The MTA Higher Education Leadership Council supports Governor Healey’s $2.5 billion investment plan to modernize facilities across the Mass. public higher education system but adds that these improvements cannot invite additional privatization of public college and university services.
Public higher education workers urge state investment to protect colleges and universities from federal attacks
Public higher education workers urge state investment to protect colleges and universities from federal attacks
With public higher education under attack in various forms by the Trump administration, the unions representing staff, faculty and librarians at community colleges, state universities and the UMass system are urging Governor Maura Healey and the state Legislature to build upon the goals of the recently announced BRIGHT Act and make further strategic investments that protect the accessibility and quality of public higher education in Massachusetts.
The MTA Higher Education Leadership Council, which includes representatives from unions affiliated with the Massachusetts Teachers Association, supports Governor Healey’s $2.5 billion investment plan to modernize facilities across the Massachusetts public higher education system but adds that these improvements cannot invite additional privatization of public college and university services. Additionally, this investment cannot supersede the need to increase wages at public colleges and universities, which are struggling to retain and attract staff and faculty.
A recent report by the Massachusetts Public Higher Education Anti-Privatization Project outlines the extent to which public colleges and universities are outsourcing services and work to private contractors, often with no savings to students and forcing the loss of campus jobs.
Privatization schemes will amplify the damage to public higher education’s mission if the Trump administration succeeds in eliminating funding for research, academic programs and student financial aid.To prepare for the loss of federal funding, MTA has requested that state budget writers use $200 million from the Fair Share revenue surplus fund to establish a reserve fund that can be used for faculty and staff wages, ensuring students have the support they need to succeed.
“We applaud Governor Healey for proposing this plan,” said Joanna Gonsalves, president of the Massachusetts State College Association, the union representing faculty and librarians at state universities. “We desperately need an influx of money for both new construction and to address decades-old, deferred maintenance and to decarbonize our campuses’ infrastructure.”
"We are concerned that the funding levels established in the bill for this purpose do not go far enough to prevent future campus debt and retire the existing campus obligations at the Commonwealth’s campuses."
Richard Levy, professor emeritus of political science, Salem State University
Healey’s capital funding proposal for higher ed draws about $125 million annually from Fair Share revenues to leverage $2.5 billion in borrowing capacity. However, in a report submitted with the proposal, the plan seems to recommend matching funds be provided from the colleges and universities for these upgrades. This requirement would transfer the costs to students in the form of additional fees and gouge campus operational funds needed for fair wages and adequate staffing levels.
“We are concerned that the funding levels established in the bill for this purpose do not go far enough to prevent future campus debt and retire the existing campus obligations at the Commonwealth’s campuses,” said Richard Levy, professor emeritus of political science at Salem State University.
Levy and Gonsalves, who authored the anti-privatization study, have also helped organize a collaborative of faculty, staff and students that exposed the massive burden this debt places on students and campuses throughout the community college, state university and UMass systems.
The 2022 Campus Debt Reveal report showed that campus construction debt was adding about $3,000 in fees annually to students at the state universities. Similarly, due to the debt financing of parking facilities, UMass Boston commuter students pay $15 a day to park on campus, while residential students pay $1,200 per semester for their parking passes. Added costs like these affect the price of attending most, if not all, of the colleges and universities in the Commonwealth.
Anneta Argyres, president of the Professional Staff Union at UMass Boston, reports: “The burden of capital debt service is not only passed on to students but is now a line item in the budgets of all of UMass Boston departments, limiting what departments can offer in programming and services.”
The report accompanying the BRIGHT Act also seeks to define the different building needs of the three segments of public higher education in Massachusetts, as a way of directing the conversation as to how the funds raised by the initiative should be invested. These definitions raise some concerns with the workers on those campuses, because of the report’s narrow focus.
“This part of the plan is problematic, because it severely misrepresents the role of community colleges,” according to Joe Nardoni, vice president of the Massachusetts Community College Council, the union that represents the faculty and professional staff at the state’s community colleges.
“The report ignores the broad educational mission that our community colleges have embraced and diminishes our role in the Commonwealth’s higher education system,” he continued.
The full mission of the community colleges from their inception has always included awarding associate’s degrees and providing an inexpensive option for the first two years of college education to those students who could not otherwise afford to attend, well beyond the areas of focus mentioned in the report. All of those programs have their own infrastructure needs, which have gone unfunded for decades and need attention as well.
“We certainly commend the governor’s proposed plan to upgrade our buildings,” said Luis Rosero, professor of economics at Framingham State University. “However, it is also essential to recognize that this is only one part of the critical infrastructure investment we need to make as a state in public higher education. While better facilities are important, we also need commensurate investments in the human infrastructure of our public colleges and universities — that is, the faculty, librarians and staff without whom our colleges and universities would not exist — to ensure our students have the support they need to thrive and succeed.”
Gonsalves observed: “We see this commitment as a starting point for infrastructure investment, just as MassReconnect and MassEducate are starting points. If we are to achieve truly debt-free, high-quality public higher education in Massachusetts, we need to build sufficient, sustainable funding structures for the long-term stewardship of both the Commonwealth’s college and university campuses and their workforce.”
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