Thursday, October 18, 2012

UNH is playing a lead role in rallying alumni, students, parents, and friends of New Hampshire’s public universities and colleges to ask the Legislature to restore state funding for higher education, which was cut nearly 50 percent last year.

Launched in September, the UNH Works for New Hampshire campaign has already reached tens of thousands of New Hampshire voters, and many are carrying its message to candidates for state office.

UNH now receives just 6 percent of its budget from the state—the lowest support per capita in the nation. If support were doubled, New Hampshire would still be last.

“This campaign is new ground for us. In fact, its scope and intensity is unprecedented for the University System—but our challenge in the Legislature also has been unprecedented,” UNH President Mark W. Huddleston said at his State of the University address on Oct. 11.

The campaign seeks to educate voters and show our state’s elected leaders that keeping UNH affordable and accessible is important not only to students and their families, but to businesses, communities and citizens across New Hampshire.

The UNH Works website offers key facts about UNH and its budget, contact information for the candidates, links to news stories and editorials around the state, and tips and addresses for writing letters to the editor. You can find UNH Works on the web at unh.edu/works, and on Facebook and Twitter.

More than 700 alumni, parents, students, and friends have also signed up to be UNH Advocates, pledging to take an active role in taking the case for restoring state support to the state’s decision-makers. The UNH Works Facebook page features updates with links to news stories, editorials, and reports that support public funding for UNH.

In a coordinated effort with the University System of New Hampshire, Keene State College, Plymouth State University, and Granite State College are also rallying their supporters through the, “Higher Education Works for New Hampshire” campaign.

Originally published by:

UNH Today