UMass Boston

If you’ve ever stepped foot on the UMass Boston campus, chances are Diane D’Arrigo ’92, G’04 shaped your experience—often in ways you never even realized.

Your commute. The welcome you received walking into the Campus Center. The events you attended. Even what you grabbed for lunch. In ways visible and invisible, D’Arrigo had a hand in it.

Now, after three decades on Columbia Point, she is stepping away from her role as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Campus Services, where she oversaw much of the university’s day-to-day operations.

During her time at UMass Boston, D’Arrigo has been a true believer in the university’s mission and fierce ability to change lives. She understands that impact because she lived it.

Her story is quintessentially UMass Boston. From a working-class background, raised in humble beginnings and unsure of what direction life might take, she arrived on campus as many UMass Boston students do: a first-generation, adult learner searching for her path. Before enrolling, college didn’t even seem like an option.

“I didn’t even know what a bachelor’s degree was,” she recalled with a laugh.

But like so many who find their way to UMass Boston, D’Arrigo found purpose. She discovered her love of learning, which quickly became a love of teaching. That passion carried her through several roles until she came to lead campus services. 

In that role, she oversaw the dining program, shuttle and parking operations, thousands of on-campus events, and the management of the Campus Center—the hub of the university. And since joining the master plan effort in 2006, she has had a hand in every major construction project for nearly 20 years.

No problem was beneath her attention. If a stove in the dining hall wouldn’t light at dawn, D’Arrigo got the call. If the Campus Center Ballroom was too warm, she found the right person to cool it down. If a catering order went awry, she was the one who made it right. 

Her problem-solving abilities are legendary—but the true magic of D’Arrigo is the effortless humility and optimism she brought to her work. She greets first-year students with the same warmth she offers the Chancellor (she’s worked with nine of them). When she walks through a bustling kitchen serving hundreds of people at an event, she joyfully greets every person on staff. 

D’Arrigo’s optimism ripples throughout stories in every corner of the campus she helped shape. At one Welcome Day, she greeted a new student with a smile and a kind word. Months later, when that student was overwhelmed and on the brink of withdrawing, she reached out to D’Arrigo—remembering only that moment of kindness.

D’Arrigo didn’t hesitate. She connected the student with mental health resources, helped her regain her footing, and watched her go on to graduate and pursue a career in college health and wellness.

That student now works on the university’s wellness team—helping today’s students stay on track, just as D’Arrigo once helped her.

As she steps away from her leadership role, she leaves behind a transformed dining program, a vastly improved shuttle system, and her influence on every major building erected in the last decade. More importantly, she leaves indelible marks on the lives of the countless people she has taught, mentored, guided, and inspired.

While D’Arrigo is retiring from her full-time role, she plans to continue teaching—helping to shape lives rooted in purpose, opportunity, and service, just as the university shaped hers. 

Looking ahead, she hopes the institution she loves will continue to hold fast to what anchored her journey from the day she first arrived: its teaching soul.