Yet another probable fee hike looms over the fall semester. Students are dusting off their picket signs in an attempt to get the state to increase its funding for public higher education.
Dan Finn, a senior at UMB, spoke to a large group of student leaders last week to plan an aggressive Fund UMass crusade. He’s planning statewide protests and call-in campaigns to ask Governor Deval Patrick and the state legislature to fully fund state schools for the first time in decades.
“Consistently students are exploited,” said Finn, a member of the Socialist Alternative on Campus. “I don’t think it’s realistic for most students here to go into debt.”
Preparations have begun for some of the biggest student protests in years. Some students, staff and faculty members say they are not ready to throw up their hands in defeat and collectively groan just yet.
Faculty members are also getting involved in the fight, exhorting students to lobby the Massachusetts legislature.
“They’ll listen to you,” said Philosophy Professor Larry Blum. “If we don’t say something . . . all they hear are those special interests with the money to pay for lobbyists . . . .We need to speak up.”
State support for UMass has significantly decreased over the years, and many students are tired of the trend.
Ellen O’Connor, UMB’s Vice Chancellor of Administration of Finance, pointed out, “The State used to pay for every full time employee here.”
“They paid for everything, not just the salary but the benefits and everything,” said O’Connor.
UMass has to fill in the gaps thorough a combination of student fees and alumni donations. For the past two years, the Federal Stimulus has eased students into a $1500 fee increase.
“This year for the first time, the legislature said that the collective bargaining increases [in pay & benefits] for employees,” won’t be covered, O’Conner said. “Instead of the state giving us the money for whatever the increase would be, the university has to absorb that cost.”
Salary increases make up another 4 million dollars of unfunded expenses. “We have a 30 million dollar problem,” she explained. The university continues to expand, and the cost of new tenured faculty is figured into that budget gap as well.
Even with an $800 – $1200 fee increase, cuts are inevitable.
“This is a very hard thing to do,” O’Conner said. “The cuts won’t be very visible, hopefully, but yes there will be cuts.”
Students like Dan Finn believe that activism will encourage the state to spend more on education.
“Fostering a culture of awareness is vital,” Finn said. “People need to feel that they can make a difference.”
Anxiety over the tumultuous job market, an outdated tax system and unnecessary state spending, combined with the realization that student loans loom after college, has students at UMB squirming. With more first generation college students in attendance than any other school in Boston, UMB has the unique goal of making sure that every student can afford a competitive education.
The administration says that commitment won’t go away, but Student Body President-elect Travis Henderson says that keeping that ideal a reality is going to take some work from students as well.
“People have this idea that things are done without them without their say,” said Henderson. “We can do something. We can make a difference if we unify and make our voices heard in the legislature.”
Fund UMass plans its first major demonstration on June 8th in front of the state house. For further information about student demonstrations, contact your Undergraduate Student Government, [email protected].