Chancellor Johnson isn’t fighting for SUNY. Our union will.
by Loretta Pyles and David A. Banks
Photo credit: UUP New Paltz Chapter Facebook Page
In the darkest days of the Great Recession, New York State—like many states— made tough funding decisions, dealing with economic crisis through cutting public services. Today, in spite of record high private sector job growth and what the Governor’s office calls “undeniable progress” in the Upstate economy, the State University of New York (SUNY) system is still operating at a deficit as a consequence of austerity measures. The plan to address SUNY’s deficit, according to Chancellor and Cuomo appointee Dr. Kristina M. Johnson, was to increase enrollments to make up for the lack of direct state support. But enrollments have not kept apace, resulting in a completely avoidable fiscal and moral crisis with no sense of urgency from the SUNY Board of Trustees.
Faculty and staff have kept our end of the bargain by creating new colleges and programs, seeking external grant funding, and taking on greater teaching and service responsibilities. To do more with less, the SUNY system’s administration has pushed adjunctification of faculty and stretched staff to their limits. During the 2017-2018 school year our campus, University at Albany (SUNY), authorized the fewest number of full-time faculty searches since the recession: just twelve.
Governor Cuomo brags about closing a $10 billion deficit gap and keeping state spending increases low. What he leaves unsaid is that the debt is shifted to students, balancing the budget on the backs of SUNY undergraduates. Prior to the recession, SUNY was funded through a 1:1 ratio of tuition and state taxes. Now that ratio is 2.5:1 as student enrollment remains stagnant. That means at Albany alone, tuition revenue nearly doubled from $75 to $150 million through doubling the cost of attendance—not growing the student body.
We are not alone. Reduction in funding for higher education and the shift of the burden to student tuition has been a trend across the country. In New York, tuition has increased sharply between 2008 and 2018 by 32.3% with adjustments for inflation. At the University at Albany, state tax dollars now only account for approximately 14% of the total budget.
This is made all the more unacceptable given that the state system exists, in part, to fulfill the mission of educating young people from disadvantaged families. Incoming students that qualify for Pell Grants at Albany has gone up from 30% to 40% in the last eleven years. The number of Black and Hispanic students has doubled. These are the students asked to shoulder the costs of higher education.
Even amidst cuts, SUNY is still the state’s biggest employer: a reality that is especially true Upstate, where campuses are the bedrock of regional economies. Whether intentional or not, chronic under-funding of the people’s university system serves the purpose of transferring wealth out of our publicly-owned union shops and into private hands. Meanwhile, another major public employer—, the corrections department—has shuttered 17 prisons but has not spent even half of the $82 million put aside for the communities where those jails once operated. Putting money from closed prisons into our schools and University system would send a clear message about the state’s priorities—and yet nothing is being done.
That is why United University Professions (UUP), along with sister unions and student organizations, is leading the charge to save the SUNY system and restore it to its full operating capacity.
There are concerned lawmakers across the state who agree. The State Senate Standing Committee on Higher Education has held hearings about the need to fund the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) gap and to restore funding to SUNY. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Chair of the Committee, Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, have both been vocal about the importance of state funding, student debt, and accessible education.
So why isn’t the Chancellor listening?
Having embarked on a 64-campus tour, she should be tuned into this issue. Yet, she is refusing to talk about the elephant in the room. The key themes of her chancellorship are said to be “individualized education, innovation and entrepreneurship, and sustainability, all of it underpinned by partnerships.” Unfortunately this could not be more reflective of what SUNY campuses have been forced to deal with for more than a decade now—death by a thousand cuts and a culture of entrepreneurialism shifting accountability for education from the public sector to the private sector, placing an undue burden on students, faculty and staff.
These approaches are certainly not new. The SUNY 2020 Challenge Grant Program, the brainchild of former Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and Governor Cuomo, pits schools, colleges, and even individual departments against one another. Teachers and staff must scramble for crumbs trying to show “innovation,” all while the human infrastructure of SUNY falls apart around them. To be sure, Cuomo’s relentless austerity regimen against both SUNY and CUNY is the reason higher education in New York State is in crisis.
On December 9th, faculty at SUNY schools across the state—in Albany, New Paltz, and Stony Brook—held rallies on their campuses, hand-in-hand with students, staff and allies, to stand against forced austerity and debt peonage. Our only demand: that Chancellor Johnson and the Board of Trustees advocate for the system they are charged with overseeing—that they simply request from the state the money we are due. If the SUNY system were funded at pre-recession levels we would go from an $11 million deficit to a $15 million surplus. With that money we could restaff our offices, and begin hiring full-time faculty again.
The promise that state colleges and universities would be a resource available for young people to pursue economic mobility is being broken with each passing year. The lack of leadership around this issue represents a moral crisis at the top and we stand together to demand the restoration of SUNY funding.
Loretta Pyles is Professor of Social Welfare at the University at Albany and author most recently of the book Healing Justice: Holistic Self-Care for Change Makers (2018 Oxford University Press). She is a member of UUP Albany’s Executive Committee and the chapter’s Membership Development Officer
David A. Banks is Visiting Assistant Professor of Geography and Planning at the University at Albany, delegate to the Troy Area Labor Council, and a rank and file UUP member.