I've got to admit that I found the State of the State Address almost totally demoralizing for almost the entire afternoon and evening yesterday—so much so that I needed time to even start reading the SOTS Book (that's a today project). It's not that anything that Governor Hochul announced regarding higher ed was so bad; on the contrary, the AI consortium initiative is potentially huge, the top 10% automatic admission is wonderful, etc., etc. Building new housing units on underutilized SUNY properties? Why the heck not? What I was left with, though, was the despairing question, "Is that all?"
What also demoralized me was hearing the Governor talk about long-standing issues and problems that were clearly huge priorities to her using language I've been hoping she would use for SUNY and CUNY—language such as
- "get us out of the deep hole created by decades of inaction"
- "it's a band-aid when we need reconstructive surgery"
- "it takes political will, it takes collaboration...to deliver what New Yorkers desperately want"
—and not use similar language, or really any language at all, on her core responsibility: to set the terms of debate over pricing and funding SUNY and CUNY. College affordability was not incorporated into her consumer protection and affordability agenda in the big way I had called for last Wednesday. And there was really very little on SUNY or CUNY anywhere else in the State of the State.
As statement after statement rolled in yesterday afternoon and evening, my malaise deepened. Was anybody prioritizing a public goods approach to funding and pricing public higher education in New York State?
Right before I called it a night, after I got ready for bed, though, it hit me. There was another interpretation for the Governor's silence on these questions: they were still in play. Governor Hochul is likely still in discussions with SUNY, CUNY, union leaders, DOB, and others on what will actually go into the State Fiscal Year 2025 Executive Budget.
I didn't have the energy last night to gather evidence for this alternative interpretation of the Governor's silences in the State of the State: sleep was a higher priority. But now that I'm awake and rested, I'm seeing evidence everywhere:
- NYSUT's statement (which was released before the State of the State) is very strong, suggesting that the New Deal for Higher Education campaign from 2023 continues into 2024 and that New York's education and higher education unions are in the arena.
- UUP and PSC-CUNY still have not released statements specifically addressing the State of the State. When do unions decide not to make public statements or go to the media? While they're still in negotiations.
- SUNY and CUNY's statements accentuated the positives so intently and were so relentlessly optimistic, while remaining silent on what the Governor was silent on, also suggest that discussions are ongoing. I'm going to read Chancellor King's apparently constative closing—"Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York is making a commitment to public higher education like no other state, and for that we are grateful"—as potentially performative (in the speech act theory sense), or if not actually doing something as concrete as naming a ship or marrying two people, at least trying to call hope into reality (think about "is making" and "like no other state" for a while and you'll see what I'm getting at).
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it until I find countervailing evidence.
Today's agenda includes reading the SOTS Book, talking to people from New York State Assembly Higher Education Committee Chair Patricia Fahy's office, and trying to get New York State's progressive politicians and non-government organizations to pay attention to our petition.
Update (9:04 am)
I've already written about the "you can lead a horse to water..." problem facing every awesome SUNY and CUNY initiative aimed at increasing applications, including the new top 10% initiative: if you don't provide the quality, if you don't price and fund SUNY and CUNY like the public goods they are, then students with better options will go elsewhere. Public higher ed is in the midst of a net cost of attendance battle—a yield war—and so far the Governor doesn't seem to want to publicly acknowledge it, even when it would advance her overall affordability agenda by forcing "independent"/private higher ed to compete harder on college affordability.
Here's another example of how the Governor's proposals could potentially work at cross-purposes. Her voter registration initiative acknowledges what's been known for a long time: college towns tend to vote blue, even in red states and counties. But what is the likely result of forcing places like SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Fredonia to further downsize their faculty and staff? Just ask Emporia State. As Governor Hochul considers how to balance the mix of public and private revenues for SUNY for the coming fiscal year and over the next decade, I hope she also considers the partisan political implications of investing in cities and disinvesting in rural counties.
