As states across the country claim a desperate need to rein in expenditures while pointing their accounting fingers to growing budget gaps, public universities are often among the first public services to feel the pinch of austerity measures. While the lack of tax revenue to fill those budget gaps is rarely addressed, lower-income students who attend these universities are forced to cover the gap through tuition increases and a decreasing quality of education.
In the hopes of rebuilding a popular education movement, this Friday, a collection of public education advocates, including Barbara Bowen (president of the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY), Francis Fox Piven and Frank Mauro (from the Fiscal Policy Institute), will be gathering for a discussion and conference on the threats to public higher education. Entitled “Defending Public Higher Education” the conference will examine the dimensions of the austerity cuts facing New York’s public higher education systems as well as possible strategies for building a movement against those budget cuts.
The Indypendent recently had the opportunity to interview Michael Fabricant, PSC-CUNY’s current treasurer, about Friday’s event.