May
15
2012
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:
Mar
14
2012
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:
Feb
14
2012
Join students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni for a giant day of advocacy for our public colleges and universities! Buses and vans will be coming from around the state so we can talk to our legislators about the importance of public higher education to students and the state’s economy, and about what we need to improve affordability, quality and access.
Register now at bit.ly/MALobbyDay2012
Nov
03
2011
PHENOM played a major role in organizing the EDUCATION FOR THE 99% action in Boston on November 2. A major focus of the action was on the Student Debt Crisis.
Total outstanding student debt has doubled in the past five years and increases by $1 million every 6 minutes. Banks are making big profits as mushrooming interest charges lead to distorted career choices and increasing poverty. State cuts to higher education lead to increased fees and increased borrowing and make the problem much worse for those on public campuses. Here is how the action was explained to passers-by.
Oct
25
2011
Both the Massachusetts House and Senate have made important statements by allocating a share of projected casino revenues to public higher education. As the casino legislation moves to Conference Committee, PHENOM applauds the coalition that made the case for this, thanks the legislators who made this happen, and – most important – remains vigilant to ensure that the higher ed provision survives intact in the final law. We need your help!
The higher ed amendments passed by the House and the Senate are almost identical in their impact, but because they are worded slightly differently (see below), this section will be discussed again by the Conference Committee.
Oct
09
2011
Student debt in this country exceeds total credit card debt. In a few months, total student loan debt will exceed a trillion dollars. That's $1,000,000,000,000. The height of a stack of one trillion one dollar bills would reach more than one quarter of the way from the earth to the moon. This is not just a crisis for our students and their current and future families; it has the potential to be the next "bubble" that undermines our economy. PHENOM is starting a campaign to highlight this problem and to explore solutions.
We invite you to participate in the first two parts of the campaign.
First, we are screening a great 27-minute film called Default: the Student Loan Documentary. The first showing will be held at UMass Amherst October 18, and other campuses are organizing screenings as well. Contact us if you would like to arrange a screening and discussion.
Then, on November 2, starting at 12:30, PHENOM will hold a street action in Boston's financial district to highlight the crisis, how some are profiting from it, and what we should be doing about it. Exact details to be announced, but save the date! It will be fun, dramatic, and memorable! Contact us if you would like to help stage or organize for this action.
Sep
20
2011
PHENOM has joined with a number of other organizations in filing a formal complaint with the state’s Division of Health Care Finance and Policy concerning student health insurance. At UMass Amherst and UMass Dartmouth, students’ insurance plans have been changed to include “co-insurance” for services or procedures not available at their campus health service. Unlike co-payments, which represent a fixed dollar cost per medical service, coinsurance requires students to pay a percentage of the total cost of care and can represent an unaffordable cost-barrier for low-income students. We believe this is wrong, undermines the principles of affordable health care and affordable public higher education, and is probably illegal.
See more information here. Read the complaint here.
Sep
15
2011
PHENOM and all supporters of public higher education won a major victory when the Massachusetts House passed an amendment allocating a portion of the projected casino revenues to public higher education.
PHENOM has no position for or against legalized gambling in Massachusetts, but fought hard to have higher education included among the programs receiving dedicated funding from the proceeds.
Aug
01
2011
For a Great State of Mind is PHENOM’s multi-year grassroots campaign to have Massachusetts dramatically increase its investment in public higher education and lower the costs for students. With the rising cost of tuition and fees, immigrants, the poor, and increasingly the middle class are being squeezed out of higher education, at exactly the same time that college is becoming increasingly necessary for the well-being of our residents and for the economic future of the state. Learn more about the campaign.
Jul
13
2011
PHENOM is an enthusiastic endorser of a new national Campaign for the Future of Higher Education - CFHE for short. This grassroots national campaign to support quality higher education was initiated in Los Angeles on January 21, 2011 by leaders of faculty organizations from 21 states. Several PHENOM members attended this planning meeting
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