History

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="043a45a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Massachusetts Society of Professors</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Massachusetts Society of Professors"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>History</B>   |   <A HREF="id120.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What It Means To Join"><U>What It Means To Join</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="044d2b03.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="09464640.gif" border=0 width="100" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>History</I></div> <bR> <div> The election of Deval Patrick has inspired hope among many stakeholders of Massachusetts' system of public higher education.  With the election of this governor, we have a unique opportunity to push forward a bold, progressive agenda for quality, affordable, well-funded public higher education. </div> <bR> <div> On February 1, organizers from around the state met to launch a new coalition to turn that hope and that agenda into reality.  The <B>Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM)</B> now invites you to attend a <B>Lobby Day and Founding Convention for PHENOM</B>, involving students, staff, faculty, and concerned citizens from all of Massachusetts' community colleges, state colleges, and university system on Thursday, February 22nd at 10:30 am at the Grand Staircase in the State House.</div> <bR> <div> This effort is coming together very quickly and we want to be sure every constituency and every college is represented.  Now is the time to get on board! </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>How Did This Come About?</B></div> <div> On December 1st, 2006, a coalition of students, staff and faculty based primarily at UMass Amherst hosted a "Public Higher Education Summit" that was attended by Governor-Elect Patrick and his working group on higher education.  At this summit, the coalition presented a policy report entitled "Advancing Public Higher Education: A Roadmap for Governor Patrick" which was well received by Patrick and others. You can see it at <A HREF="http://www.phenomonline.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.phenomonline.org"><U>www.phenomonline.org</U></A>.</div> <bR> <div> The summit and the Roadmap have received significant media attention, and there is now substantive discussion around the key questions facing public higher education in Massachusetts: will our system becoming increasingly under-staffed, inaccessible, and subject to the whims of private donors, or will we be able to finally build a fully-funded, affordable, accessible, fully-staffed and democratic system of public higher education that serves ALL the residents of the commonwealth? </div> <bR> <div> The UMass Amherst coalition concluded that to have a strong impact on the future of public higher education, we need to rapidly broaden our coalition to be statewide and to represent all stakeholders.  We truly believe this is a key moment in the struggle to improve our higher education system!</div> </td> </tr></table></body>