A group of about 50 students rallied in front of the Stony Brook Union on Thursday.   The group included graduate students, Stony Brook Southampton transfers and those against the Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, or PHEEIA.
Graduate students were protesting that the state government hadn’t given them the contract that they were promised. Their last contract was in 2007, meaning their salary and medical benefits have not changed in three years.
Jim LaCarrubba, chief of staff for New York State Senator Brian X. Foley (D-Blue Point) also came to address the students.
“They had a contract,” LaCarrubba said. “It should be honored.”
There were also students who had gone to Stony Brook Southampton before the Stony Brook University closed residential facilities in early April of this year.
“He unilaterally closed Southampton University,” said Andy Homer, 22, a political science and psychology double major from Rocky Point, N.Y. “The meeting [of the Stony Brook Council] was a presentation weaved around his questionable decision and didn’t allow the students to let their voices be heard. Today’s rally is our chance to change that.”
There were also students against PHEEIA, which would allow SUNY schools to set their own tuition. While the act did not pass, President Stanley has said that he still plans to fight for PHEEIA.
According to the protest’s Facebook page, the organizers of the protest made it clear that they want the university to scale back tuition increases.
Derek McGrath, a 26-year-old Teaching Assistant in the English Department, said that he opposed PHEEIA because education “should be protected by public funding.”
“Private education is formulated on the idea of profit,” said Nick Eaton, a 22-year-old Stony Brook alumnus from Selden. “They’re putting investment opportunities and corporate interests ahead of student interests. They turn the university into a factory.”
But LaCarrubba is in favor of PHEEIA.
“The whole premise behind PHEEIA is to help universities so that students can finish school in four years,” said LaCarrubba. “There’s a tap. If the student can’t graduate in four years, his or her family would have to pay for the extra year. We’re trying to make it so that the university would have the funding to help the students with that. PHEEIA would help.”
Tim Paules, 22, a psychology major from Harrisburg, Pa. knew what he’d say to President Stanley. “I’d say he needs to be more aware of the student’s needs. He needs to be pushing for more funding from Albany. If he’s not doing that, he’s not doing his job.”