State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo, Grand Island) came to UB Wednesday, speaking about the SUNY system, the state's financial woes, UB's relationship to Western New York and the lack of political participation on the part of students.
"I think too often this great institution is taken for granted in Western New York," he began. Hoyt told the assembled audience of 20 to 25 students that as an alumnus of a public institution, Buffalo State College, he recognizes the value of SUNY in New York.
Visiting North Campus the day after local elections, Hoyt's mention of the absence of student voices from politics was particularly pertinent.
"I would like to try to impress upon college-age students that they are important and they could play a critical role in elections, and they have a responsibility to participate in elections," said Hoyt. "... If you are marginalized and taken for granted, then the issues that are important to you simply will be ignored."
Part of the reason students should participate more in the political process, Hoyt said, is because of the "benign neglect" institutions of higher education are receiving from state legislators, particularly in New York state.
The outspoken proponent of expanding UB's role in the greater Buffalo region spoke briefly about his efforts in "town-gown" relations - the connection between a university or college and the host community in which it is located.
For UB and Buffalo, an improvement of that relationship would mean greater support of the city itself and districts such as University Heights, an area Hoyt believes the university has abandoned in recent years.
"Across the country, you've got urban institutions like the University at Buffalo, recognizing that it's in their self-interest to integrate into the host communities and I don't think this institution has done that well enough," said Hoyt. "It's expanding its presence here in Amherst, but there's got to be a much better balance in terms of how it's invested its dollars between the two campuses."
Hoyt said he had introduced legislation requiring SUNY to host an annual conference that would highlight the relationship between an individual institution and its surrounding community.
That relation will most likely suffer from the UB's decision to create the Lee Road complex rather than rebuild or enhance South Campus or the University Heights district, Hoyt said.
"My opinion is that as opposed to trying to replicate something that already exists a few miles down the road, we ought to be strengthening that," he said. "I don't have any problem with the university building housing on the North Campus. Maybe it's needed. No doubt it's needed."
Hoyt lamented what he viewed as UB abandoning South Campus in favor of its Amherst counterpart.
"There isn't equity," he said. "There isn't any form of balance in terms of the investments. I don't really like the idea ... when what we have in the city is deteriorating."
Hoyt also raised the question of whether Buffalo's suburbs be called on to support the city.
"If you don't provide the necessary assistance to strengthen the core, what's bad about the core is going to spread like a disease," Hoyt responded, citing poverty, crime and dilapidated housing as examples of Buffalo's disease that are diffusing to suburbs such as Amherst or Cheektowaga.
"So I'm hopeful that we as leaders in this community can better educate people throughout the entire county that you can say those problems in Buffalo aren't my problems, I live in lily-white suburb, but they're going to become your problem if you don't play a role in helping to salvage it on the lower level," Hoyt said.
One of the audience members questioned whether Buffalo was a "racist" community, to which Hoyt immediately replied, "There are certainly elements of racism, absolutely."
"Is Buffalo and Western New York any more racist than other regions of the country? I don't know. It's more segregated," he added.
According to Hoyt, that segregation is aggravated by the remote location of employers like UB in suburbs like Amherst, which are often difficult to reach using public transportation. Although the subway system in downtown Buffalo was initially meant to bridge the North and South campus areas, the subway was never completed, partially, said Hoyt, because of those same notions of the "lily-white suburbs" and segregation.
He ended with a brief discussion of the financial state of higher education in New York. Hoyt cautioned that with the economy turning downward, partly due to the Sept. 11 attacks and partly to the economic condition prior to the attacks, higher education will have to limit expenditures and work from a smaller budget, as analysts predict a $9 billion deficit in the 2003 New York state budget.
If the governor decides to raise the tuition, said Hoyt, "He's going to try to sugarcoat it as much as possible."
Hoyt, who came to campus on an invitation from the Student Association, was also available to speak to students in one-on-one interviews after his presentation.
