We cannot thank everyone enough for making Public Higher Education Advocacy Day 2016 truly PHENOMenal. Hundreds of students, staff, faculty, administrators, and legislators packed the Great Hall of Flags. We even ran out of seats!
We kicked off the day with a stellar speaking program, featuring Higher Education Commissioner Carlos Santiago, Massachusetts Teachers Association President Barbara Madeloni, Springfield Technical Community College Student Juhi Dasrath, MASSART Student Stephanie Houten, and UMass Dartmouth Student Marven-rhode Hyppolite. Everyone rallied behind the message of the day: public higher education in Massachusetts should be fully funded, affordable, accessible, and well-staffed.
And the advocates went off to meet with their legislators and shared their own personal experiences as members of the public higher education community. But we did not forget Governor Baker, and a group delivered signed copies of the Young Invincibles Report Card on State Funding for public higher education — which gave Massachusetts an F.
Even if you weren’t able to join us, you can still advocate for better funded, affordable, accessible, and well-staffed public higher education. Call your legislator today, or use this online form to send Governor Baker and your State Senator, and State Representative an email!
Check out the rest of the photos here!
And we also received some PHENOMenal coverage:
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian — Students lobby for higher education funding at State House Monday
The Herald News — Former UMass Dartmouth student government president leads State House rally for ed funding
State House News Service — Students and Faculty Push for Major Higher Ed Investment to Freeze Costs
Sentinel & Enterprise — Rally pushes for more higher-ed money
http://dailycollegian.com/2016/03/08/students-lobby-for-higher-education-funding-at-state-house-monday/