Contact information: 413/775-1420
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Contact: Liz Carroll
Phone: 413/775-1420
E-mail: carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Media contact: Liz Carroll
Marketing & Publications
413/775-1420 | carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Release date: February 28, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Legislator profile: State Senator Stanley Rosenberg

Party Affiliation: Democrat
District Represented: Hampshire and Franklin. Northampton, Amherst, Belchertown, precincts A and D, Hadley, Hatfield, Pelham and South Hadley, in the county of Hampshire; and Bernardston, Buckland, Colrain, Deerfield, Erving, Gill, Greenfield, Leverett, Leyden, Montague, New Salem, Northfield, Shelburne, Shutesbury, Sunderland, Wendell and Whately, in the county of Franklin.
Education: Revere High School; University of Massachusetts/Amherst
Organizations: Massachusetts Democratic State Committee.
Committees on which State Senator Rosenberg serves or has served: Co-chair, Senate Task Force on Public Higher Education; Member of the newly created legislative Committee on Higher Education; President Pro Tem of the Massachusetts Senate, Assistant Majority Leader; Chair, Senate Committee on Ways and Means; Legislature's Foster Kid Caucus.

Advocate for public higher education brings life-long passion to role

For Massachusetts State Senator Stan Rosenberg, GCC is the door of opportunity to a better life for the people in his region. "Most of the jobs that pay a living wage require at least two years of education beyond high school,” says Rosenberg. "The data is very clear that your earnings increase just by getting an associate's degree, and that first step in higher education for a very large number of people is the community college.”

Recently, Rosenberg was appointed to a new joint committee on public higher education for which he advocated. "This is going to finally shine a spotlight on higher education,” says Rosenberg, whose dedication stems from his own background. "I'm a product of public higher education. If it had not been for UMass, I would not have gone to college because of my financial situation and my background. And so the university provided me an opportunity which I hope people consider that I've put to good use.

"The challenges for GCC are, first, that it's located in a very small county, population-wise. So from time to time, the powers that be say we ought to merge with someplace else. Most of the time, what carries the day is that you have dozens of other legislators who are in exactly the same situation with regard to having an institution in their district that they would not want to see closed.

"Recently we've been able to argue that some of the very institutions they would like to merge, like GCC and HCC, are already working together on strategies like shared academic programming that use the dollars more wisely and more efficiently.”

The biggest current threat to GCC, according to Rosenbertg, is inadequate state revenues that puts pressure on all parts of the budget that are considered discretionary. Unfortunately, public higher education is considered discretionary. "The dollars that come in go first to functions that are required by the federal government or contractually required, such as pensions, debt service and Medicaid. Governor Romney holds out the possibility that the growth in health care costs are slowing. We do not yet have evidence that it is true and lasting. If it is, we hope to see even more of the growth revenues going to things other than health care, like higher education.

"In the meantime, to get more money for important priorities, we try to do is convince people that we shouldn't be cutting revenues,” says Rosenberg. "That's number one. Number two, we work on trying to close tax loopholes and beef up enforcement so that we don't have reductions in revenue just because people don't follow the rules. And then we look at all areas of spending to try to improve the efficiency of agencies, in the same way that HCC and GCC are working together.”

"I see clearly the connection between a college education and being a productive participant in our self-governing community. You cannot nowadays get too much education, in my opinion. It enhances your ability to be a better employee, a better businessperson, a better leader in the community, and even a better parent by encouraging and supporting your kids in their education.”