Nearly 200 demand more aid for colleges
Nearly 200 students, faculty, and staff from across Massachusetts' higher education system rallied outside the State House yesterday to press leaders for more support for public colleges and universities.
With megaphones and cheers, members of the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts urged officials to make funding a higher priority.
Later, they delivered thousands of postcards to lawmakers asking them to support Governor Deval Patrick's $2 billion capital bond bill to finance infrastructure improvements at the 29 public institutions, to fund the basic operating budgets of the schools, and to add $17 million to the MASSGrant program, the state's basic financial aid program.
Max Page, a founding member of the group - known as Phenom - said the day's events were centered on pressuring representatives to fix and fund the higher education system.
If the Legislature passes the proposed bond bill, he said, major repairs can begin on eroding public university buildings.
But the group's major push was on bolstering the state's financial aid system.
Concern has been growing that turmoil in the financial markets is making it more difficult for students to get money for college.
"We have one of the most expensive higher-education systems in the country, and yet the MASSGrant program has been cut dramatically," said Page, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Funding for MASSGrant fell from around $57 million to $24 million from 1989 to 2004, according to a report by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.
Tessa Simonds, a senior at UMass-Amherst, told the crowd on the Boston Common that when financial aid drops, students are forced to take out more loans.
"Even though I get need-based loans and money from scholarships, I will still graduate more than $14,000 in debt," Simonds said. "That is unacceptable."
She was one of about 80 students from the state's flagship campus to make the two-hour trip.
Thomas W. Cole Jr., interim chancellor, and Charlena Seymour, provost, gave their support to "Lobby Day" in a recent e-mail to students, and asked faculty to accommodate those wishing to attend by postponing assignment due dates and other measures.
The school provided funding for transportation to Boston.
