The Voice

The $90 million budget cut unilaterally imposed on SUNY by the governor will irreparably harm a public university system that has already endured massive reductions.

That’s the warning UUP President Phillip Smith delivered in a news release just hours after the governor announced midyear cuts that strike straight to the heart of SUNY.

“The latest reduction goes beyond draconian,” Smith added. “It means SUNY will likely be forced to deny access to thousands of students by scaling back on its student admissions and enrollments. That would leave thousands of New Yorkers with no place to go for an affordable, accessible public education.”

UUP has a strong ally in Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, who recognizes that rising unemployment has led to record increases in college enrollments.

For UUP, the $131.8 billion 2009-10 state budget is like a partly cloudy day. The outlook could be much brighter, but given the state’s fiscal climate, the budget could have been equivalent to a severe storm.

“The new budget increases SUNY’s net operating budget by $40 million, a positive step in a time of economic turmoil for the state,” UUP President Phillip Smith said. “But the spending plan does not address all our concerns, including the future of SUNY’s hospitals.”

Anxiety gripped the state’s workforce the afternoon of March 24 when Gov. David Paterson announced that 8,900 state workers would be laid off. But UUP members breathed a collective sigh of relief when additional details revealed that SUNY would not be among the agencies affected because it is not under the governor’s direct control.

The announcement by the governor followed the refusal of UUP and other state employee unions to give up their negotiated 3 percent pay increases for this year. Unions also said “no” to a plan for a five-day payroll deferral. The state’s requests to UUP for those givebacks came during a meeting prior to March 24 with representatives from the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and the Division of the Budget.

“No promises were offered that indicated that if we accepted, there would not be any nonrenewals,” said UUP President Phillip Smith. “Nor was there any indication that any savings would go toward the benefit of SUNY.”

The majority of the 29-member New York Congressional delegation is appealing to Gov. David Paterson to allocate more of the state’s federal stimulus money to SUNY.

In a letter cosigned by 20 of the state’s congressmen, the 19 Democrats and one Republican urge the governor to provide SUNY with additional stimulus funds to help the University deal with its budget shortfall.

“It is without question that these (budget) reductions will have a serious impact on the access and quality of education provided to our constituents,” the congressmen wrote in their letter to the governor.

“Many SUNY schools are critical components of our economy,” said U.S. Rep. John McHugh (R-Pierrepont Manor), “and I am hopeful that the governor will use his discretion to provide the additional resources necessary to sustain SUNY during these difficult (economic) times.”

— Donald Feldstein

UUP’s slogan, “SUNY is the $olution,” drew strength from a March public higher education symposium in Albany.

Titled “From Recession to Resurgence: Public Higher Education, The Key to Revitalizing New York,” the symposium attracted more than two dozen UUP members among a group of nearly 200. Jointly sponsored by UUP, NYSUT, SUNY, CUNY and Professional Staff Congress, the symposium supported the assertion that growing higher education can help propel the state out of its economic crisis.   

“This is an historic event,” NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin said. “We all know education is the key to our future.”

Keynote speaker Jeff Madrick, an economic analyst and the editor of Challenge magazine, warned that the current economic crisis must not sidetrack government’s investment in higher education.

“We must not panic in this state of emergency. It’s time to build the foundation for funding education,” he said.