UB raises its voice in tuition debate

It was an eye-opening Monday for several New York State Assemblymen and Senators at a public hearing at Buffalo State College's Butler Library Room. New York lawmakers got an earful from both UB and Buffalo State officials, students and student groups about SUNY's proposed tuition hike plan.

"I think they dramatically showed the need for more funding," said Ron Canestrari, D-106th district assemblyman and chairman of the NYS Assembly Committee on Higher Education. "They gave us a detailed and powerful message that we need to keep tuition money in higher education."

The hearing was the last in a series of four public hearings held jointly by the state senate and assembly committees on higher education. Canestrari said the goal of the hearings was to discuss the future of New York's public university system.

"The purpose of the hearings was to explore the next generation of SUNY and CUNY, to hear what we should be doing and what we shouldn't," he said.

The hearing consisted of testimony from seven invited speakers. Though the hearing took place at Buffalo State, three UB officials testified: Vice President of External Affairs Marsha Henderson, Dean of UB's School of Law Nils Olsen and Professor of Higher and Comparative Education Bruce Johnstone.

All three spoke to the need for a reasonable tuition increase plan, acknowledging that tuition hikes were inevitable. Like the other UB representatives, Johnstone also said that with the rational plan, SUNY and the New York legislature should make provisions to prevent SUNY tuition money from replacing tax dollars in the state budget.

"A large tuition increase should not, in principle, be used to substitute for state tax dollars or to compensate for the state otherwise failing to maintain its share," he said. "This desired stability also carries a hope and an expectation that politicians will not play politics with tuition and with the university's financial viability by pandering to some presumed student vote and favoring a tuition freeze, or worse, a tuition decrease, when they know full well that the state will not step in to replace the missing money."

Canestrari expressed surprise that the proposed SUNY tuition plan dominated the discussion at Buff State.

"The tuition issue dominated Buffalo to an extent we did not see at the other hearings," he said. "The others offered praise for TAP and our success in keeping it alive, more of how it was related to tuition."

"It was good for us to know how this part of the state is thinking," he said.

Student activism group NYPIRG had a large representation at the hearings, handing out flyers and leaflets in order to raise awareness of the lack of protection they say leaves SUNY students vulnerable to excessive tuition increases and a loophole that allows the governor to redirect tuition money into other parts of the New York State budget.

"It would be great if the state were to institute a reasonable tuition plan," said Ann Zagare, project coordinator for the Buff State NYPIRG branch. "The problem is even if there were guarantees given by the legislature or the governor, they could just go back and change it."

The loophole Zagare is referring to is language in the state constitution that allows the governor to redirect money in the state budget as needed. She and NYPIRG are working to raise awareness of Proposition 1, a state constitutional amendment designed to limit that ability of the executive branch and enable the State Legislature to have more control over the state budget.

SUNY SA Delegate Brittany Shapiro attended a portion of the testimony and said it would be irresponsible to allow for tuition increases without the guarantee that financial aid would also be increased.

"Kids are not getting enough financial aid as it is," she said. "Students are going to school full time and have to work 30 hours a week just to get by. The way they cut off TAP (Tuition Assistance Program) is ridiculous."

Shapiro said she was unsure if the hearing would have any effect in the long run.

"It really was a lot of voices were listened to, but very few were actually heard," she said.

Canestrari said he expected a lot to come of the hearings.

"We will not support a tuition increase unless we can guarantee that the dollars generated by tuition goes into higher education and not replace state funds," he said.

Canestrari said the struggle over Proposition 1 was mainly a struggle of power between the legislature and the governor, so the testimony was more of a reinforcement for the legislators.

"In a way this was really preaching to the choir," he said. "But it's an attempt to galvanize us to push this thing through. It's a real wake up call."