SUNY students receiving state funds under the Tuition Assistance Program could be forced to wait until graduation for full reimbursement under Gov. George E. Pataki's proposed 2002-03 budget plan.
The TAP changes "would provide a greater emphasis on degree completion and create a financial incentive for students to stay in college and graduate," Pataki stated. Students who receive up to $5,000 in need-based TAP money would receive two-thirds of their award while enrolled and the remaining third upon graduation, along with any interest accrued on loans taken out in place of their award.
The governor's proposal also provides no increase in funding for the State University of New York system, leaving UB and other SUNY schools to shoulder inflationary and other costs, possibly through fee increases.
UB Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi believes a possible TAP change would have little effect on UB's enrollment or the financial makeup of its student body.
"I do not think enrollment would change, because students are already enrolled or planning their enrollment," Capaldi stated in an e-mail. "What would change is how they would have to finance their education."
UB President William R. Greiner said changes to TAP are only a possibility, as "it seems awfully difficult to get anything involving TAP through the legislature. They seem pretty happy with how things are now with it."
While the proposal is not causing administrative unease, student response so far is disparate.
Junior English student Shaun Burke believes withholding TAP money would do an injustice to students in need.
"Any student willing to take on the challenge of college has enough incentive to graduate as it is," said Burke. "The money is going to students who really need to go to college."
"I think people who are going to drop out are going to drop out, and money's not going to stop them really," said Elizabeth Lang, a freshman nursing major. Lang's friend Kristen Hollederer disagreed.
"It'll make people want to graduate, if they know they're not going to get money until the end," said Hollederer, also a nursing freshman. "As long as the money's there when you graduate, it shouldn't be a problem."
Along with the TAP revision, Pataki's budget provides no additional funding for the SUNY system, and keeps SUNY tuition stable at $3,400 for the seventh year in a row.
Should the "flat-line" budget pass, inflationary costs and negotiated salary raises at UB would create a need for administrators to procure additional non-state revenue or possibly increase various fees across campus.
Capaldi stated that the university's plan, should the budget pass, involves "maximizing our non-state revenue, reducing expenditures where possible (e.g. increased utility conservation), but maintaining faculty recruitment to meet program and workload requirements."
Greiner noted that there would be a $9 million deficit created by university staff salary raises should the budget pass as is, "which simply means we'd have to find funding from some other source."
A statement of the university's planned fee increases is currently under preparation, according to Vice President for Student Affairs Dennis Black, and should be ready for student consultation by mid-February. An already planned three-to-four-percent increase in residence hall and food service costs and comprehensive fee increase will probably be the major costs for students; a flat-line budget, however, would force UB's state-funded facilities "to either absorb the cost or cut programming possibly," said Black.
"Is it conceivable that for some of the services students get today, we would look for fees to supplement that? That's going to be the discussion over the next few weeks," said Black.
Although a capital investment program designed to rehabilitate SUNY's residence halls is part of Pataki's budget, it will have "No effect on [residence halls] in the near future," according to Joseph Krakowiak, director of university residence halls and apartments.
Krakowiak said the residence halls maintain themselves primarily through residence hall fees, which are currently going toward a 10-year rehabilitation project in the residence halls. Aside from this, no major projects are planned as of right now, having just finished $23 million in repairs to Ellicott's brick foundation.
Greiner said he and other SUNY presidents would be meeting with SUNY Chancellor Robert King "and take his lead."
He added that "The budget does have good news for our Centers of Excellence," including secured funds for UB's recent Bioinformatics Center addition.
