May 7, 2007

Dear MSCA Faculty and Librarians:

As was reported in the MSCA Perspective earlier this semester, a bill has been filed in the legislature to allow state college boards of trustees to change the name of the state college to a state university if that college meets the Carnegie Classification for a state university.

The bill, #1185, has been referred to the Joint Committee on Higher Education. The bill will be heard at a public hearing of the JCHE scheduled for Thursday, May 10th, beginning at 11:00 am in Hearing Room A-2 in the basement of the State House in Boston. Several of the state college presidents and other persons with an interest in the bill are planning to testify about it.

The MSCA Board of Directors has taken a position not to consider the bill without an amendment that would preserve the current collective bargaining units and relationship among the state colleges, should any of them seek this change in status. I plan to testify to this position at Thursday's hearing.

I urge MSCA faculty and librarians to attend this hearing if they are interested in learning more about this issue. Several other bills of interest to the state colleges will be presented at the same hearing.

Patricia Markunas
MSCA President

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5/7/07