Welcome: May 2008
The lobbying topics for this year’s Capitol Hill Day have been announced:
1.) Ideological exclusions
2.) Reasons for rising tuition costs (it’s not faculty salaries!)
We need as many members as possible to be involved in carrying these messages to lawmakers, so start organizing your state delegation now! Materials including background information, examples, and leave-behinds for staffers will be posted on the government relations page of the AAUP Web site as they are created throughout May. Questions or comments? Please e-mail Nicole Byrd, government relations associate.
Federal Update
The Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization remains in conference between the House and the Senate. Because of the length of time it is taking to iron out the differences between the two chambers, Congress introduced yet another temporary extension. On April 30, the Senate passed S 2929 (.pdf), which would extend the HEA through May 31. The House did not immediately follow suit, and the law lapsed briefly when it got caught up in partisan bickering over a supplemental bill for defense spending. However, the House finally passed the extension on May 6. Negotiators are pushing to finish the final bill by the Memorial Day recess.
The effects of the credit crunch on student loans continue to be a focus of Congress. In an unusually quick process, the House passed HR 5715 the same week that it was introduced. At press time, President Bush was expected to sign the bill any day. Efforts to head off potential a capital crisis within the lending industry also continue, as lenders shut down or scale back their operations. Large lenders such as Sallie Mae and Nelnet have stopped offering consolidation loans and some smaller shops have filed for bankruptcy. The Department of Education issued these guidelines (.pdf) for lenders of last resort on May 5.
Senator Kennedy and Representative Miller have introduced The Teaching and Research Assistant Collective Bargaining Rights Act (.pdf). The legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to enable collective bargaining for teaching and research assistants at private institutions.
The AAUP endorsed a letter in support of Senator Webb’s bill S 22 and its twin in the House, HR 5740. The identical bills would expand tuition benefits for veterans in the spirit of the GI Bill, with updates to allow for comparable modern-day purchasing power. The Senate bill was first introduced over a year ago, but the issue has received considerably more attention in the past few months.
Featured Articles
“Teacher fired for refusing to sign loyalty oath,” L.A. Times, 5/2/2008
“Credit crunch hits states’ college loans,” Stateline.org, 4/23/2008
“Students press for guns on campus,” Stateline.org, 4/15/08
Nationwide
The anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy last month brought a renewed interest in the debate over allowing weapons on campuses. Fifteen states have seen legislation introduced so far in 2008, though nine of those bills have already died.
The “loyalty oath” issue is cropping up again in California. A Cal State Fullerton lecturer refused to sign a statement pledging to defend the U.S. against enemies because she was prohibited from adding a statement affirming her Quaker commitment to non-violence. She was then fired. In February, another professor was fired for adding the word “non-violently” into the document before signing, but pressure brought by media attention led to her reinstatement. The required California oath for public employees dates back to the McCarthy era and was originally intended as an anti-Communist measure.
The second of Ward Connerly’s state campaigns to get an anti-preference referendum on November’s ballot has failed. Last month, this newsletter reported the abandonment of his Oklahoma campaign due to insufficient petition signatures. Connerly is now also folding his campaign in Missouri, after it became clear that he could not get the required number of signatures by the deadline. Efforts to get a measure on the fall ballot are still active in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska.
Textbook prices continue to be an issue across the country. A recent story in Inside Higher Ed highlighted a movement to put free, open-source textbooks online. Alabama’s bill AL HB 889 would ban incentives from publishers to any employee of a 2 or 4-year institution.
Executive compensation was the original focus of California’s bill CA A 1821, which has now been amended to strike all references to the issue. The bill now only addresses grant programs.
The debate over tuition for undocumented residents continues this month in California, Michigan, Missouri, and South Carolina. Missouri’s MO HB 1463 would prohibit the acceptance of “unlawfully present aliens” to any public state institutions of higher education. The bill passed out of committee on April 23 and now goes to the House floor. MO SB 858 and MO HB 2564 also would prohibit enrollment, but within a much more comprehensive bill that also establishes employer penalties and bans public benefits for the undocumented. Michigan’s MI HB 5991 and South Carolina’s SC H 4451 both prohibit in-state tuition for residents without legal status. However, in Colorado, Colorado’s CO S 79 (.pdf) would define residency for in-state tuition purposes by attendance at a Colorado high school.
Though most of the student loan industry problems have been left up to Capitol Hill, Iowa’s Senate passed its own bill IA H 2690 this week.
Rhode Island is taking up the issue of contingent faculty again with RI HB 8164.
Action of the Month
Set up your appointments for Capitol Hill Day. If you are not attending Capitol Hill Day this year, join the advocacy effort by scheduling a meeting closer to home with your representative from the state legislature.