree in Cybersecurity in the state, in 2023 the program was mentioned in the White House's National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy (NCWES) announcement.  One year later, the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity named MassBay a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) in August. The CAE-CD is bestowed on institutions that are deemed instrumental in helping to reduce threats to the national infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense, as well as providing the nation with a pipeline of qualified cybersecurity professionals. In 2024, MassBay opened the only cyber range in a public college in our region, enabling MassBay students and community organizations to practice warding off cyber attacks in a safe, controlled environment.

The workforce need in cybersecurity is clear. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 52,000 new cybersecurity jobs are projected in the U.S. by 2034. Globally, a critical shortage exists, with nearly 4.8 million additional professionals needed to fill the talent gap. In addition to our mission to help fill the pipeline with our talented and well-trained graduates, the new Center will enable the College to provide needed cybersecurity education and training to municipalities, non-profits, and area residents.

In order to sustain or even grow our cybersecurity program, we need more space on campus.  

Institute for Trauma, Adversity, and Resilience in Higher Education

What began in 2012 as an interdisciplinary conference on Trauma and Learning in Post-Secondary Education hosted by MassBay has grown into the internationally recognized Institute for Trauma, Adversity, and Resilience in Higher Education. This unique Institute provides trainings, texts, and research on the impact of trauma and how postsecondary educators must adjust to its prevalence.

Says Institute founder, MassBay Professor of English Jeanie Tietjen, "Trauma-informed higher education means seeing that trauma, adversity, and violence already exist as consequential forces in the lives of students as well as in the culture and practices that constitute higher education. Incorporating awareness of trauma and adversity also reveals strategies that contribute to academic resilience vital to authentic equity and inclusion in higher education and the health and well-being of our national workforce, citizenry, and community.” 

The MassBay Board of Trustees has declared the College’s 45 acres of land at 40 Oakland Street as surplus, which allows the state to seek a developer for the property. The concept is to build 180 units of housing on the five acres on which the current student parking lot sits. Current discussions would leave the remaining 40 wooded acres, which abuts Centennial Park, untouched. The proceeds of the land disposition would help fund the new Center.

Under the terms that are currently being discussed, the project is a win-win-win. Residents of the Town would continue to have access to the forest, a pristine natural resource. The state would make progress toward meeting its stated goal of more housing units. And MassBay would obtain funds to support its sorely needed new facility that will serve our students needs both in health and wellness and in cybersecurity education.