Raise Your Voice for the Future of the University of Puerto Rico

Under the US-imposed Fiscal Board, hundreds of public schools have been closed and the University of Puerto Rico has had its budget slashed by a brutal 50%. This is to pay for an unaudited debt that students, parents and families did not create. A death by a thousand cuts and a thousand fees is not an economic growth model.

Find your Congressional rep here, then copy & paste the following message to them: “End the fiscal board & austerity imposed on Puerto Rico - today! The Puerto Rican people do not want the board or its harmful policies. Imposing it remains an act against the will of a people.”

The University of Puerto Rico’s Future and Accreditation in Danger 

The University of Puerto Rico (UPR), once one of the most highly esteemed public university systems in the Caribbean and Western Hemisphere, is declining as a consequence  of the austerity measures imposed by the Fiscal Control Board created under PROMESA. 

‣ The University’s annual budget for operating all 11 campuses is $407 million, a more than 50% decrease from $843 million in 2016, before Congress ushered in PROMESA and the Board. 

‣ To compensate for the cuts, the Fiscal Control Board has imposed tuition hikes of more than 300% since 2016 starting at the undergraduate level. Due to the increased cost of tuition, the UPR has seen a 15% decrease in enrollment. 

‣ UPR President Luis Ferrao has raised the alarm about these devastating cuts, saying they are risking the University’s accreditation, and the Middle States Association warned that the UPR’s School of Medicine, the only public medical school on the island, could lose its accreditation because of the instability of the university’s financing. 

‣ Before PROMESA, local laws guaranteed funding for the University of Puerto Rico at 9.6% of the overall budget of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Fiscal Control Board had this law abolished, paving the way for austerity, uncertainty, and the potential loss of accreditation. If the UPR were to lose accreditation, it would be the first wide university system in a United States jurisdiction to do so.