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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 26, 2006

UUP: Rising SUNY enrollment fuels need for full-time faculty

New enrollment figures showing the number of students at SUNY has increased by about 10,000, or 2.4 percent, -- including a 3 percent increase in freshman enrollment -- dramatically illustrates the pressing need for more full-time faculty, according to UUP President William E. Scheuerman

“SUNY’s enrollment growth means more full-time faculty are needed to be certain that there are enough to serve this growing student population and maintain quality programs,” Scheuerman said.  “The Legislature did the right thing in overriding the governor’s veto and adding 380 more full-time faculty positions in its current budget. While that this is a big step in the right direction, SUNY needs to hire additional full-time faculty just to keep up,” he said.

Scheuerman noted that over the last 10-years, SUNY has gained 56,000 students overall while losing 1,000 full-time faculty in the state-operated campuses alone.  

“The current state budget funding only begins to close that gap, but with rising enrollment that gap will only get wider,” Scheuerman added.  

Scheuerman warned that if SUNY does not add more full-time faculty to accommodate increased enrollment it would mean more students would be forced to attend college outside New York, undermining the state’s efforts to maintain an educated workforce. According to SUNY more than 80 percent of SUNY graduates work in the state following graduation.

Scheuerman is asking SUNY to address this growing need for more full-time faculty in its next budget request to the governor.

UUP represents more then 34,000 academic and professional faculty on 29 New York state-operated campuses, and is an affiliate of New York State United Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.     

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