Higher education faculty and staff from the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY and United University Professions at SUNY come together to share their common concerns during the rally in Albany.

There was an Elvis sighting at the March for Public Education rally in Albany May 3.

It was little Elvis Smith in his stroller. His parents wondered whether a pre-kindergarten would be waiting for him. His dad, Joshua Smith, an administrator and professor at SUNY Albany, also has to worry about his job.

"Every meeting on campus is about the budget, not education," he said. "It's disheartening."

So Smith and his family fell in step with throngs filing into the Empire State Plaza.

David Curry, a nursing professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, is frustrated with the nursing shortage compounded by a lack of funding for nursing professors - educators who could move trained nurses into the waiting field.

"We had two early retirements for nursing professors and we're afraid we can't fill their positions because of last year's budget, never mind this year," said Curry, holding a banner for United University Professions, representing SUNY academic and professional faculty. The college took a half-million dollars in unexpected mid-year cuts last year, he said.

Nurse training mandates call for one faculty member for every 10 students, so making class sizes expand each year - as many other college programs are forced to - is not an option.

"Higher education cannot sustain any more budget cuts," said Candy Merbler, SUNY Albany chapter president for UUP and a professional in the campus library.

"We're cutting one-third of our acquisitions budget, and that will limit access to numerous prints and electronic resources," she said. Campuswide, she said, students already have difficulty meeting their requirements in four years to graduate.

"We're looking at cutting large numbers of part-time faculty campuswide, and it will be probably be the end of some programs on campus," she said flatly.

While she spoke, there was a parting of the red sea. UUPers, dressed in red hats, made room for their counterparts at the City University of New York - all carrying crimson signs for the Professional Staff Congress.

Retiree Irwin Yellowitz, a CUNY professor for 39 years, hoisted a sign and walked the plaza. He left his house at 6:30 Saturday morning to come to the rally.

"I've seen less and less support for >public higher education," Yellowitz said. "There's been difficulty maintaining the same quality. It's been a struggle."

That message was also carried to the rally by community colleges. Lou Stollar, president of the United College Employees at New York City's Fashion Institute of Technology, has led his share of protests. "Community colleges are key to providing a brighter economic future for New Yorkers," he said.

Standing next to a pool reflecting images of hundreds of comrades, CUNY professor Jane Young held her rally placard high. She teaches an intensive writing course to 29 students at the Borough of Manhattan Community College - a course recommended to have not more than 15 students by the National Council of Teachers of English, she noted drily.

Where she teaches, 18,000 students are crowded into a structure built for 8,700 because one of the college's other buildings was damaged irreparably by debris from the collapsed World Trade Center buildings across the street.

"Twenty months later we still have no word on a new building," said Young, BMCC chapter president for the PSC.

Young is also concerned about tuition increases, slated at $950 for senior college students and $500-$600 for junior colleges.

"Seventy percent of our students come from households making under $25,000 a year," Young said.

Many of those students took trains and cars up the Hudson to the Empire State Plaza, as well, surrounding their teachers and chanting for change. Some older students brought their children, who hopped up and down with excitement at the display of enthusiasm by thousands in favor of a better future for all.