TODAY! MTA Higher Ed Town Hall
8/10/2020
Dear FSU Members,
MTA Higher Ed Town Hall, August 10th - The state-wide campaign to stop the cuts, furloughs and layoffs — and to prepare our campuses for a safe reopening — is kicking into high gear. Contact Steve Striffler or the FSU office to register to join a Zoom meeting for all higher ed members today (Monday, Aug. 10) at 5 p.m., as union members from across the state join to make plans for the next stage of our campaign.
Higher Ed Funding: As some may know, MTA members from around the state successfully lobbied the Legislature to pass a continued level-funded budget, which will stabilize higher ed funding through October. This means campus layoffs, furloughs and program cuts that are going on at many higher ed institutions across the state are unnecessary. The MTA is calling on the legislature to enact progressive revenue, and on Congress to pass the HEROES Act. On August 10, we (with the MTA) will plan actions that we can take in the coming months to win safe, fully staffed campuses and to defend public higher education. In the past week the MTA launched MassachusettsAgrees.org with a powerful advertisement on TV and social media. We’ve received a lot of coverage in the Boston Herald, Boston Business Journal, Worcester Telegram, and the Lowell Sun for the “empty chairs/pink slips” action. Letters from members are also making the papers, including this one exposing Salem State’s fake austerity.
Many of UMass Boston members participated in the 700-member legislative hearing on Aug. 3, during which members from across the public higher ed system, a student and a preK12 educator shared their testimony about the crises of the pandemic, austerity, and racial injustice that we face in our public colleges and universities, and the effect of 20 years of disinvestment by the state. Immediately after the hearing, the MTA sent President Meehan, Commissioner Santiago, the Board of Higher Education and the UMass Board of Trustees 2,275 petitions signed by higher ed employees from 20 unions.
Please join colleagues from around the state on Monday, Aug. 10 to chart out the coming weeks of action and advocacy to secure a safe, fully staffed fall semester — and use the moment to launch a renewed commitment to public higher education.
Steve Striffler
FSU President
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