As some chancellors of the UMass system scrambled last week to a perch atop a fence regarding an invitation to a meeting with Governor Mitt Romney, minus UMass President William Bulger, student journalists from some of the state’s 29 universities met with several Romney administration officials on education.

Secretary of Education Peter Nessen, along with Judith Gill, chancellor of the Board of Higher Education, met with students from UMass Boston, Framingham State, Massasoit Community College, North Essex Community College, and as far away as UMass Amherst, among others, in an effort to “dispel myths” about Governor Romney’s plan to reorganize higher education.

Nessen also criticized UMass officials for raising student fees, charging that every time appropriations from Beacon Hill go down, student fees go up, and “backroom costs are carried on the backs of students.” He asked why the $40 million in cuts, which President Bulger and the Board of Trustees announced at the March 12 meeting, hadn’t been “delivered” before. Suggesting that there be no more fee increases until the system was looked at, Nessen later mentioned a possible resolution to be put before the state legislature to “stop fee increases until some board is satisfied they’ve looked internally.” The system is not cutting backroom services and “not lending itself to reality,” he said.

Tuition and fees would be combined under the name “student charges” under the Romney plan, and set by the Board of Higher Education. UMass in-staters would face an increase of $838 in “student charges,” as opposed to the $1,000 fee hike approved by the Board of Trustees before spring break. Out-of-staters get hit with a proposed $3,217 increase. The Board of Trustees has approved a total increase of $2,000.

Fifty million of the total $94 million charges would be kept by the campuses, while the rest of it would go to financial aid. Financial aid would get an increase of $44 million, or 40 percent (on top of the $91 million which exists today), and would have two qualifications: you have to be a Massachusetts resident, and it must be need-based. “If you can pay more, you will,” said Nessen.

Higher education would be one line item on the budget, with the money given to the Board of Higher Education, who in turn would distribute it to the campuses on the basis of enrollment and performance. Two-thirds of the money would be distributed based on enrollment, with the remainder going for performance. The system could be problematic for UMass Boston, which has had trouble retaining students, a predicament mainly attributed to lack of student housing. Plans are in the works to build dorms to house 15% of the population at UMB.

“Dorms are going to change the mission of UMass Boston, which is a commuter school,” Nessen said, stating he wasn’t hearing any dialogue. Weeks earlier, Romney’s office put a stop to $371 million in bonds, $271 million of which would have gone to pay for the dorms. UMB Chancellor Jo Ann Gora has repeatedly denied that dorms change the urban mission of the school, recently telling The Dorchester Reporter, “I don’t see it as a major change in our mission. We will always be a commuter institution. That is a commitment we have and that we will never move away from.” Various groups, often led by the UMB Budget Cuts Group, have sprung up around campus and the neighborhood to meet and discuss the issue of dorms.

There will be no closing of any campuses, and privatization of Amherst is decisively ruled out, according to Nessen, the education “czar.” “Nobody’s talking about privatization today,” he said, saying instead that UMass Amherst would be freed from the “binds” of the UMass system.

Nessen cites the state needing a workforce for public higher education as a driving force behind the idea for regionalization, a central part of the Romney reorganization plan. Under the plan, all 29 campuses would be divided into seven “natural” regions, since the needs of the Berkshires, for example, would be different from Boston’s.

The plan is based on a report by the Bain consulting firm, commissioned by Governor Romney shortly after he was elected but before he was sworn in. The massive four-part report, in PowerPoint form, outlines target savings and streamlining in the areas of academic support, student services, institutional support, and plant operations and maintenance.

Chancellor Gora has characterized the report as “misleading,” since it does not take into account things such as UMass Boston keeping classes small and having hired so many teachers to teach part-time students.

Bill Wright, a spokesperson for President Bulger’s office stated it was difficult to comment at this stage of the process, saying that “this will go on for a while as it gets hashed out in committees.”