IT Cares—Inside IT’s charitable efforts

Ananta Sinha is Supervisor of Lab Operations and a Cloud PC Specialist in the IT Managed Services Department. This past year, with the encouragement of his supervisor, Director of IT Managed Services Trieu Ly, Sinha volunteered for U-Access for the first time. U-Access (or officially, the Office of Urban and Off-Campus Support Services) aims to empower and ease the burdens facing UMass Boston students struggling financially. The goal is to provide resources so that students can focus on their academic pursuits and not how they will fulfill basic needs. One of the biggest services that U-Access provides is a food pantry, which requires volunteer help to operate to its maximum potential.  

“I helped out in sorting and shelving the food…It was important to shelve them in the right places, so that they can be distributed out properly,” says Sinha. “Later, we went upstairs to the 3rd floor of the Campus Center and helped sort and bag basic necessities like socks, tampons, etc. We basically opened the original packaging of the products and bagged a fixed number of them to be distributed.” 

As noted, U-Access also supplies emergency toiletries, school supplies, and other goods for students in need. This too, requires volunteer help, but few employees realize how even the smallest efforts can be of massive assistance. According to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence Steven Neville, there are typically five to seven students trying to deal with between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds of food—often requiring them to shut down the pantry as students unload and organize donations.  

In 2024, Ly’s team participated in the Spring Day of Action for the first time, in partnership with the Student Affairs Department. This event has students, faculty, and staff meet on campus to commit to volunteering for the day. Upon arrival, people are provided with a list of opportunities for which they can sign up, all of which are completed on that day. “We had a blast,” says Ly. “It felt good because you build a connection with your team. And once you finish, you feel good because you did something good.” Knowing that volunteers are needed on a more consistent basis, Ly also committed to offering his team one volunteer activity each month. Tasks have included helping with student intake—which involves determining which services students need—as well as making goodie bags, loading and unloading trucks, and filling fridges.  

Ly emphasizes that his commitment to giving back is inspired by Vice-Chancellor of Information Technology & Chief Information Officer Raymond Lefebvre, who has encouraged IT staff to be charitable through volunteerism and other means. For example, for the first time, Ly’s team created a basket of goodies to help raise funds for U-Access as part of a Winter 2023 raffle. Employees donated money with the hopes of winning the gift, but with the knowledge that all of the proceeds would go toward helping students in need. In the end, the “Sending Love & Joy” holiday basket—which included coffee, tea, a water bottle, and an Echo Dot—raised $500 for U-Access. 

Additionally, Ly put together a donation bin where staff could bring in food, unused clothing, toiletries, and other items. According to Neville, IT was the first department to donate as a group, similarly to how they were the first to do departmental volunteering—both of which have since inspired other departments to give back in similar ways. Neville also thinks that IT staff went above and beyond in their generosity. He says, “We went over expecting a few bags and ended up finding a whole cart full of donations.”