From: Elmira Star Gazette
September 17, 2008
By Cara Matthews
ALBANY -- The State University of New York academic and professional faculty union on Tuesday accused the school's administration of "dragging its feet" in dealing with the latest round of state budget cuts.
United University Professions, which has 35,000 members on 29 SUNY campuses, said the administration is "making a bad situation worse" by not taking any action on the $96.3 million reduction in state funding. Gov. David Paterson announced on July 30 that he would trim 7 percent from agency budgets and the Legislature made the cuts official Aug. 19.
"This delay has the potential of making the pain this budget cut will generate even worse, forcing even deeper cuts later on," UUP President Phillip Smith said in a statement.
Most of the $96.3 million in cuts will be implemented systemwide, but campuses will have to split about $40 million, SUNY Finance and Administration Committee Chairman H. Carl McCall told other trustees Tuesday. Colleges have been crunching numbers to figure out how they will trim spending, a difficult task since courses and other programs are planned well in advance, SUNY officials have said.
"There's no way of getting around it that this is going to be very severe," McCall said.
The 64-campus system is reeling from multiple reductions in state funding this year, trustees and others have said. Paterson has ordered spending cuts because of an ongoing economic slowdown and projected state budget shortfalls. The state budget, which was enacted in April, reduced SUNY's funding by $38.8 million. Following that, the school had to subtract another $11.2 million in state funds.
Budget reductions so far have resulted in fewer courses, larger class sizes, faculty positions left open and a delay in replacing equipment. The $96.3 million will exacerbate the situation, SUNY officials said.
Besides state budget reductions, SUNY was ordered to put a cap on spending tens of millions of dollars in revenues the school generates on its own, including dormitory and hospital fees.
Taken together, the net impact over last year's funding is $210 million, McCall said.
McCall said Tuesday that specifics on cost-cutting measures would be forthcoming, but he didn't give a specific date.
"SUNY's budget issues are very complex, given its 64 campuses," SUNY spokesman David Henahan said. "We are currently working with the business officers and campus presidents to mitigate further negative impact."
SUNY generates $7 billion in revenue for New York and could improve on that if it wasn't so highly regulated by the state, McCall said.
In its June report, the state Commission on Higher Education said SUNY is restricted because the Board of Trustees cannot lease SUNY property without prior legislative approval. That should be changed, and the state should provide operating flexibility to the SUNY Construction Fund and streamline the purchasing process for SUNY, the commission said.
Also Tuesday, Board of Trustees Chairman Carl Hayden of Elmira said he and other members of the chancellor search committee are hopeful that the search is nearing a conclusion. Former Chancellor John Ryan left the $340,000-per-year job last year. John Clark is interim chancellor.
The committee has provided the names of candidates on the "short list" to the governor, said Hayden, who declined to provide a specific number. He did not call them finalists, saying the search is still open. He emphasized that the names were given to the governor as a courtesy, and the search committee -- not the governor -- will recommend who should be hired.
"We continue to reach out to people that we think would be effective leaders of the university," he said.
One candidate who pulled out of the search said it was because of New York's economic problems, Hayden said. Committee members are "most interested in people of great distinction and accomplishment who are not deterred by the reality of New York's fiscal situation ...." he said.
"None of the people that we're really interested in have pulled out," he said.
In other action, the Board of Trustees announced that Vice Chairman Randy Daniels was resigning. Daniels, a former television reporter, was nominated to serve as a trustee in 1997. A Republican, he was secretary of state under former Gov. George Pataki and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006.
Daniels said he couldn't continue to devote the time necessary to be on the SUNY board. He described serving on the panel as "one of the most extraordinary journeys of my life."
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