Survival News est. 1986 Survivors, Inc.
                  ...the voices of low-income women

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Save Our School! Join the campaign to save CPCS and press lawmakers to support public higher education in Massachusetts! Poor women face constant challenges to our ability to remain in school.  Pursuing degrees—often on top of some waged work, unpaid caregiving  as single mothers, mandatory community service, and other personal challenges—we  mothers are pulling off miracles!  Few campuses provide the infrastructure to support us. One of the premiere programs that does support us and other nontraditional students is the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS) at UMass Boston, where Survivors Inc. has been organizing for years. Now CPCS is under attack. We view CPCS as the canary in the coal mine. If they are able to dismantle CPCS, or to turn it away from its urban mission, next they will go after other programs in the public university system. Recently Survivors Inc. has joined the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts. See PHENOM’s principles, our Legislative Priorities, and a description of our recent Lobby Day on this website. Please join us in the campaign to save CPCS and make higher education accessible for ALL residents in the Commonwealth.   Since opening its doors in 1973, CPCS has provided a center and a beacon for the University to honor its urban mission.  Affordability, outreach to students who would not otherwise have access to college (low-income people, people of color, immigrants and other excluded groups), robust student support services, and competency-based learning have all made CPCS what it is.  More than an academic college, CPCS has served as an activist training base. In fact, CPCS was the birthplace of our own Survivors, Inc. and several of our leaders are alumnae of the program.  Graduates include many who continue to fight courageously and effectively for social and economic justice. University administration has mounted several efforts over the years to shut CPCS down.  They view the program as radical, unprofitable and standing in the way of UMass’s ambitions to court a more affluent clientele.  In the past, student, faculty, and alumni mobilizations have been successful at keeping the school open. However, the current attempt to close the school is the most serious threat yet. Over the past several years, new University administration has cut CPCS’s budget by 24%, failed to replace the nearly 30% of full time faculty lost to early retirement, cut other staff positions by 14%, and cut curriculum offerings by 30%. New centralized admission policies, imposing traditional admissions standard (e.g. high SAT scores) blocks CPCS from doing its own highly effective recruitment of nontraditional students. Decreased enrollment becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and a justification for closing the school. There is no longer a possibility of a dignified survival for low-income women through the welfare system. Meaningful work for a living wage is far out of reach for many of us. Education is our bridge to supporting ourselves and our families and nourishing our minds and spirits as well as our bodies. Now those in power are trying to destroy that bridge. Many of us with Survivors, Inc. have crossed that bridge ourselves. We will fight as hard and as smart as we can to make sure that the opportunities for higher education remain intact for our low-income sisters and brothers who come after us. We must stop the attacks. Please join us in the struggle to save CPCS and support high-quality and accessible public higher education for all. Get involved. Call us! Survivors, Inc., (617) 298-7311 Last Modified 5/2007 info..at..cqs.com This Internet site provides links or references to other sites that are provided as a convenience to users of this site. We have no control over the content of such other sites and shall not be liable for any damages or injury arising from that content. Survivors, Inc. 95 Standard St. Mattapan, MA 02126 Copyright © 2004-2007 Survivors, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Grassroots logo by Claire Cummings