Daily Archives: March 21, 2011

REMINDER: Rally tomorrow to fight budget cuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you all know about this already, but by way of reminder (!), or in case you missed it–

 Please spread as far and wide as you can!  [Feel free to forward and/or print and post the attached flyer.]

West Chester University APSCUF will be hosting a rally on Tuesday, March 22, to encourage the PA legislature to reject Governor Corbett’s Budget and adequately fund the PA State System of Higher Education next year and in the future.  This is part of a statewide effort to hold rallies at all 14 campuses the day before Senate hearings on the Budget begin.

When: Tues, March 22 from 1:15-2;30.

Where: The lawn by the Ehinger Gym, at the corner of Church St and University Ave, behind the bus stop.

 All students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate.  [NEW: We’ll be asking people to sign and complete postcards letting the Legislators who represent the WC district know how the cuts would impact us.  Please come by and fill one out!]

We are expecting media to be there, so it’s important that the turnout is strong.  We need to make a showing to the Governor and the whole state that our universities matter!

Because of the media presence, however, and the presence on campus of a team from the organization responsible for WCU’s academic accreditation, we (respectfully but firmly) ask that you PLEASE be judicious and respectful in your tone and style if you make signs or banners.  The Governor and his supporters don’t need any more fodder to convince voters and legislators of the wrong message.

In Solidarity,

Seth

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Filed under Advocacy, APSCUF, Budget, Communities, PASSHE, Rally, Student activism, Tom Corbett, Tuition increase, West Chester University

PSEA letters to legislators

PSEA has created a site that will generate a letter to your state representative and senator. You can modify the text to make sure it states clearly your views about the cuts’ impact on PASSHE.

http://capwiz.com/psea/issues/alert/?alertid=32359501

(This is my first post to wordpress, so apologies if it’s messy.)

Cheryl Wanko

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Filed under Uncategorized

Statewide APSCUF Press Release: Read this ASAP

Forwarded from the State APSCUF blog:

http://apscuf.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/apscuf-agrees-to-negotiate-wage-freeze/

My quick summary: state leadership is announcing our intention to agree to a wage freeze for next year, in conjunction with wage freezes for managers/administrators and a restoration of funding for the system.

I, quite frankly, was hoping that we’d announce exactly this.  It’s the right thing to do, and should announce loudly and clearly to legislators (and to students, families, and other taxpayers) that the faculty aren’t putting ourselves and our own economic interests above everyone else’s.

Get it, Governor?  Get it, legislators?  Please show us that you’re listening.  And hearing.  And caring.  Anybody who dismisses this move as some kind of cynical ploy is only demonstrating how little he/she cares about the Commonwealth and democracy.

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Filed under APSCUF, Budget, Collective Bargaining, PASSHE, Tom Corbett

An excellent op-ed in today’s West Chester Daily Local

I’ll do the usual links page later today, but I wanted to get this column from today’s West Chester Daily Local News out as soon as possible.

It’s an opinion piece contributed by WCU faculty member Dr. Ed Lordan.  Dr. Lordan reminds legislators that cutting the WCU/PASSHE budget as a short-term economic fix has serious and dire long-term consequences, while not proving especially helpful in the short-term either.

Some highlights:

Current and future students of the Pennsylvania state schools like West Chester University — those that are part of the PASSHE system — will be particularly hard hit given the sheer amount of funding being cut. There is a direct connection between the health of the university and the health of the local economy — fewer students means fewer dollars for local businesses…

For instance, WCU has been rated a top 100 best value in American public higher education by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance four years in a row. WCU students contributed a record 233,513 hours of volunteer service in the community for the 2009-2010 school year. Cutting funding for them is a short-sighted decision that will ultimately cost more than it saves and have a direct negative impact of current and future students…

Nice work, Dr. Lordan.  And thanks for taking the time to write it.

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Filed under Advocacy, Budget, Communities, PASSHE, Student activism, Tom Corbett, Tuition increase, Uncategorized, West Chester University