Make UMass Affordable

The average debt levels for students at Williams, Amherst College, Wellesley, Harvard, and MIT range between $8,000 and $15,000. At UMass Amherst it is $23,614.  This article in the February 23, 2011 Boston Globe makes a forceful argument for keeping costs down at UMass.

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Guide: Organizing a Call-In Day

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 […]

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Guide: Organizing a Public Hearing

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. 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 […]

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Book: The Future of Higher Education

The Future of Higher Education by Dan Clawson and Max Page This 60-page book examines the contemporary landscape of higher education institutions and asks and answers these questions: Who is able to attend college? Who pays for our system of higher education? Who works at and who governs colleges and universities? The book concludes with a […]

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Book: Saving State U: Why We Must Fix Public Higher Education

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 […]

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A Speech That Says It All

UMass President Jack Wilson, Commissioner of Higher Education Richard Freeland and PHENOM Vice President Max Page were invited to address the formal founding of the Joint House-Senate Public Higher Education Caucus on February 10.  With many legislators and college administrators in attendance, Max clearly laid out what needs to happen for Massachusetts to have the public higher […]

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Remarks by Max Page, PHENOM Vice President, to the Public Higher Education Caucus of the General Court of Massachusetts

February 10, 2011 My name is Max Page. I am a Professor of Architecture and History at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. I was president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors and am a founder and currently vice president of PHENOM, the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts. I am joined here today by […]

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College Affordability is Top Public Worry

(reprinted from Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 3, 2011) More Americans who identify themselves as struggling economically are worried about the affordability of higher education than about any other financial stress, according to a report, “Struggling in America,” released Thursday by Public Agenda. The findings, based on interviews conducted with 1,004 adults Nov. 18-21, 2010, revealed that 77 percent […]

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