PHENOM, MSU hold Lobbying Day at the State House
Ben Whelan
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: News
With the costs of text books, tuition and the general cost of public education sky-rocketing, many students in Massachusetts state college system are feeling the hurt and have had enough. On Valentine's day, a coalition of public higher education advocacy groups attended a lobbying day at the State House in order to have some of their concerns heard. While there have always been advocacy and lobbying groups at the various campuses state-wide to deal with the issues of affordable, accessible public higher education, it is only recently that they have all united under the same banner.
The Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM), started late in 2006, originally formed to put on a singular event in the form of a summit on public higher education at the Amherst campus. The event was so wildly successful and well attended, including attendance by then governor-elect Deval Patrick, that the various organization involved decided to form a permanent and lasting partnership in order to find common interests and push for all of them with one voice. Since then, they have had a few different summits, developed an organizational structure, and most recently put together an executive committee which is in charge of implementing all of their plans. On the agenda are increasing funding for higher education, removing financial barriers to public education, moving any other kind of barriers to access and making a more accessible, more democratic system all around.
Recently elected president of that executive committee, UMass Boston graduate student Alex Kulenovic, has focused his attention for this year on a few key issues that the Lobby Day at the State House event was meant to push.
"Specifically the most recent campaign we've been working on is pretty narrow; it's just getting a few pieces of legislation passed that would make the most difference in student's lives," Kulenovic explained. "First off is the governor's $2 billion capital bond bill; about $1 billion of which goes to UMass, about $120 million of which goes specifically to UMass-Boston. Here it would fund a new academic building and it would shore up the substructure of what we used to call the garage. On top of that there's a proposal out there right now which needs a lot of support to pass, which is a $17 million increase to MassGrant, which is the states main need-based financial aid program."
The Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM), started late in 2006, originally formed to put on a singular event in the form of a summit on public higher education at the Amherst campus. The event was so wildly successful and well attended, including attendance by then governor-elect Deval Patrick, that the various organization involved decided to form a permanent and lasting partnership in order to find common interests and push for all of them with one voice. Since then, they have had a few different summits, developed an organizational structure, and most recently put together an executive committee which is in charge of implementing all of their plans. On the agenda are increasing funding for higher education, removing financial barriers to public education, moving any other kind of barriers to access and making a more accessible, more democratic system all around.
Recently elected president of that executive committee, UMass Boston graduate student Alex Kulenovic, has focused his attention for this year on a few key issues that the Lobby Day at the State House event was meant to push.
"Specifically the most recent campaign we've been working on is pretty narrow; it's just getting a few pieces of legislation passed that would make the most difference in student's lives," Kulenovic explained. "First off is the governor's $2 billion capital bond bill; about $1 billion of which goes to UMass, about $120 million of which goes specifically to UMass-Boston. Here it would fund a new academic building and it would shore up the substructure of what we used to call the garage. On top of that there's a proposal out there right now which needs a lot of support to pass, which is a $17 million increase to MassGrant, which is the states main need-based financial aid program."
Be the first to comment on this story