Letter: Breen Has Right Experience for North Adams Council

To the Editor:

Well, I just voted, and I gave my first vote for City Council to Pete Breen. Why, you ask?

No other new candidate has the experience and devotion and has been as generous with their time. Over the past 40 years, Pete has served on many boards and commissions. He has worked for a variety of employers including MCLA, where Pete was a facilitator and instructor for technology and curriculum development and assistant registrar. Pete took that experience over into the town of Adams, where he implemented the town's entire computer system, serving as the town's technology administrator. Pete then went farther south, where he was a member of the adjunct faculty at BCC for four years.

Shifting gears into education, Pete taught computer science at Hoosac Valley for 12 years, while also serving in the district office and as the pupil transportation officer.

David Willette
North Adams, Mass.

MCLA Selects Pennsylvania Educator as 13th President

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:47PM / Thursday, April 23, 2026

 Diana Rogers-Adkinson

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The board of trustees on Thursday voted 8-2 to offer the 13th presidency of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to a Pennsylvania higher education executive.

Diana L. Rogers-Adkinson is senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs and chief academic officer for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, providing system-level leadership for 10 universities serving approximately 80,000 students.

 

"I thought she was really able to articulate the value of a liberal arts education and our mission to both society and, you know, to our students in their lives," said Trustees Buffy Lord before presenting the motion to offer her the post. "I think that she'll be a fantastic advocate for MCLA within Berkshire County, but also in Boston. You know, my sense is that she's going to be able to fight for us if it needs to happen."

 

Rogers-Adkinson accepted the post by phone immediately after the vote, pending negotiations and approval by the Board of Higher Education. 

 

She was one of four finalists for the post out of 102 completed applications. All four spent time on campus over the past month, speaking with students, faculty, trustees and community members. 

 

Trustees expounded on her experience, leadership and communication style. She was also one of two candidates, with preferred by the faculty, the college's unions and Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega.

 

The second candidate preferred, Michael J. Middleton, provost and vice president at Ramapo College of New Jersey, withdrew after consultation wiht his family, according to Lord.