Declaration result of faculty and librarian forum

pproximately 120 faculty and librarians gathered to discuss the impact of budget cuts on the University at a Feb. 21 forum. During the course of the meeting, they nearly unanimously adopted this declaration.

We, the faculty of the University of Massachusetts:

1. deeply distressed at the budget cuts that have been inflicted on our campus and on the whole state higher-education system;
2. deeply distressed at the silence surrounding those cuts;
3. deeply distressed at the prospective loss for our students of access to a first-rate, affordable higher education;
4. aware that others in the public sector are also suffering from cuts of various kinds,

hereby declare, with due humility, but also with all due gravity:

1. our dedication to the idea of a university in its fullest and best sense;
2. our dedication to a first-rate higher education for our students;
3. our rededication to those objectives which brought us to this profession: the search for truth, meaning, creativity and understanding across the global reach of our disciplines;
4. our regret that a first-rate institution of higher education is being dismantled for reasons that have nothing to do with educational philosophy, commitment or vision.

     Such a loss does irreparable harm to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its citizens. It does economic harm, in that an investment in the University is an investment in the active citizens of the Commonwealth. It harms the prestige of Massachusetts, in that we now rank fiftieth in the nation in supporting higher education. It harms the spirit of the state, in that students are now being told that if they cannot afford private education, then a second- or third-class education is good enough for them.

     Policies such as this are, or should be, intolerable. In the face of this we will not tire in our beliefs that the university is a noble and vital institution that does significant work in and for society; that ours is a noble and vital profession; that our students deserve nothing less than the best that we can give them. In the midst of an onslaught against what we stand for, we will continue to uphold and be proud of those beliefs. Others may doubt, others may feel our time is past; we believe that the value of the university is timeless.

     We call on the Governor, the legislature, the trustees of the University, the President of the University, and our own administrators, to declare similarly their belief in what we stand for, to represent us to the public, to mobilize opinion on behalf of our students, to reinforce the best visions of what the University is about.