Outreach & Engagement

Legislative Update Archives

 

 2007

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•  December 20, 2007

December 20, 2007

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Our annual 2008 University Relations Summit will be a two day event - Thursday, January 24th and Friday, January 25th. Beginning at noon, Thursday's session will focus on the 2008-09 budget request, advocacy strategies, the Commission on Higher Education and include a panel of legislative/higher education experts. Friday's session will be devoted to the impact of the new changes in ethics and lobbying rules both from the state and federal perspectives and conclude at noon. Registration material will follow shortly.

SUNY Day

SUNY Day is Tuesday, February 26, 2008. Our annual campus advocacy day will follow last year’s format. Details and registration information will be available in early January.

New GR Personnel

Several campuses have assigned government relations responsibilities to new staff since the end of the 2007 session:
Cristina Batt – University at Buffalo
Elizabeth Tuttle – Potsdam State
Patrick Calabria – Farmingdale State
Terry Kane – Binghamton University
Tom Murphy – Old Westbury
William Benfanti – Buffalo State
Ryan Deuel – Canton
Amy Russo – Onondaga Community College

HELP Update

The 2008 Higher Education Legislative Profiles (HELP) will be available at the January 24th Summit. This project matches the number of current students, employees and alumni with the individual members of the Assembly and Senate and their districts in which they reside. We would like to encourage all those campuses that still have outstanding data to provide such to Teare VanDenburgh (teare.vandenburgh@suny.edu) as soon as possible. You know who you are!

BOT Legislative Agenda

The Board of Trustees recently approved a series of legislative proposals for consideration during the 2008 Legislative Session.

Amidon & NYPIRG Litigation

A 11/20/07 federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that the UAlbany’s student government violated the First Amendment by using a campus referendum to determine how much money from the mandatory activity fees could be allocated to a conservative student group.

State of the State

The State of the State will be at 1:00pm on Wednesday, January 9th.

Commission on Higher Education

The Commission on Higher Education (CHE) recently issued its preliminary report.

Campus Advocacy in the Capitol

The Office of University Relations will be hosting a series of meetings on selective Tuesdays in Albany to which all campus based government relations coordinators are invited. These informal sessions will afford those campus folks who choose to travel to Albany on behalf of their home campus, an opportunity to gather and share current updates and activity in the Legislature. In addition, legislative staff will be invited to join our group to offer their insights as to current higher education issues. The dates to date are:

Tuesday February 5th
Tuesday March 4th
Tuesday March 25th

Additional information will be forthcoming regarding times and locations, however it is anticipated that these sessions will be held in the early morning prior to the beginning of the Tuesday committee schedules.