Facults, Students and Community March for Full Funding of Public Colleges

Chants for full funding for public higher education in Connecticut filled the streets of downtown New Haven this week as union members, faculty, students, immigrant rights, community groups and elected officials from across the state marched from the New Haven Green to Gateway Communkity College..

Recovery for All CT, co-sponsor of the action declared “Millions of working-class students, especially black and brown students, have relied on our twelve community colleges, four CSU universities, and UConn as a crucial path to better lives. It's time for the state to fully fund public colleges and universities for all our students and negotiate strong contracts for all our faculty and staff at the very heart of these invaluable institutions.”

Immigrant rights organization Unidad Latina en Accion organized for the march and rally “to demand major investment in all CT public colleges and universities.”

“Tuition is too expensive, students are buried in debt, and administrators want to cut services instead of investing in the education that we deserve,” they said.

AFT Connecticut members who work at the state's community colleges, UConn, and UConn Health, turned out for the march to demand that “higher education be a quality public good available to every single state resident.”

Now in the midst of tough contract negotiations, they are seeking fairness and justice on the job as well as access and equity for their students. Issues include workforce reductions, increased workloads and proposed community college consolidations.

Part of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), a co-sponsor of the action, AFT decried that “management and their contracted labor relations lawyers are failing to show respect for faculty and staff.”

Supporters were urged to sign a petition (https://act.seiu.org/a/firejacksonlewis) demanding that Jackson Lewis, the notorious anti-union lawfirm being employed in the negotiations, be fired by President Cheng and the CSCU Board of Regents..

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“Our unions are standing together in coalition with our students and our communities to fight for the rights of all workers in both the public and private sectors. We believe that all workers should be able to earn a living wage and for all workers to be treated with dignity and respect.,” the statement with the petition says.