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| 2 | Below is the letter I sent to Sarah Schweitzer urging her to cover our story: Dear Sarah Schweitzer, I have been a faculty member at the College of Public and Community Service, University of Massachusetts/Boston for almost 30 years. I’m writing to plead with you to please cover our story. Our institution is being destroyed. Please don’t ignore our story. The story of this destruction is filled with many of the current issues of the day—the privatization of public higher education; abusive behavior of bosses towards employees; the exercise of raw power where overwhelming votes of no confidence and evidence of direct lies are completely ignored; the exercise of raw power where blatantly incompetent behavior is rewarded; unproven allegations of racism are spread like wildfire; an anti-intellectual climate where reasoned argument is ignored and silenced; and, enormous support in communities where most people are struggling to survive on 2-3 jobs, working hard at the same time to improve their life chances by attending CPCS. I am at the end of my career there; I am a Full Professor; I have devoted my professional life to the education we provide for students who have been marginalized from “mainstream” society. I cry at our graduation celebrations when I hear students tell their stories, in many cases, tell how their lives were directionless, messed up in various ways, and how when they came to the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS), their lives turned around. Just to give you four quick examples of how our graduates are contributing greatly to our Commonwealth (there are many, many other equally important examples—check www.savecpcs.org for more): • Thomas Menino is the mayor of Boston. • Pierre Imbert is the Executive Director of the State Office for Refugees and Immigrants. • Janet Marcous, deaf and blind as a result of Ushur's Syndrome, graduated with a self-created major in Deaf-Blind Studies and teaches a course in Deaf-Blind culture at Northeastern University. • Jack Cole, retired Detective Lieutenant from the New Jersey State Police where he worked as an undercover narcotics officer, has taught courses to police recruits and veteran officers on ethics, integrity, moral decision-making, and the detrimental effects of racial profiling. Since graduating a few years ago, he has formed an international organization, “Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,” working to change our unsuccessful and unfair drug laws. There are many meetings Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon to deal with the latest aspect of this crisis—massive contract faculty firings and unilateral “reassignments” of tenured faculty. Please come. Please don’t ignore our story. Sincerely, Marilyn Frankenstein Professor, Quantitative Reasoning and Argument |
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| 10 | Please help CPCS get back to being the college it was when I was a student! |
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| 17 | Graduation? No Guarantee. |
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| 20 | Globe - this is important news - give your coverage. |
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| 22 | CPCS students have been treated so unfairly by the Dean. He is doing everything in his power to disassemble this college. His goal is to ruin the CPCS college, it's faculty, studentsand it's history. He is afraid of non traditional learning and does not understand the lives he is hurting. We need to get rid of this liar who came here knowing what he was going to do. |
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| 32 | I'm tired of being robbed of my financial aid, my educational pursuits, my vision and my future! Save CPCS, and SAVE IT NOW! |
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| 37 | CPCS is the most important vehicle of education for poor people and working people in the state of Mass. To eliminate or attempt to elimnate this school is a shame and disgrace to anyone or any entity involved. CPCS is as important to the workingclass and poor people as food or the air we breathe. |
| 38 | I think this is terrible and unexceptable. Please reconsider your position because this program is outstanding. I know people who have graduated and currently support people who are attending the program. This program deserves to continue and give people a chance to become their dreams, |
| 39 | If the Globe won't cover it send it on to the NYTimes and the Boston Herald. |
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| 42 | Hopefully this is my senior year at CPCS and with the recent layoffs almost all of the professors I had during my schooling are no longer there. I have also lost my advisor after 3 years, I have no professors to write personal refference letters for me, there is nobody left at the school who really knows me. Also, many classes that are needed to graduate have been cancled, and have not been reschedualed. What are seniors to do? |
| 43 | The actions of the Dean of the College of Public and Community Service with the approval of the UMass Boston Provost Paul Fonteyn and the UMass Boston Chancellor Michael Collins is outrageous. A public airing of the entire affair should be available to the readers of the Boston Globe. |
| 44 | THE ELITISTS ARE THREATENED BY US AND OUR MISSION SO THEY USE CORPORATE TACTICS TO STAGE OUR DEMISE. YOU WILL ONLY SEE A LARGER MORE POWERFUL GROUP OF PEOPLE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY. WE WILL WIN! |
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| 48 | It is unsderstanable that the powers that be are corrupted by the cold and ruthless mood of the "Bush" years. We all have to work a little harder to keep our hearts and minds open to the suffering of our fellow man. The College of Public and Community Service is more important in Massachusetts today than ever before. |
| 49 | My college education is being payed for by the Veterans Administration GI Bill Program. I returned to college and UMASS Boston one year ago to finish my education and attain a degree in Human Services. I recently transfered into CPCS with the hope that the problems facing the college might have been resolved since my semester ended last May 2006. The issues appear to have increasingly gone down hill with a total lack of direction and leadership on the part of all administration officials associated with CPCS. I'm sorry to say this includes the faculty both tenured or not. I believe all professors, staff, and anyone at CPCS providing students with education, resources or any other forms of support need to get it together and provide a united front for your bosses in the provost office and higher. I know we have dedicated professors to do the job of educating our diverse student body. It appears to me that the majority of professors are taking the wait and see approach on how CPCS will shake out for the future. This does not help the cause of saving the institution. I've seen maybe a dozen or so active faculty, staff and the such take an active role this past year in preserving what was developed nearly 33 years ago. A United front needs to be adopted and maintained for survival. Maybe a mistake was made hiring our Dean, the vetting process should have uncovered any inconsistencies with the hiring process. Asking students who pay on average $5000.00 per full time semester to fix our problem is wrong and I believe unethical. I'm paying for an education, not to march on the lawn so to speak and fix administrators jobs. Provide me with a seat in class, Professor and evaluate me fairly for a grade at the end. I'm angry and now I'm a student at CPCS. I've listened to this hog wash for twelve months, I can write and the dean is the Dean and my voice will be heard. Its plain and simple all students, faculty, staff, or otherwise needs to create the United Front in the eyes of the administration. The Boston Globe is not going to solve the problem either. Right now its 530 PM on Tues 12 September 2006. The count on this petition is 45 names, a far cry from the student enrollment and tenured faculty, staff and the like at CPCS. If we want to win get it together. Sign the document for change. John P. Gill, United States Navy Proudly Retired and still serving. |
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