Acting Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift has had to make some difficult choices when it comes to the allocation of diminishing resources. Every special interest group believes that their fiscal needs are vital.

A group that is of special interest to those of us matriculating at UMass Boston is the faculty. While the faculty has been “promised” two five-percent pay raises, they have seen neither.

Based on Swift’s recent line-item veto, the faculty won’t be seeing those raises anytime soon. Pending an override of the line-item veto by the state legislature, which doesn’t seem likely, the money for the raises no longer exists.

We believe that Swift made a poor choice when she decided to veto $29.6-million earmarked for salary increases for educators at Massachusetts colleges and universities.

Swift signed a contract with the faculty unions last summer promising a 5-percent salary increases effective July 1 of 2001, 2002, and 2003. In essence, she made a deal and then reneged on that deal. A leader of one faculty union told the Chronicle of Higher Education that Swift’s decision was “a betrayal.”

While Swift is within her constitutional authority [according to Chapter 105 of the state constitution] to take such an action, her decision certainly doesn’t contribute to building trust between the government and those who work in higher education. To put it simply, the professors got screwed. Would the Acting governor have done the same thing to policemen, firemen or Big Dig workers and gotten away with it? We think not.

Not only has the Governor reneged on a signed contract, but she has once again demonstrated her short-sightedness and disregard for the citizens of Massachusetts, especially the working class. Since money is tight, Swift figures there is no reason to prepare for the future. Swift has shortchanged both citizens and businesses that will remain in Massachusetts a decade from now-the citizens will be under-trained and screaming for jobs; and businesses will be under-staffed and screaming for skilled workers.

And the professors won’t even be around to open up a text and show the students how, back in 2002, then Acting Governor screwed the Commonwealth.

With many professors currently opting for early retirement, and critics forecasting that it may be a long time in replacing the lost faculty, will those entering the field of higher education work at a public institution? Or will they opt to work at a private college-where a contract is a contract.