With the recent tuition hike this fall semester and the $22.3 million budget gap University of Massachusetts Boston faces, the community of the Greater Boston Area rallies to show concern for this problem. 
This rally was held at the campus plaza on Thursday, Sept. 15, moments after Secretary of Education and UMass Boston trustee James Peyser came as a keynote speaker for the campus’s Convocation addressing his view on public higher education.
A vocal performance was also held at the rally, which was sang and led by the faculty members. Rally go-ers even chanted along to the song. There were also many picket signs captioning “No On 2” and posters reading “When you raise tuition, you fail the urban mission” amongst others.
Barbara Madeloni, the President of Massachusetts Teachers Association was first to speak at the rally. She commented on her response to what Peyser had said at the convocation, stating that she was “chilled” by Peyser’s comments about public education and how he treats the system like a form of factory.
Marlene Kim, an economic professor at UMass Boston and the President of the Faculty Staff Union, also spoke at the rally. She commented on what the budget would mean to the university and addressed whether the university is choosing building over faculty members.
Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson also spoke at the rally. His main issue as a speaker at the rally concerns support against a ballot initiating a lift on state’s cap on number of charter schools in the state.
Students also spoke their thoughts on both tuition hikes and Peyser’s view of public higher education. Sadie Barbosa, a senior in Africana Studies, talked about her concerns regarding the diversity of the campus including seeing students who are “less and less like her.” She also mentioned staff and faculty members being replaced by those less qualified.