House Bill 2400 has been a subject of hot debate since its introduction this summer. The bill, which will soon go before the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Education, targets the Massachusetts Public Interest Group (MassPIRG) by cutting the funding it raises from college students. However, it will also affect the funding of many other student organizations throughout the state, including The Mass Media.
This newspaper could not continue to function were House Bill 2400 to pass. This university would lose its student press and the only thing approaching the voice of its student body. The Mass Media is not the target of this bill, but it will certainly be a victim. For this reason, the effects of HB 2400 amount to censorship, which cannot be excused even if it is done unintentionally. We at The Mass Media are adamantly opposed to this bill.
HB 2400 will amend Section 29 of chapter 15A of the state’s 2000 Official Edition of the General Laws by eliminating the text that defines one of two methods currently provided by the General Laws to fund a non-partisan organization, the “waivable fee,” leaving only the definition of an “optional fee.” The “optional fee” is a non-mandatory fee payable on a student tuition bill. If a student wants to pay the fee, they must mark on the bill that they want the fee added to their total tuition. The “waivable fee” is also any non-mandatory fee payable on a student tuition bill, but if a student does not want to pay the fee, then they must indicate that they want the fee removed from the bill. Both fees only appear on the tuition bill “at the request of the student body,” as the law states, which means the student body at each campus voted to put the fees in place and every two years they vote to keep them on the bill.
To date at UMass Boston about 45% of students pay their Mass Media waivable fee each year, and this number will decrease drastically if HB 2400 passes. Some portion of the fees collected each year come from students who forgot to opt out, but if those same students forget to opt in, The Mass Media and others will lose funding.
Representative James Fagan (D-Taunton), who introduced HB 2400, made it clear that he thinks waivable fees benefit MassPIRG unfairly and he wants to hurt them by removing the student fees that fund them. So while Fagan takes aim at MassPIRG, the daycare center at UMass Amherst, the wellness center and residence hall activities fees at Westfield State College, and The Mass Media get caught in the crossfire. Should a daycare center be collateral damage?
These organizations may manage to find other ways of funding themselves and survive the long-term effects of this bill, but first they must overcome a considerably bigger problem. If HB 2400 passes it will go into effect immediately. This spring, thousands of students across the state could be receiving bills that no longer contain waivable fees, leaving all the groups who were previously supported this way with no funding whatsoever.
The students requested waivable fees appear on the bill for these organizations, and if waivable fees cease to exist, only after the next referendum can the respective student-funded organizations begin to receive their funding again. This vote won’t happen until the end of the spring semester, so these will lose their spring semester funding entirely.
Soon the House Joint Committee on Education, Arts and Humanities will decide whether or not to pass HB 2400 on to the Legislature for a vote. Students can appeal to the committee members to kill the bill before it reaches the House floor. UMB students decided almost two years ago to directly fund this paper through the waivable fee on their tuition bill, and if HB 2400 is passed The Mass Media will lose that funding. We ask students to reaffirm this decision by opposing this bill, the censorship it creates and the organizations it will destroy. Fellow students who oppose HB 2400 can call or write to the committee itself and voice their opinion directly: Call (617) 722-2070, or write Room 473G State House Boston, MA 02133.