Editorials & Other Articles

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts) Tue Mar 25, 2014, 08:13 AM Mar 2014

Hundreds of Students & Faculty Occupy Campus to Fight Cuts to Public Higher Ed

University of Southern Maine student Meagan LaSala and professor Rachel Bouvier explain how cuts disproportionately target faculty and will trigger a decline in quality public eduction.

March 25, 14

Bio

Meaghan LaSala is an organizer with Students for #USMFuture. She is a Women and Gender Studies major at the University of Southern Maine. Meaghan also organizes with students around the state to divest more Maine schools from the fossil fuel industry.

Rachel Bouvier is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Southern Maine, and has been teaching there since 2005. She teaches several classes that serve the business school and the Environmental Science and Policy Program, and is actively involved in service learning and the general education curriculum. Her specialty is environmental and natural resource economics - her most recent publication is forthcoming in the journal Ecological Economics .

On Monday, hundreds of students, faculty, and supporters rallied at University of Southern Maine against the announced layoffs of 20 full-time faculty members. Monday's rally follows a Friday occupation of the school's provost's office, who announced the cuts. Additionally, four academic programs will also be slashed.

snip* The cuts are part of a $14 million budget shortfall and a part of broader cuts across the University of Maine system, which expects to cut more than 150 faculty and staff members this year.

We have Meaghan LaSala, who is a student at the University of Southern Maine.

And also joining us is Rachel Bouvier. She's an associate professor of economics at the University of Southern Maine, and she found out just recently, last Friday, that she was laid off.