The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (PSCUF) has a message for Senator McCormick and Representative Kelly; they want to protect and fund higher education in the Commonwealth.
Friday afternoon, students, educators and members of the association gathered at the United Steelworkers Union Hall to protest recent budget cuts towards higher education, especially student aid and research funding for the upcoming fiscal year.
As a member of the association and an educator himself, Jim Wertz stressed that cutting funding to higher education will have dire consequences not only for students but for the community as a whole: “The investments that are made from the federal government into higher education across the country are investments into our community, investments in our health and investments in the future.”
Wertz is a faculty member at PennWest Edinboro and said that these budget cuts could negatively impact the potential for students to receive grants or financial aid to help them pursue their education.
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“It adds the most weight to students who are already coming in with…not a lot of resources and privilege of various types to fall back on those students usually scrapped their way by to get loans, scholarships, and these Pell grants to make sure that they could get that education and that’s how passionate they are to learn,” said Julia Jacobs who is a senior at Penn State Behrend.
Jacobs said that she is witnessing firsthand the uncertainty that some of her classmates are facing when it comes to paying for their education.
Professor Bryan Crable of PennWest Edinboro told us that research has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, including someone dear to his heart.
His wife was diagnosed with cancer and a medical breakthrough made possible through federally funded research saved her life.
“My wife’s life was saved because of public research and I just think of how many lives going forward aren’t going to be saved because we aren’t making those investments in public research,” Crable explained.
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He said that the innovation that saved her life is the successor of medical research dating back to the 70’s. He reasoned that if current research is disturbed by a lack of funding, future breakthroughs may not be discovered in time to save others.
Crable is able to offer research opportunities to students through the help of a grant and told us that the future of the grant is uncertain.
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