SUNY students are not receding silently from the threat Gov. George Pataki's proposed budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal year poses to the Tuition Assistance Program and the Educational Opportunity Program in the name of recession.
The governor's proposal calls for a $155 million decrease in TAP awards from last year, and further denies restoration of last year's cuts of over $13.3 million from opportunity programs such as EOP and $3.4 million in cuts to childcare services for SUNY campuses.
Jennifer Brace, New York State Student Assembly media relations chairperson and UB delegate, said NYSSA has already "met with several senators and assemblymen on the Higher Education Committees" and is "in the process of coordinating a massive letter-writing campaign."
"We will be in the Student Union and doing 'dorm storms' to collect letters so that UB's interest can be well represented in the campaign," said Brace.
According to Miriam Kramer, director of the Higher Education Project, led by the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), over 450 students came to Albany for SUNY Lobby Day in the beginning of March to reject the governor's proposed budget cuts. She strongly disagreed with Pataki's plan to withhold one-third of student TAP awards until after graduation.
"The governor is trying to frame it as an 'incentive,'" said Kramer. "That's ridiculous. If a student can't afford to stay in school, what's the incentive? A student doesn't need tuition assistance when he's no longer paying tuition."
Brace agreed with Kramer, saying, "TAP was created as an entitlement program, not an incentive program."
Brace said students who are denied TAP will be forced to take out a greater amount of loan money. Understanding this complication in his plan, Pataki promised the state will pay interest on any loans graduates accumulate while in school, but he makes no mention of from where these funds will come.
"He is preying on those students [who do not graduate] to help make up the gap," said Brace.
The NYPIRG Web site states that Pataki's proposal "neither increases funding for graduate TAP, a program with abysmally low awards at $75 minimum and $500 maximum, nor does it remove the 'upper-cut' reduction in the award for third- and fourth-year students."
"It's already a limited program," said Kramer. "You can only get it for eight semesters and you have to maintain a 'C' average, so it's already an incentive program."
Another program facing difficulties under this plan is EOP, which is designed to help students with educational and economic disadvantages receive a college education. The proposed budget allots $2.7 million dollars less than in 2000-2001, when 1,015 UB students were receiving assistance from EOP.
"Often, opportunity programs are the only things that get students out of a cycle of poverty and into a competitive global job market," said Brace.
The Educational Opportunity Program Student Association (EOPSA), was also involved in SUNY Lobby Day and has kept in contact with the Family Workers Party, the Black Student Union and Poder: Latinos Unidos regarding the EOP changes.
"Some EOP students are not taking this seriously because they might not be informed," said EOPSA President Mercedes Cepeda.
Henry Durand, director of EOP at UB, expressed concern about the lack of support as projected in the state budget, but has not stopped looking for funds for UB's program.
"I have just recently learned that the provost's office will find funds to support our current enrollment," said Durand.
For her organization, Cepeda said further cutbacks could lead to "a possibility that we will not have the EOP summer program and a possibility that the tutorial office will not be available for the fall."
After talks between NYSSA and the state legislature, Brace said the program "will not make it into the fiscal budget."
"It has been alleged that oftentimes such proposals are included in early drafts of the governor's budget to distract the senate and assembly and cause lobbyists to focus all their attention on one issue," said Brace.
The final version of the state budget must pass both houses of the state legislature and be signed by the governor before it becomes law. Kramer asserts the fight is a present and short one.
"One way or another, we should know by mid-April to early May," she said.
"My suggestion for the EOP students is for them to get in contact with their counselor, especially juniors and seniors, because they will be the ones that will be affected the most, and find out how the budget cut is going to affect them for the fall," said Cepeda.
