SUNY Seeks Compact to Fund Academic Excellence

Albany – The State University of New York Board of Trustees today approved a

2008-09 Budget Request that for the first time is driven by a new funding proposal: the SUNY Compact, which seeks to fund academic excellence across the system by adding an additional 1,000 full-time faculty over a three-year period.

 

The SUNY Compact is a partnership between SUNY, the state, students and major stakeholders that will provide comprehensive and consistent financial support for SUNY. 

 

“SUNY must aspire to be the very best system of public higher education in the nation, if not the world,” said SUNY Board Chairman Carl T. Hayden.  “Sustained investment in the SUNY system will dramatically strengthen the state economy, and greatly enrich the cultural and social fabric of our state. I support the SUNY Compact as a way for us to achieve our goals.”

 

“Support to fund 1,000 more full-time faculty members on SUNY campuses is an important focus of the Compact. The SUNY Compact will put more full-time faculty in our classrooms and labs, which will prepare our students to be the best educated work force in the nation and our research enterprise to spark economic development,” said SUNY Interim Chancellor Dr. John B. Clark.

 

Under the Compact, SUNY would provide support through a variety of endeavors. “SUNY is committed to achieving efficiencies, generating innovation, increasing philanthropy and directing those resources to the benefit of the students and faculty on our campuses,” said Clark.

 

Click here to view the Board of Trustees presentation, given by Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Kimberly R. Cline.

 

Operating Budget Highlights

 

The SUNY Compact and the State-Operated Campuses

Under the proposed Compact, tuition at the state-operated campuses would be the same for all in-state undergraduates. This year, for the first time in five years, tuition would increase five percent. That increase represents $110 per student, per semester. In-state undergraduate tuition is proposed at $4,570 per year and out-of-state undergraduate tuition is proposed at $11,140. 

 

State support for the state-operated campuses would increase 8.5 percent; and SUNY would provide $27 million of support through innovation, efficiency and philanthropy to support its budget request.

 

For students eligible for New York’s Tuition Assistance program, TAP would cover 100 percent of the tuition increase.

 

SUNY asks the state to provide full support for the University’s mandatory costs. SUNY, in turn, would finance its educational initiatives from savings drawn from more efficient operations, small and predictable tuition increases, and increases in campus supported programs and philanthropy

 

SUNY is already fulfilling much of its responsibilities under the Compact by increasing its share of non-state support.  State funding per student at the state-operated campuses declined over the last decade when adjusted for inflation, while over the same period SUNY enrolled an additional 20,000 students at its state-operated campuses.

 

SUNY trails the national averages in full-time to part-time faculty ratios and in student-to-faculty ratios.  For example, the national average for full-time faculty at doctoral degree-granting institutions is 78.4 percent, at SUNY it is 67.9 percent.  The average student-to-faculty ratio for doctoral degree-granting institutions is approximately 13:1 and at SUNY it is approximately 14:1.

 

Once the state commits to fully funding SUNY’s base costs, SUNY can devote additional revenues to improving the quality of a SUNY education by increasing full-time faculty and decreasing class sizes.

 

With the SUNY Compact, students may experience modest tuition increases in exchange for greater access, smaller classes, better services, and enhanced research facilities.  Most importantly, students and their parents will avoid large and unexpected tuition increases, which never completely offset reductions in state support for the University.

 

SUNY requests an additional $64.8 million from the state to support mandatory costs, such as collective bargaining agreements, and $35 million as the state’s portion for academic quality initiatives.

 

Funding from the Compact would enable SUNY to undertake important initiatives that would foster and expand the cultural, economic, and educational environment required for an innovation-driven future. In addition, SUNY would invest in access, research, scholarly diversity and infrastructure. Together the academic quality initiatives would provide the citizens of New York access to the highest quality SUNY education.

 

SUNY requests support for:

• Enhanced educational excellence – additional full-time faculty
• Increased access while ensuring diversity
• Expanded leading-edge research to drive economic development

• Campus safety and security

• Greening SUNY
• Improving System efficiency

 

Community Colleges

For 2008-09, the SUNY Community Colleges request increases to operating aid to allow the hiring of more full-time faculty and to better support high-needs programs and remedial education. These resources will provide students with smaller classes, better advisement and more intensive teaching techniques in remediation programs – all essential steps for them to achieve success in the SUNY system.

 

Full funding of this request would allow the shares for the community college funding partners – students, sponsors and the state – to be realigned with the shares as they are statutorily defined.

 

The Community Colleges are also supported by local sponsors and student tuition.  For their share of the Compact, the Community Colleges will generate $3 million in philanthropy and $1 million in efficiency and innovation savings.  SUNY requests an additional $93 million from the state to support the 30 community colleges.                   

 

Hospitals

SUNY requests a $39.9 million increase to the state support for the three SUNY teaching hospitals--SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Stony Brook University Hospital and Upstate Medical University hospitals--so they can continue to provide these services to the people of New York.  The three teaching hospitals, along with the medical school at the University at Buffalo, comprise the four SUNY academic medical centers, which provide essential medical care and cutting edge health care research to their respective communities.

 

The requested support would recognize the additional costs salaries and benefits that are a result of state collective bargaining agreements.  In addition, the state subsidy supports the costs of maintaining unique programs such as burn unit, neonatal units, and level I trauma centers. Although these units are very expensive to operate, they serve New York’s most vulnerable citizens and support the academic mission of SUNY and the state.

 

Capital Budget Highlights

 

New 2008-13 Five-Year Financing Plans

During the 2007-08 Executive Budget process, the governor called upon SUNY to develop new five-year plans for each of its 4 capital programs and include State-operated campus Educational Facilities and Residence Halls, the University’s Hospitals and Community Colleges. 

 

Combined, there are 2,765 buildings, comprising 95.5 million square feet, with an average age of 41.1 years.  The capital budget request is reflective of the sheer size, age, and condition of SUNY’s facilities and reflects the fact that historical capital funding levels did not keep pace with the aging of a majority of the University’s facilities.

 

SUNY Educational Facilities

The University is requesting some $7.25 billion in new State-supported funding for its educational facilities.  Of this amount, $3.75 billion is exclusively for capital critical maintenance.  An additional State-supported amount of $2.5 billion is requested to support the highest priority strategic capital initiatives along with an additional $1 billion for evolving initiatives over the five year plan. These include both new construction and major renovations in support of various mission goals.

 

Also proposed is $541.9 million for the “Greening of SUNY” to promote energy conservation, renewable energy, and sustainability on SUNY’s State-operated campuses. 

 

SUNY Hospitals and Residence Halls

SUNY is requesting $776 million in capital projects for its three teaching hospitals and $818 million for residence halls.   Capital for both is self-funded through program revenues.

 

Community Colleges

SUNY requests $1.3 billon for capital construction at its Community Colleges.  This represents the State’s 50% share.  Local sponsors must provide at least 50 percent of the capital funding for a Community College project.

 

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 427,000 students in 7,669 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu 

 

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