By Tom DiStefano
Staff writer
HARRISBURG – “Quite a sight to see,” said Elizabeth MacDaniel, president of Clarion University’s faculty union, of last week’s rally in Harrisburg.
A contingent of students and faculty from CUP traveled to Harrisburg Feb. 8 to call for better funding for Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities.
“The rally was a great success,” MacDaniel said. “Over 500 students and faculty from the 14 PASSHE universities participated.”
Seven faculty members, 17 students and one community member from Clarion attended the rally; five people from Slippery Rock shared the bus.
Students and faculty from all 14 State System universities filled the Rotunda with signs and banners calling for increased state appropriations for public higher education.
Chants of “Fund our schools” and “Fund or fail” echoed throughout the Rotunda and adjoining halls, MacDaniel said.
APSCUF (Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty) sponsored the rally, which featured speeches by APSCUF state president Ken Mash and by Frank Brogan, Chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE).
Mash spoke of the reductions in allocations to the PASSHE schools in 2100 and the flat funding since then.
“During this period of time we have seen tuitions rise steadily, we have seen fees rise steadily, we have seen more and more students unable to even afford to go to college. And that just cannot stand.”
“Our universities simply cannot operate successfully if they have to spend every moment wondering how they’re going to pinch pennies, how they’re going to survive from day to day.”
APSCUF organized the rally, called “United We Stand, Underfunded We Fail,” in response to a request from students, Mash said.
“As we move deeper into the 21st century, it’s time to reinvest in the State System; to reinvest in our students,” Brogan told the rally.
“Thankfully, both the governor and the general assembly signaled their support this past year for reinvesting in the State System, and we all are grateful for that. Now, we must move forward, to see that support turned into reality.”
Brogan encouraged rally goers to meet with legislators while at the Capitol.
Students from Clarion and Slippery Rock had already met that morning with state Sen. Scott Hutchison about the effects budget cuts and flat funding have had on those universities.
“The students were eloquent as they talked about their struggles to pay for their educations and their fears about the large debts that many of them are carrying,” MacDaniel said.
The group stopped by the offices of Rep. Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion) and R. Lee James (R-Venango), who both serve on the CUP Council of Trustees, but neither was in, MacDaniel said.
State Sen. Judith Schwank (D-Berks), who serves on the PASSHE Board of Governors, also addressed the rally, according to a PASSHE release.
“There are a lot of things we spend money on in state government,” Schwank said. “Very few generate the kind of return on investment the State System does.”
The 14 PASSHE universities generate a statewide economic impact of $6.7 billion a year, she said, and every $1 of state appropriations results in nearly $11 of economic activity.