It's the day before Governor Kathy Hochul's 2024 State of the State Address and I have not yet given up hope that she will make the right call and put forward a proposal for pricing and funding SUNY and CUNY like the public goods they are that responds substantively both to the point made by United University Professions that her predecessors underfunded SUNY to the tune of about $500M per year over the last 16 years and the point made by SUNY System Administration that we can expect that gap to rise another $100M per year over the next 10 years without action from New York State. But some impromptu comments from Governor Hochul last Friday have raised my level of alarm that she either doesn't understand the situation facing SUNY or is willing to lie about it. I'll let you go to my x-twitter account @CitizenSE to see the full range of my immediate responses to Governor Hochul's claim that increasing SUNY revenues beyond what she's already done is "impossible." And of course you can read the first three parts of my response to the SUNY report for the rationales underlying those responses. But here's the bottom line.
The $10M-$17M structural deficit facing my own home campus SUNY Fredonia is no joke. Even at its "smaller" end, if we are looking only at budget cuts to address it, we are talking job losses on the order of 100-200 positions, depending on the average salary of those who lose their jobs. Is Governor Hochul really saying that's what she wants for the Village of Fredonia and Northern Chautauqua County? Because if so, she can expect all of Western New York to go to war with her.
"No, no, no, perish the thought. All I'm calling for is to raise revenues by raising tuition. Calm down." In this economy? When 91% of Fredonia's Class of 2019 graduated with student debt? When Fredonia's seen a decrease in enrollments on the order of 40% since Fall 2007? What clearer signal can the students accepted at Fredonia but choosing not to attend be sending that any further tuition increases are unacceptable?
"No, no, no, you misunderstand. Any tuition increases at Fredonia will be more than offset by increases in indirect state financial aid." Well, now we're getting somewhere. What matters to students and families is the net cost of attendance per year. The sticker price at Fredonia, when all costs associated with attendance are factored in, is the equivalent of four very small new cars over four years (about $25K, give or take). Governor Hochul should be asking herself (and, if she doesn't know how to answer the questions, then asking SUNY System Administration) what's the average net cost of attendance at Fredonia? The mean? The median? The average amount of debt a Fredonia student graduates with for the Classes of 2020-2023? The mean? The median? And how much of that net cost has been reduced by Fredonia taking direct state aid operating funds and using them to discount tuition each year on top of scholarships offered by the Fredonia College Foundation? Then start asking the same questions about every campus "in the red" on enrollments over the last decade from page 29 of the SUNY report. If she does that, Governor Hochul will get a very clear picture of the price wars SUNY campuses have been waging.
I'll have much more to say about this later today, but I wanted to get this much out this morning!
Update 1 (2:32 pm)
Please see today's interview with New York State Assembly Higher Education Chair Patricia Fahy.
Update 2 (3:27 pm)
Yesterday, the Albany Times-Union editorial board laid out a position very close to what I've been advocating for on this blog, via twitter, and through my work as Fredonia University Senate Chairperson and Immediate Past Vice President/Secretary of the SUNY University Faculty Senate. I encourage everyone to read it!
Update 3 (6:00 pm)
Check out the #TurnOnTheTAP hashtag on x-twitter for a new initiative sponsored by the chairs of the Senate and Assembly Higher Education Committees, Toby Stavisky and Patricia Fahy. Also check out the #NoCutsToCUNY #InvestinCUNY #CareNotCuts #FullyFundCUNY #NewDeal4CUNY and #APeoplesCUNY hashtags for ongoing efforts by Professional Staff Congress-CUNY leaders and members (such as by Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and History at John Jay College and The Graduate Center, CUNY Gerald Markovitz) to stave off cuts to the City University of New York. All these efforts and more are aimed at raising the stakes on the eve of Governor Hochul's State of the State Address.
The key thing to keep in mind is that increasing indirect state financial aid by itself won't necessarily help SUNY or CUNY, as students could simply choose private alternatives that are already investing heavily in tuition discounting. That's why Assemblymember Fahy has been so careful to connect increasing direct state aid to modernizing the Tuition Assistance Program. That's why the Fredonia University Senate and SUNY University Faculty Senate have been emphasizing the importance of funding and pricing SUNY and CUNY like the public goods they are.
Update 4 (10:54 pm)
Commentary by Blair Horner of NYPIRG also supports shifting the balance of public/private revenues for SUNY back in the direction of greater public investments.
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