text: Athletics Intercollegiate athletics, intramurals, and recreation for the students, staff, and faculty are the primary programs of the UMass Boston Department of Athletics. The department offers 18 varsity sports and is a member of the NCAA's Division III. UMass Boston, known by their nickname: the Beacons, has teams competing in the ECAC, the Little East Conference, and ECAC East Ice Hockey. The Beacons have been named All-Americans 93 times in seven sports.  The women's indoor and outdoor track & field teams have won four NCAA team championships and 38 NCAA individual championships.  In the years 1999 through 2006 the National Consortium for Academics and Sports named the Department of Athletics at UMass Boston first in the country for community service.
  Student activities
  UMass Boston's independent, student run and financed newspaper is The Mass Media. Other student publications include the yearbook, Watermark arts and literary magazine, and The Beacon monthly humor magazine. UMass Boston also owns and operates WUMB-FM (91.9), a 24-hour, public, noncommercial radio station that broadcasts folk music programs and produces the award-winning public and cultural affairs program, Commonwealth Journal.
  National student societies or professional organizations with active local or student chapters at UMass Boston include Alpha Lambda Delta, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College Democrats of America, Delta Sigma Pi, Free the Children, the Golden Key International Honour Society, the National Student Nurses' Association, Phi Delta Epsilon, the Public Interest Research Group, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the Society of Physics Students, and Young Americans for Liberty. The American Chemical Society had a student chapter at UMass Boston, but as of the Fall 2016 semester it is inactive.
  Notable alumni
  Joseph Abboud, B.A. 1972, International Men's Fashion Designer.
  Amsale Aberra, B.A. 1981, Celebrity Wedding designer.
  Cory Atkins, (B.S. 1979), Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1999–2019).