Massachusetts Senate Task Force on Public Higher Education
Testimony by Patricia V. Markunas
President, Massachusetts State College Association
December 13, 2004On behalf of the state college faculty and librarians who provide quality education to the citizens of the Commonwealth, I thank Chairperson Panagiotakos, Chairperson Rosenberg and members of the Senate Task Force on Public Higher Education for inviting me to testify today. For the record, my name is Patricia V. Markunas. I have been president of the Massachusetts State College Association for the past four years. We represent approximately 2400 full-time and part-time faculty members in both the day programs and the Divisions of Graduate and Continuing Education as well as all full-time librarians at the state colleges. I am also a professor of psychology at Salem State College, halfway through my 26th year there. Members of the Task Force may be interested to know that I was the Coordinator of the College’s Honors Program for eleven years and I was both a faculty member and a residence hall director at the College of Wooster (Ohio) prior to my coming to Massachusetts in 1979.
I want to express the appreciation of the state college faculty and librarians to the Senate for the establishment of this Task Force, in recognition of the importance of public higher education to the state’s economy and its future growth and security. We are, frankly, thrilled to hear that members of the Senate are concerned about the status of our public institutions and interested in exploring long-term and stable funding and other legislative changes that would support our work on behalf of our students. When I reported to the membership that I would be testifying here today, many responded with encouraging words and suggestions for what I should say to you on their behalf. Please do not underestimate how important your work on this Task Force is for the state colleges, their faculty and staff as well as students, parents and alumni.
Members of the Task Force, the quality of any academic institution of higher learning and of the education provided to its students rests squarely on the quality and reputation of its faculty. Period. Yes, the administration and the staff support the educational mission of our colleges, and without them we could not do our work with students. Yes, the services that the colleges provide to students and to the larger community are important components of the institutions. But the bottom line is that the quality of the education provided to the Commonwealth’s citizens rests on the quality of the faculty who provide that education directly.
Related to the quality of our work with students is the quality and condition of the most important building on every higher education campus: the library. Yes, the construction and maintenance of all campus buildings – academic and non-academic – are important to all of us who work in them and to our students. But it is the library and its services that most directly support the work of the faculty in educating students. It is the quality of the library and its holdings that are a key component in the accreditation process and national rankings of institutional quality.
Members of the Task Force, the quality of the state college libraries has been severely impacted by the repeated and serious budget cuts that public higher education has endured over the past decade. The quality of the faculty cannot be maintained or improved given the same budget cuts and the serious impediments to the collective bargaining process affecting public higher education unions, including ours. The Task Force must come to grips with both issues and help resolve them, or the quality of the education provided by the state colleges will continue to be affected negatively and the system’s potential to drive economic growth in Massachusetts will never be realized.
Members of the Legislature received from the state college Council of Presidents a copy of their faculty salary study, which used salary data from public comprehensive institutions provided by the College and University Personnel Association (CUPA). The MSCA, through its national parent organization, the National Education Association, contracted with JBL Associates, a research consulting firm located in Bethesda, Maryland, to compare our salaries and benefits to those paid to faculty at our peer institutions as defined by the Board of Higher Education. The results of these separate analyses are remarkably similar. The handouts in the folders provided give detailed information on the results of the most recent study conducted by JBL for our association, but I want to highlight several points here:
- State college faculty members and librarians do not earn $100,000 annually. Indeed, the average state college faculty and librarian salary is less than $60,000 a year.
- State college faculty salaries lag behind those of peers by 7% unadjusted and 15% when adjusted for the cost of living in Massachusetts. The gap is smallest at the entry-level academic ranks and greatest for those faculty at the highest, best qualified and most senior academic ranks. The average salary for (full) professors is one measure of quality used in rankings of colleges and universities by US News & World Report, and we suffer by comparison.
- State college faculty benefits lag behind those of peers by an additional 3% unadjusted for the cost of living. This means total compensation (salary plus benefits) for state college faculty is 10% less than that of peers, which would probably double when cost of living is included in the comparison.
- The Council of Presidents has also gathered information on the number of faculty searches conducted over the past three to four years where the first choice candidate declined the appointment of a faculty position at the state colleges because of the inadequacy of the salary offered and the number of resignations of full-time faculty for financial reasons. Over 20% of first-choice candidates for faculty appointments decline the offer for financial reasons. We have gathered information on the number of librarians who have resigned over the past five years, often for financial reasons; there has been a nearly 50% turnover in librarian staff due to resignations alone over this time period. Librarians train both students and faculty in the use of the latest information technologies and electronic resources needed to create the libraries of the 21st Century.
- The Council of Presidents has conducted an analysis comparing state college faculty workload to that of faculty at peer institutions. Our teaching workload is identical to the workload of faculty at nearly all of our peers, and our responsibility for academic advising and continuing scholarship is often greater than those responsibilities are for faculty at peer institutions.
These factors create serious long-term negative consequences for the quality of the faculty as a whole and the quality of the services and resources offered by the campus libraries. These issues must be addressed in order to address the quality of the education provided to our students.
In addition to the issues that this Task Force has identified as of major importance to public higher education – economic growth, workforce development, accessibility, accountability, and funding – I would add four issues of concern to the Legislature as a whole that have impact on the quality of public higher education and that the Task Force should address in its final report.
I would submit to the Task Force the detrimental impact of the constant turmoil associated with the collective bargaining process in Massachusetts that has generated national and regional negative publicity over the past decade for our institutions and has hampered our recruitment and retention efforts as well. Neither the Council of Presidents nor the MSCA can gather information on the number of high quality faculty and librarians who wouldn’t even bother to consider coming to Massachusetts because of the failure of the last four governors to support good faith bargaining efforts on behalf of our statutory employer of record, the Board of Higher Education.
The MSCA Board of Directors has consistently supported proposed legislation that would alter the collective bargaining process to eliminate the governor’s de facto preliminary veto of the ability of the BHE to negotiate contracts with its employees. We support our employer’s ability to negotiate meaningfully with us and then to be able to submit the funding of the ratified agreements directly to the Legislature for action. I have been told that at least one long-time state senator supports the addition of binding interest arbitration to the state collective bargaining process where it does not now exist, a change I would urge the Legislature to consider as well.
A second issue for consideration relates to the legislative initiative to provide health insurance for all citizens. The MSCA represents nearly 800 part-time faculty members in both the day and DGCE programs, who are not afforded even the option of benefits for health or life insurance through the Group Insurance Commission. Many part-time faculty members have access to health insurance benefits through other employment; however, for those who do not have this benefit, its importance cannot be understated. Legislation has been filed throughout the years to provide benefits to part-time faculty with stable employment histories with the colleges; hearings have been held with heart-wrenching testimony provided by part-time faculty; and no action has been taken. It would be irresponsible for the Legislature to consider any statewide initiative to require or urge employers in Massachusetts to provide health insurance benefits for employees, without the state’s taking responsibility for providing such benefits to the hundreds of part-time faculty who provide quality education for our students as well.
A third item recently in the news for legislative consideration concerns the minimum wage in Massachusetts. A colleague from Bridgewater State College sent the following analysis that compared changes in the minimum wage to increases in tuition and fees for our students, many of whom depend on minimum wage jobs to earn the money for their education.
In the early 1970s, the minimum hourly wage was $1.60. Annual tuition and fees at the state colleges (two semesters) was about $800. So if a student had a minimum wage job, it would take about 500 hours of work to pay tuition and fees. This amount of money could be earned during a full-time summer job or by working a mere ten hours a week during the school year.
Contrast that situation with the current state of affairs. Minimum wage in Massachusetts is $6.75 per hour. Because of cuts in state support, tuition and fees at the state colleges are in excess of $5200, not including room and board, books, commuting costs, laptop computers, etc. A student working today at a minimum wage job would have to work 50% more hours to earn today’s tuition and fees and can no longer earn this amount of money during the summer alone. An increase in the minimum wage would be an ideal way to help students earn more money in a shorter period of time for college-related expenses.
A fourth item would allow graduates of Massachusetts high schools, whose parents are undocumented aliens, to enroll in public colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates. The MSCA is on record in support of this legislation and would urge the Task Force to take a similar position.
A recent analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center demonstrated that state budget cuts have had a disproportionate impact on women in Massachusetts. A copy of the Boston Globe’s recent editorial on this issue is enclosed in your folder. The state colleges historically have been the institutions of choice for women to pursue baccalaureate education, and the MBPC analysis stated that 68% of state college graduates are women. Increased funding of our state colleges, financial aid for our students, health insurance coverage and an increase in the minimum wage would go a long way to remedy the disproportionate impact of state budget cuts on women students and citizens.
A few years ago, the Boston Globe Big Ideas section published a statistic that cannot be cited too often: for every dollar spent on higher education, five dollars are returned in economic growth. I want to call your attention to a publication from the Higher Education Research Center at the National Education Association, our parent organization, entitled Higher Education: Who Benefits? In a succinct and easy to follow format, the report summarizes the personal and public benefits of higher education.
Members of the Task Force may want to pay particular attention to the public benefits, which are not just economic in terms of creating new knowledge and a citizenry capable of implementing new process and technologies, but also in terms of lower crime rates and less need for welfare and public assistance. Educated citizens are more involved in volunteer activities, political life and cultural activities; they not only pay more in taxes but also vote more often and live longer, healthier lives.
In conclusion, I want to state something that has probably been stated by all those who have and will testify before this Task Force. The best colleges and universities have the benefit of economic stability and political support. The continual budget crises and uncertainties of the past decade – and the cyclical labor crises as well – demoralize faculty and staff, harm productivity, prevent the recruitment and retention of the best faculty and the best students, and ultimately cost the state in economic and non-economic terms. There is no more important responsibility before the Legislature than to stabilize and support our institutions of higher education, for everyone’s benefit.