On February 19, I guest-authored a post on the Massachusetts Senate’s Substack — The Gavel Drop — about a bill the Senate is taking up to invest capital into higher education infrastructure.
Read on for my post.
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If you spend enough time with a microphone in front of you, you’re bound to have a “hot mic” moment. Let me tell you about mine.
On March 13, 2023, I was chairing a Ways and Means budget hearing on education and local aid funding at UMass Amherst, when Lisa Calise, a senior official testifying on behalf of the University of Massachusetts, said that the backlog of deferred maintenance totaled $3.9 billion across the five UMass campuses.
And then my hot mic moment happened. I groaned into the microphone. Lisa stopped, and asked me if I had something to say.
“Sorry, I was just breathing about the $3.9 billion dollars,” I replied.
$3.9 billion. That’s what it would have cost (three years ago) to fix crumbling roofs, failing HVAC systems, outdated labs, unsafe wiring, and energy-inefficient buildings across the UMass system. And that figure didn’t include the Commonwealth’s state universities and community colleges.
As Senate Chair of the Higher Education Committee, I knew that we could not continue to look away. The Senate President and Ways and Means Chair were way ahead of me. So were the voters, who had overwhelmingly approved a Fair Share amendment to the state constitution, generating over $2 billion annually for education and transportation needs just like this.
As with free community college, four-year college affordability, and investments to increase degree completion, the Senate President led the Senate to address the issue.
In fiscal year 2025, the Senate created a higher education capital working group to assess needs, costs, and equitable distribution. We found that across all public campuses (community colleges, state universities, and UMass campuses), the combined cost of deferred maintenance, decarbonization, and modernization totals a staggering $25 billion.
The comprehensive answer became the BRIGHT Act, or An Act to Build Resilient Infrastructure to Generate Higher-ed Transformation. And BRIGHT does exactly that. It recognizes that deferred maintenance, decarbonization, and programmatic modernization are not separate challenges — they are intertwined.
When we replace a failing boiler, we have the opportunity to electrify. When we renovate a laboratory originally built in 1970, we can dramatically reduce energy use. When we invest in campus infrastructure, we can cut emissions, lower operating costs, and create healthier, modernized learning environments for students and staff.
The BRIGHT Act leverages Fair Share revenue to allow the Commonwealth to borrow an estimated $2.5 billion using “special obligation bonds” to attack capital needs on all 29 public campuses.
The bill incentivizes modern heating and cooling systems, building electrification, and renewable energy integration. It enables universal accessibility improvements, updated student support services infrastructure, and increased collaborations with vocational-technical schools. And it creates good-paying union jobs in construction, engineering, and clean energy.
This is not simply about fixing what’s broken. It’s about transforming our campuses into models of sustainability and innovation. Our public colleges and universities are engines of research and workforce development. They are training the climate scientists, engineers, nurses, teachers, and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Their physical infrastructure should reflect the future we are preparing students to lead.
Deferred maintenance is often invisible — until it isn’t. Until a class is relocated because of a leak. Until a lab can’t support cutting-edge research. Until energy costs crowd out academic investment. The BRIGHT Act says: enough. It is our responsibility to act — and the Senate will take action next week.
The BRIGHT Act is ambitious. But the cost of inaction — on infrastructure, on climate, and on preparing students to meet future opportunities and challenges — is far higher. The state is investing much more than this in college access and affordability. It is imperative that students receive an excellent education — and campus infrastructure is a big part of the equation.
With the BRIGHT Act, Massachusetts is making its most significant higher education capital investment in nearly two decades. Together, we are choosing not to retreat in the face of federal attacks on higher education, but to build forward, better.
