broke ground in 1978 and was completed in 1979.
In 1977, McKee-Berger-Mansueto, Inc. (MBM), the company contracted to supervise the construction of the campus, came under public scrutiny after its contract with the Commonwealth was criticized in a series of newspaper articles for being abnormally favorable towards MBM, and a special legislative committee (led by Amherst College President John William Ward) was formed to investigate the contract. A scandal erupted after it was learned MBM paid Massachusetts Senate Majority Leader Joseph DiCarlo and State Senator Ronald MacKenzie $40,000 in exchange for a favorable report from the committee. DiCarlo and MacKenzie were convicted of extortion. Newspaper columnist Charles Pierce summarized the careless and negligent quality of MBM's construction projects unearthed by the Ward Commission's investigation as follows:
Besides the Worcester jail with the cells that did not lock, there was the auditorium at Boston State College in which the stage was not visible from a …
