800 students at UMass Amherst recently wrote personal letters to their legislators. The letters told compelling personal stories and asked for increased funding for our campus budgets and for financial aid. After many hours of late night sorting, the letters were hand delivered by students and PHENOM members, and the entire stack of 800 has been sent to UMass President Caret. Here are a just a few excerpts:
May
15
2012
Writing to our Legislators
May
14
2012
3 Important Recent Articles
A Generation is Hobbled by Student Debt (New York Times, May 13, 2012)
Ninety-four percent of students who earn a bachelor’s degree borrow to pay for higher education – up from 45 percent in 1993, according to an analysis by The New York Times of the latest data from the Department of Education. ..”If one is not thinking about where this is headed over the next two or three years, you are just completely missing the warning signs,” said Rajeev V. Date, deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal watchdog created after the financial crisis.”
May
11
2012
New Research Shows Economic Value of Investing in Public Higher Education
PHENOM joined the Massachusetts Society of Professors in the State House release of an important new research study: Economic Impact of Investment in Public Higher Education in Massachusetts:: Short-Run Employment Stimulus, Long-Run Public Returns, by Michael Ash, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at UMass Amherst and Shantel Palacio of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at UMass Amherst.
[Photo shows Rep. Sannicandro, House Chair of the Higher Education Committee discussing the report with Professor Ash.]
May
01
2012
Learning from our Neighbors to the North
As many as 300,000 students have been on strike against tuition increases in Quebec over the past 3 months, with 180,000 still out on an unlimited strike. Demonstrations of more than 250,000 people have taken place in Montreal. A massive movement against austerity and for education as a right and not a privilege is unfolding just a few hundred miles from here -- unknown to most Americans since it has been ignored by the mainstream media. In a small effort to break through this wall of silence, PHENOM helped bring two of the strikers to Massachusetts April 25-27.
Apr
30
2012
House Budget
The House passed its version of the 2012-13 budget after adopting an amendment that added $1.1 million to the financial aid account. This means that financial aid will be funded the same next year as this year. The amount appropriated for campus operating budgets was not changed and remains the same as this year. The budget does include a collective bargaining reserve to fund the contracts negotiated by staff and faculty unions.
Apr
18
2012
Documenting the Disinvestment in Public Higher Education
An important new report from Dēmos contains a wealth of data about what they call "The Great Cost Shift:" - the disinvestment in public higher education and the shift in costs to students and their families.
Apr
12
2012
House Bats .333 with Higher Education Budget
Between FY2001 and FY2010, state support per full-time student fell 37% in Massachusetts. Since then, enrollment has continued to increase, state appropriations have fallen, and the student debt crisis has exploded. With the budget unveiled by the House Ways and Means Committee on April 11, these trends would continue.
Mar
29
2012
Occupy HCC!
Occupy HCC is a new group doing important work at Holyoke Community College, and in coalition with other community colleges and members of the greater Holyoke community. Please read about their activities in their newsletter, and feel free to contact them at occupyhcc@gmail.com, especially if you are at another community college.
Mar
15
2012
How to Improve Community Colleges
This op ed, written by PHENOM Vice President Max Page after extensive discussions within PHENOM and with our allies, appeared in the Boston Globe March 14, 2012.
Mar
14
2012
What Do We Want?
Well, of course we want high quality, well-staffed, affordable public higher education accessible to all and free in the long run. But right now, here's what we are asking the Legislature to include in the FY 2013budget, and why. PHENOM urges campus groups to organize students and others to call or write their legislators to ask for:
What is PHENOM?
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