SUNY Board of Trustees Adopts Timeline for Review of Campus Alliance Networks

New York City – The State University of New York Board of Trustees, following a statewide listening tour by senior administration staff, today adopted a timeline for the review of the Campus Alliance Networks established between SUNY Morrisville and SUNYIT, SUNY Cobleskill and SUNY Delhi, and SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam.

The resolution calls for each pairing of campuses to submit a progress report to the Chancellor by July 15, 2012. Each report will include a recommendation by those campuses for whether independent presidents, a shared presidency, or some other leadership structure, would best achieve the goals of the Campus Alliance Network.

“I commend Chancellor Zimpher and her staff for hearing feedback from all interested parties and finding a way to accommodate their concerns,” said Board Chairman H. Carl McCall. “By sharing administrative and other operations and expenses, the Campus Alliance Networks provide for greater efficiency at a time when our campuses are coping with multiple-year funding cuts and a larger responsibility to provide a quality education in light of additional investment by our students.”

“SUNY’s call for shared services among regional campuses in order to identify and redirect cost savings to support student services has received widespread support both within SUNY and the general public,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “However, that support falls short at the concept of one president serving two campuses. We appreciate these concerns and mean to be clear that the goal of these networks has always been and will continue to be to reduce administrative costs at our campuses and use the resulting cost savings to support our students.”

According to today’s Board resolution, the results of a joint report by the presidents of SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Canton, which the Board of Trustees called for at its last meeting on September 20, will be due to the Chancellor by July 15, 2012, as will a similar report by the presidents/officers-in-charge at SUNY Cobleskill and SUNY Delhi and at SUNY Morrisville and SUNYIT. The Board will consider each of the reports at its January 2013 meeting.

The reports will include recommendations for additional opportunities for increasing percentages of campus operating budgets devoted to instruction and academic services if there were a shared presidency between their campuses, as well as determining if there would be substantial obstacles or costs to a shared presidency and whether the presidents recommend a shared presidency, the continuation of separate presidencies (and administrations), or some other organizational structure or approach to best achieve the above goals.

The reports will also include progress made to date in the alignment of the administrations and the creation of administrative efficiencies, including a devotion of a higher percentage of funding to academic and student support services. The reports will also be transmitted promptly to the chairs of each college council and made public so that all constituencies have an opportunity to provide comments to the Chancellor. 

The report from each pair of campuses must include how the campuses are able to accomplish the following:

• Demonstrated progress toward a 10 percentage point increase from current percentage of operating budget devoted directly to instructional budget, or achievement of at least 52 percent spending on instructional budget in total, with a plan of how to reach the remainder of such goals by June 30, 2014.
• A full alignment of administrative staff, including but not limited to Institutional Research, Human Resources, Finance, Accounting, Purchasing, Billing, Budget and Facilities consolidated toward an eventual goal of a unified administration, with the exception of the president. Limited additional exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis in consultation with, and subject to the approval of, the Chancellor or her designee.
• Significant progress toward full consolidation of business and student information systems, processes and software, in all major areas, such as registrar, accounts payable, procurement, and others.

“SUNY’s continued support for independent presidencies at campuses with shared administrations will depend on continual improvement in the administrative alliances and a maintenance of commitment to focus resources on academic instruction and student success,” the resolution states.

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 467,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with nearly 3 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu 

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