PHENOM members are a dedicated bunch! On June 15, a group of 20 students, staff, alums and faculty spent 5 hours on a beautiful Saturday at Quinsigamond Community College planning for the coming year. After watching an inspiring 9 minute video about last year’s student strike in Quebec, much of the discussion focused …
Jun 06
Innovative Legislation in Oregon
HB 3472, recommended unanimously by the Oregon House Higher Education Committee, would radically alter how students would pay for college. Called “Pay It Forward”, it would eliminate tuition and fees. Instead, anyone who attended would be required to pay a set percent of their income as a tax. This would fund free college for …
Jun 03
PHENOM Goes to Quebec
11 Massachusetts activists went on a PHENOM-sponsored trip to Montreal for several days in May. The purpose was to learn from student activists who had participated in last year’s student strike that began over tuition increases and led to the fall of the provincial government. Meeting representatives of two of the leading …
May 20
PHENOM Calls on Senate to Match House Funding
The Senate Ways and Means Committee has proposed a budget for public higher education that falls far short of that passed by the House of Representatives. Most importantly, it does not fund our campuses at the levels needed to allow a freeze in student fees. Such a freeze was proposed by UMass President Caret and …
Apr 24
Per Student Support for Public Higher Education
This graph shows how state support for public higher education students has declined dramatically, But if the budget proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee is passed, we’ll start to reverse this trend. Per Student Support for Massachusetts Public Higher Education FY2000 – FY2012
Apr 24
Free Public Higher Education – How It’s Done Elsewhere
An important article in “Inside Higher Ed” discusses how and why Germany is abandoning its experiment with charging tuition fees to college students. The state and federal governments are making up for lost revenue by increasing funding. The German Education Union argues that higher education is a human right — a belief enshrined …
Apr 10
Big Budget Boost May Lead to Fee Freeze
The House Ways and Means budget, released on April 10, would increase funding for public higher education by $110 million, the same amount proposed by Governor Patrick. This would be the largest increase to campus operating budgets in many years. The increase to UMass would be enough, over two years, to get …
Mar 08
The Big Shift: Who Pays for Public Higher Education
This chart shows very clearly how the cost of educating students in Massachusetts public colleges and universities has been shifted from the state to the students and their families. This has happened at the same time that there has been growing recognition that higher education is a public good …
Mar 06
Advocacy Day a Huge Success
600+ students, faculty and staff from around the state came to the State House March 5 to advocate for a dramatic increase in funding for public higher education, AND progressive tax increases to pay for it. Governor Patrick addressed the group, saying “we cannot reform our way to an affordable higher education …
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May 13
All You Need to Know about Student Loans
This New York Times article by Joseph Stiglitz is a particularly clear explanation of the student debt crisis, along with suggestions of how to fix it. Stiglitz, former chief economist for the World Bank, is one of the most frequently cited economists in the world. The article references the recent legislation filed by …
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