Data

• Key Data about Massachusetts Public Higher Education
• Information about the Student Debt Crisis

White Papers

• Working Paper on Free Community College
• White Paper: The Affordability Crisis in MA Public Higher Ed
• White Paper: Advancing Public Higher Education in MA

Organizing Guides

• Guide: Organizing a call in day
• Guide: Organizing a public hearing
• Guide: Campus Organizing

Books

• Book: The Future of Higher Education
• Book: Saving State U

Miscellaneous

• Song: Student Debt

Here is where you can find relevant statistics about Massachusetts public higher education, including shocking comparisons of how Massachusetts compares to other states with regard to tuition and fees, financial aid, and state appropriations.  Updated November 28, 2011.

Some Ideas for Organizing a PHENOM Call-In Day

Organize a Planning Meeting

Hold a planning meeting of interested people—students, staff, and faculty.  A preliminary meeting can be a place to figure out logistics – especially if a space needs to be reserved or funds need to be raised for food —  and spread tasks and responsibility among a number of people. Read the rest of this entry »

This guide can be adapted for any sort of public hearing related to public higher ed.

How to hold public hearings on Affordability of Public Higher Education

• Define the issue.

1. What is the hearing about?  Affordability of Public Higher Education.  The issue has to be narrow enough that it’s a concrete problem that people can understand, and one that seems possible to solve – but broad enough that it matters to more than just one group and many people can speak to it from different perspectives.
2. Collect data to demonstrate the problem, and collect written materials on the issue – newspaper articles, position papers, fact sheets, etc.  Our Affordability Paper has a lot, but someone should also start collecting other materials.  You will need this for a press packet and to educate the hearing board beforehand. Read the rest of this entry »

Saving State U: Why We Must Fix Public Higher Education by Nancy Folbre
Nancy Folbre brings the national debates of education experts down to the level of trying to teach—and trying to learn—at major state universities whose budgets have repeatedly been slashed, restored, and then slashed again. She ranges far afield with astute observations about financial aid, affirmative action, standardized tests, the business model of education, and taxation — always guided by equal measures of her economic expertise, historical perspective and great sense of humor.  She also offers a sobering vision of the many possible futures of public higher education and their links to the fate of our democracy while looking at the practical ways in which change is now possible.

See review of the book in PHENOM’s Spring 2010 newsletter.

If you decide to buy this book, please click on “Buy Books while Supporting PHENOM at No Extra Cost” to the left. You can choose from among 6 vendors, all of whom have agreed to give a percentage of the proceeds to PHENOM.

Working Paper: Making Free Community College a Reality

Community college should be free for all, and the rollout process should begin immediately. Governor Deval Patrick has endorsed free community college as a goal, and his Readiness Commission reaffirmed that commitment. Yet neither has proposed concrete steps to achieve the objective.

This report explains why community college should be free, assesses the costs of implementing such a plan, and proposes steps to make that happen, not in some distant future, but beginning next year. Our initial goal is to introduce free community college but later we seek to make the first two years of public higher education free at state colleges and the University of Massachusetts. Soon thereafter the intent is to make all Massachusetts public higher education free – just as high school is free.

In today’s world, for anyone hoping to prosper, college is not a luxury but a necessity.  Unfortunately, students are increasingly being priced out of higher education, including public  higher education. Many can attend our public colleges only because they or their parents are  making great personal sacrifices: As the New York Times Magazine recently noted, “today’s student debt may have explosive consequences for society.”

We agree with Governor Patrick that all high school graduates should have access to a quality,  affordable public university or college. But right now, despite its reliance on a “knowledge economy,” Massachusetts lags behind many other states in achieving this goal.

Download the White Paper: The Affordability Crisis in Massachusetts Public Higher Education