Last week, UMass Boston students distributed a flyer that calls for the organization of an undergraduate state student union, a democratically run organization which would use collective bargaining power to improve the lives of students. The Mass Media supports the creation of such a group to advance undergraduate students’ interests and unify all public higher ed schools across Massachusetts.
In the current budget crisis, public education is under attack from both Governor Romney and the Democrat-controlled state legislature. The Boston Globe recently highlighted the fact that “The House budget… contains sharp cutbacks for UMass and the rest of the state’s higher education system. It calls for a twenty percent cut in the state’s $1 billion higher education budget, sources said-more than the fifteen percent cut proposed by Romney.” These cuts will severely deteriorate the quality of education and student life across the state. With a state student union students can voice their collective opposition to the cuts.
A union would be able to more effectively advocate student interests with administration and government offices as it would represent a large population of eligible voters. Arizona student unions have found that, “A lot of what students do with their lives outside of the classroom happens in the union,” said Dan Adams, director of Arizona Student Unions. “We’ve spent a lot of time…making sure we have continued a sense of community.” Last year UMass Amherst made history by recognizing the first undergraduate resident assistants’ (RAs) union. As a union the RAs can, for the first time, negotiate a labor contract with the school.
One of the most important functions of a student union would be serving as a new source of information for students. Instead of allowing non-student organizations to be the dominant information sources for students, a student union could make its own investigations and reports that are focused on students. Therefore, the union would help organize undergraduates more efficiently so as to have the largest possible influence on policymakers.
Undergraduates cannot depend on other institutions to defend students; only a student union would work for the specific purpose of promoting student interests. A state student union does not mean another bureaucratic institution siphoning more money, in the form of dues, from students without effecting change in the quality of education or student life; a state student union means one unified voice with which students can approach the administration and Beacon Hill with demands for students’ rights.