The meeting served as an announcement for the UMass Dartmouth free tuition program, a system-wide initiative offering free tuition to Massachusetts students with family incomes of $75,000 or less. Chancellor Fuller highlighted the program's significance for first-generation college students and acknowledged the support from the Healey-Driscoll Administration, Mass Grant, Mass Grant Plus programs, and Pell eligibility. The announcement was made at Durfee High School, which has a strong partnership with UMass Dartmouth, including an early college program with 70-80 students. Senator Michael Rodricks, Mayor Paul Coogan, Principal Jessica Stevens, and Superintendent Tracy Curley all spoke, emphasizing the program's role in addressing affordability, increasing competitiveness, and promoting equity in Massachusetts. They discussed concerns about student debt and the out-migration of young adults (25-40 years old) from the state. The long-term commitment to the program was discussed, with Senator Rodricks attributing its funding to the "fair share Amendment" (millionaires tax), which dedicates new revenue to education and transportation. He also mentioned the state's commitment to free Early Education and Care for 3-5 year olds, noting challenges with educator shortages and classroom capacity. The speakers expressed gratitude for the initiative, noting its potential to profoundly impact students and families by removing financial barriers to higher education and fostering local talent retention.
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the views and opinions expressed on any program are those of The Producers Andor the persons appearing on the program and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of f FRC media Bristol Community College or the city of full River I appreciate you all being here this afternoon uh first I'd like to thank you for being here to celebrate with us the launch of the um Dartmouth
0:28free tuition PR program which is part of the UMass systemwide initiative uh to offer free tuition for Massachusetts students with family incomes of $775,000 or less that's an Applause line I'd also like to thank some of the notables uh in the room with us today uh Senator Michael Rodricks representative Pat Hadad I believe the aid Carly MOS is here their High Char good to see you here and uh principal Jessica is do I
1:04pronounce it Ste stefin or Stevens Stevens okay uh thank you by the way Jessica so much for hosting and giving uh giving us the the ability to use the facility here this afternoon this is a great day uh for workingclass families in Massachusetts and I couldn't be more excited as many of you know if you've heard me speak before I'm a first generation college student myself and so so giving access to higher
1:32education to students is incredibly important to me it's been my life's passion I went to public grade schools high schools and public college and it really allowed me and my brothers to make a dramatic change for not only ourselves but for our families as well so this is incredibly important and it was really facilitated by the commitment of the Healey Driscoll Administration and our
1:57legislative bodies in the mass Grant and mass Grant plus programs so combining those along with obviously pel eligibility and some University commitment to this project we're able to bring that tuition dollars down to basically zero for those students that qualify so we're extremely extremely excited about that when I where I when I thought about where would be a good place to do this honestly uh as I told
2:28Jessica the first place that came mine is dery because I love this school uh I mean we're surrounded by great communities on all sides but this is such a well designed and thoughtfully designed school that serves so many students that come uh to our campus this was a great place to make the announcement so again thank you Jessica for having us here I know we've had a very strong partnership with you I think
2:51we have over 70 or 80 students or so uh right now in our early college uh program uh that that we're working with uh here so early college dual enrollment key ways for us to facilitate a pathway into our institution and again make it possible for those students to get a great education I think this free tuition program is going to make that even easier to do uh we're bundling
3:19everything up we're going to have a very streamlined admission process because again sometimes for first generation college students and again I experienced it myself College can be a bit of a mystery and there's many types of financial aids how do you apply for and what are the deadlines for doing it when do you apply when do you get in your classes and so we're going to try to streamline all of that and really make
3:42this very accessible to the students that we're trying to reach so they'll be getting individual attention from faculty in all of our areas all of our professional schools and our liberal arts nursing business engineering Etc so I think that's all I have to say I would like to give an opportunity uh for Senator Rodricks maybe to come up and say a few
4:14words thank you Chancellor good afternoon everyone it's great to see my colleague representative Pat Hadad here and all of you Chancellor thank you in the entire UMass system for engaging in this initiative we spend a lot of time uh in the legislature addressing three big issues in Massachusetts affordability our competitiveness and our equity and by providing this free and I say free with a you know we know
4:41no free is not free it just means somebody else is going to pay the tab but this is an amazing investment we are very concerned in Massachusetts uh about the amount of student debt that kids are graduating undergrad with hundreds of thousands of dollars you know and uh whether it's this program at UMass whether it's what we've done at our community colleges by offering Community College free for all Massachusetts
5:07residents will ensure that Massachusetts is more affordable it's more competitive and it's more Equitable we uh often talk about this out migration in Massachusetts and it's not the outmigration of those older retired individuals especially people with some disposable income they've been leaving Massachusetts for my entire life moving to Florida chasing better weather to play golf 12 months a year rather than
5:31six to chase a more favorable tax policy maybe but the number one demographic about migration to Massachusetts is the 50 is the 25 to 40y old that is dangerous for us losing these individuals these young adults that are in the prime of their uh careers leaving uh Massachusetts because Massachusetts in many cases are not is not affordable and it's not competitive and in many cases it's inequitable so thank thank
5:59you uh Chancellor I look forward to working with you and your team as always uh to make this as successful as possible and stand ready to assist you in any way possible thank you all very much Mr May welcome to JY um first of all I do want to thank uh the healing RIS School administration and our tremendous State Legislative delegation uh obviously led by Senator Rodricks uh representative Pat Hadad
6:33joining us tonight we have representative Sylvia representative Fiola representative Schmidt these people are hardworking people committed to their districts and their districts include schools like dery um I spent a long long time here and this program that's being wheeled out today by my good friend Chancellor Cutler and the entire UMass system is going to be a tremendous tremendous benefit for our
6:55students at dery High School uh we already have Bristol Community College right up the street but some people are looking for a four-year school and that's where they're going to end up and with this program it's now affordable for them and it gives them the opportunity to pursue an education that we hope can be put to use in employment in our area so as Senator rodri said we want to keep these people here we want
7:17to keep them engaged and we definitely want to keep them going to schools like you Mass Dartmouth as I said I'm a graduate from that school and it did me a world to World of good uh and I appreciate everyone for coming out today but I do have two other people that I'd like to say a few words um the present principal of dery high school principal Jess Stevens she can talk directly about the impact that
7:40it's going to have on our kids this year and then I'd like the superintendent to say something and I'll introduce her in one second come on up Jess hello everyone thank you so much for choosing um dery High School to make this announcement I think on behalf of our students and families to say that this is going to make an incredible impact on so many truly would be an understatement dery is really uh such a
8:08special place place and I think for those of us who are fortunate enough to spend so much of our our time here we really get to know the stories of our students and families and we really come to understand um not only what special young people our students are but how much incredible potential they have to make our world a better one I think coming to realize the barriers that exist relative to access um and
8:35education is is a very real thing that when you see you know a world that we live in really taking actionable steps toward ensuring that these students and families have a true opportunity to grow and learn in a continuous way and really evolve into um young adults and and then adults who can make their Mark and can contribute to this world in the most impactful and Powerful way they can
9:03through education um is just a really special moment to be able to have so I think for me it's just incredibly special to be able to thank you all on behalf of our students families and Community for um taking this step together so thank you um but obviously we were pleased when uh the chancellor called us about doing the press conference here here um and it is because it's always special to
9:32let people see our special building and all of our schools in Fall River are in very very good shape and we're working hard to make them better the person driving that force is a superintendent of schools Tracy Curley um she worked with me a number of years at dery high school as a assistant principal as a vice principal and uh she's a dery grad and she knows what's going on on the
9:54ground and I'd love to have her come up and say a few words cuz I know how important this program is to her lineup Trace so thank you all for being here uh really for giving us this opportunity um to really to Welcome All of You in um it's been you know just listening to the words that other people um have offered um I just want to say that you know I'm
10:20I'm also a student um from Fall River who would have you know I'm someone who would have benefited from a program like this and I was very lucky um in growing up that I had you know a guidance counselor who looked out for me I had other people um individuals in my life who looked out for me I think what Dr Steven said um that's so remarkable about this is that you know we're
10:41putting systems into place um that don't make it necessary while we are every day trying to connect individually with our students um to see programs like this put into place that can really speak to the masses that um send a message to our students that it's it's special to make certainly to make a connection with um a person or a small group of people at your school but for students um who now
11:05have an opportunity to know that it's not just about that singular connection that they may make that there are hosts of people who are looking out for them that there are programs in place that speak to the needs of the greater needs of so many students in our community is just huge and I am I I'm just so grateful really that um you you're extending this to students in our community and to students across the
11:26Commonwealth because it's You know despite all of the other programs this is this is this is a really big one it's a very special one and we are so grateful so thank you I just want to make sure everybody gives due credit to Chancellor uh Cutler and the entire full of I'm sorry I was thinking of I was thinking of the Cutler from DIA Straits I'm sorry um no but I do want to thank uh
11:54Chancellor Fuller and the entire UMass system for giving Fall River this opportunity and even coming down here here today to do this uh press announcement is important to a city like for River and it's important to a school like dery so I really appreciate it my pleasure so I did just find out uh that Paul actually like a true Corsair did attend the football game uh last Friday but he didn't let me know in advance so
12:19I will extend that welcome where as he can attest uh we have quite a football team on campus and uh there's a lot of community Spirit uh growing around that so if you ever do want to stop in please let me know and I'll be happy to entertain you on campus uh so that's all I believe that we have for the show other than maybe some photo opportunities here towards the end so
12:41thank you can I just ask a couple questions you may either um chanc FL or maybe even Senator Rogers um what's the Pro Prospects of this being a longterm commitment well I I think the the ability for us to do this was predicated on a number of things that are in place uh one is obviously longstanding pel grants that that uh offer financial assistance to students that need it and the second is really
13:13the the mass Grant the mass Grant plus program which really doubled down on that for I think many of the reasons that the senator alluded to and the representatives have supported this and so we're looking as as though as long as those programs continue uh we're committed to trying to do this for the long term and I haven't heard anything that would indicate that those programs are not uh and so it's really a
13:38combinational effort from our view of federal support state support and then University support that enables this to happen U Michael education is the number one priority of the massachusett state legislature and we're very very proud that we are known nationally as having the best K through2 education system in the world and that's a result of three things one is the fact that Massachusetts has an inherently High
14:10highly educated population to begin with and they truly value education second is the amount of money that we invest in K through2 education in something called Chapter 70 I can tell you with somebody who writes the budget it's the second largest line item in the state budget Chapter 70 uh and third is the compreh ensive systems of accountability that we hold our school systems too but education does not stop at K
14:37through2 we have doubled down now in our higher education system and we were able to do that uh because uh the voters in Massachusetts passed a so-called fair share Amendment the millionaires tax that's a couple billion dollars a year of new Revenue that's dedicated to education and to Transportation two of the most pressing needs in the Commonwealth of massachus choose it so we've been able to invest uh significant
15:02new resources in a mass Grant and a mass Grant plus program and with the creativity of Chancellor Fuller and his team and the teams at UMass and the teams in our community colleges we' be able to morph that into the ability to provide uh students with tuition-free education and the third pillar something that representative Hadad has worked through an entire career on is Early Education and Care we are committed to
15:27ensure that every 3 to 5-year-old student in Massachusetts has full free Early Education and Care that's a challenge for a couple reasons money is really not one of them because of the revenue that we have we don't have enough early Educators to provide that service so we are working with our community colleges and our public higher education institutions to create a new uh batch of early Educators
15:52to provide that service and second is simple capacity we don't have enough classroom space but that we will grow into that um so we will continue to keep uh education as the number one priority uh as we uh write the budget in E Commonwealth Massachusetts