Colleges Start E-Mail Campaign to Stem Aid Cuts

 

Press of Atlantic City - Diane D'Amico, November 25, 2008

 

The state's nine smaller public colleges are hoping 70,000 e-mails can jump-start a campaign to keep state aid from being cut yet again.

 

The New Jersey College Promise Action Network sent the e-mails Monday to alumni and others affiliated with the colleges asking them to tell their state legislators and the governor to do all they can to keep college affordable.  They offer three suggestions:

 

	No cuts in state aid to the colleges next year.
	Increasing student financial aid to keep students from taking on additional debt.
	Investing in state college facilities and infrastructure, which could create jobs and expand the colleges to serve more students.

 

"Legislators have said to us that if college costs are that important to their constituents, they would be hearing about it, and they're not," said Paul Shelly, spokesman for the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities.  "We're trying to be more aggressive in promoting our issues."

 

Shelly said they understand the state's financial crisis, but college aid has been cut steadily over the past decade, and they are asking only to be given some consideration next year.

 

"I'm not going to say we wouldn't like an increase in state aid," he said.  "But we are realistic."

 

While governors and legislators over the past decade have said they support higher education, aid to colleges has been among the first items on the state chopping block in tough budget times.

 

For the current fiscal year, the nine colleges are getting $10 million less in state aid than they received in 2000.  Meanwhile, tuition has increased steadily, averaging about 8 percent per year for the last eight years.

 

Students are also taking a stand.  A coalition of student trustees from the state colleges held a news conference Monday in Trenton to raise awareness of college students and their issues as a voting block.  The event will be posted on YouTube in an effort to reach their target audience.

 

Shelly said part of the problem is that there is no major lobbying group for parents who are most affected by tuition increases, so it is hard for colleges to generate a lot of political clout in Trenton.

 

"The parents have to care," he said, "or the colleges just get knocked down on the state's priority list."