Excerpted from the 2015 Spring Newsletter On March 18, 2015, PHENOM joined the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice to host an educational and action-oriented evening. The program, “Taking on the Corporatization of Higher Education” (TOCHE), was held at UMass Boston. The event’s goals were two-fold: (1) to give some […]
Excerpted from the 2015 Spring Newsletter $2.5 billion a year goes to loan repayment instead of commerce By Anastasia Wilson Anyone concerned about student debt in our state can look up the statistic: in 2012 about 66% of students graduated with an average of $28,565 in student loan debt (in constant dollars). And the number […]
Yesterday, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center released a new report: Debt-Free Public Higher Education: What Would It Take? The Report calculates the cost of (1) eliminating tuition and fees for all current in-state students at Community Colleges and State Universities, (2) providing grants to cover Community College costs, including tuition, fees, books, and transportation, […]
Excerpted from 2015 Spring Newsletter Richard Freeland is stepping down as Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education after 6 years. PHENOM saw him as an ally in the quest for increased recognition and funding for public higher education, while disagreeing with aspects of his “Vision Project” which emphasize excessive measurement and performance funding. The Boston Globe […]
Excerpted from 2015 Spring Newsletter STCC PHENOM Chapter by Juhi Dasrath Springfield Technical Community College’s campus chapter had the great opportunity to be a part of Advocacy Day, where we addressed our concerns about making higher education more affordable and accessible for college students. We started making waves by taking small strokes on our […]
Excerpted from the 2015 Spring Newsletter PHENOM works with a “Who’s Who” of important players in state government to keep public higher education in view. The JOINT COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION is an official committee of the State Legislature, with members from both the House and the Senate. Currently chaired by Rep. Tom Sannicandro (D-Ashland) […]
We attended the Education Equity Hearing with our brothers and sisters at the Student Immigrant Movement at the State House today. There were more than 150 advocates in the hearing and we even participated in a small rally outside of the State House before the hearing. Check out one of our Board Members, Gillian Mason […]
PHENOM Campus Chapters are an essential part of PHENOM’s work, strengthening relationships between students, staff, faculty, and the larger community on individual campuses, while creating a statewide network of advocates. To start a Chapter on your campus, email us at phenom@phenomonline.org. We would like to thank the Massachusetts Teachers Association for a major grant enabling […]
By Natalie Higgins, PHENOM’s Executive Director Excerpted from 2015 Spring Newsletter President Obama’s free community college proposal put affordability and accessibility of public higher education on the national agenda in a big way. PHENOM has been organizing around affordable and accessible high quality public higher education since its beginning. And we know that removing tuition and fees also removes […]
As the new state legislative session is kicking off, there are many proposals PHENOM is excited to support because they will promote accessible and affordable, quality public higher education in the Commonwealth. PHENOM’s Finish Line Grant proposal would cover tuition and fees for one year for students who have completed a year already, and whose […]