With an average full-time salary of $37,650, faculty at public colleges in Vermont are among the lowest paid in the country. At the same time, students attending the Vermont state colleges pay some of the highest tuition in the countryÑ$7,000.

These numbers reflect a policy shift during the last 20 years that has seen the state Legislature transfer funds out of higher education while it builds up the budget for prison construction.

In the 1970s, says Roy Vestrich, president of the Vermont State Colleges Faculty Federation /AFT, the colleges received 60 percent of their budgets from the state; now they are down to just 18 percent state-funded budgets. "And 4 percent of that goes to administration," Vestrich adds.

Faculty are working hard to educate elected officials and the public about the consequences of this pull-back of support for higher education. An unwillingness on the part of the VSC to address the salary problems of faculty led to an impasse in union negotiations this past year. The union began negotiations in January 1999, declared an impasse in June and agreed to extend the contract for an academic year when it expired in August.

Students at Castleton State College decided to take their case to the governor this fall, when, as part of a "Community in American Society" class, they learned about community activism. Enlisting students at several other state colleges, they gathered for a rally in November on the steps of the state capitol. To their surprise, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean addressed the 100 or so students and promised to try to secure more money for higher education.

The VSCFF represents full-time and part-time faculty at four of the five campuses of the VSC. In addition to resources, the union is also trying to ensure that faculty get more of a voice and representation in a trustee-initiated strategic planning process. Vestrich notes that program closures are one possible outcome of the process. The union has already been able to head off a move to make the colleges more work-force oriented in their academic offerings, at the expense of the liberal arts.