Students at UB struggle financially at least as much as other citizens across the state. Many of us work during the semester not out of want, but out of necessity – to pay for books, rent, food, tuition, and the like.
In that way, The Spectrum's Tuesday, February 8, 2011 editorial struck a chord: sending more money to Albany is not the answer to the current SUNY issues. For all we know, our legislators would use student tuition dollars to buy extra expensive calculators that will magically solve the current budget crisis. No, writing bigger checks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Chancellor Nancy Zimpher is not the answer, as most of what we send to Albany will likely stay there – with our esteemed representatives.
The Spectrum failed, however, to address the larger issue at play: The way UB has become increasingly disenfranchised thanks to poor leadership in Albany. On the Buffalo end, the University has absorbed state funding cuts in stride, doing its best to improve efficiency and allocate funds where possible. In whole, UB has lost $59.5 million in state, non-tuition funding since spring of 2008 without having to cut core student and academic services.
Acting as a buttress against the willy-nilly actions of state legislators, UB administrators have been utilizing financial reserves to help the University withstand the cuts. Now, UB's emergency reserves are gone.
As the adage goes, "All politics is local." In the case of UB, all fiscal management is local. Or, at least it should be. Albany needs to accept that UB knows best how to spend its money and serve its students. So let UB have control of its own future.
The basic concept comes from the American family. In good times and bad, a family will manage finances within its means. UB would be no different. The University can maximize funds internally, without pricey oversight of people like Assemblywoman Deborah Glick – who consistently stands in the way of SUNY reforms and decides that she and her cronies know best how to spend tuition dollars.
Right now, the New York State-SUNY funding model violates that key fiscal principle. Education funding should not be a perennial political issue. So long as the State keeps wasting money, students should be concerned about decreasing quality education.
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Joshua Boston
Student Representative
University at Buffalo Council
Letters to the Editor are not edited by The Spectrum.
