SUNY Board of Trustees Directs Chancellor Zimpher to Develop Financial Aid Solutions

Chancellor Will Task SUNY College Presidents to Develop New Aid Plans in the Event of Tuition Increases

Zimpher: “Access to SUNY for All New Yorkers is Our Top Priority”

Albany – The Board of Trustees of the State University of New York unanimously passed a resolution today that directs Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher to coordinate with all 29 of SUNY’s four-year colleges and universities in working to find new or expanded financial aid options to help protect students who could be adversely impacted by a possible tuition hike. In anticipation of a rational tuition bill being adopted by the Legislature, each state-operated campus will develop a plan that reflects resources that are currently available, as well as additional financial aid initiatives. Campus presidents will deliver these plans to the chancellor by the end of June. These plans could include:

• Increasing the availability of credit-earning work-study opportunities on campus
• Increasing co-op opportunities by partnering with local businesses
• Increasing scholarships from campus foundations, alumni associates, and other sources
• Setting aside a portion of new revenues to provide financial aid.

“It is our obligation to keep the doors to higher education open while maintaining the high quality that New York students deserve,” said SUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Carl T. Hayden. “We recognize the necessity for SUNY campuses to be able to anticipate their fiscal challenges and at the same time acknowledge that students and their families choose SUNY for not only its quality but also for its affordability. This is why we have asked Chancellor Zimpher to work with the campuses to identify additional options for financial aid as the University pursues a rational tuition policy.”

“Access to SUNY for all New Yorkers is among our top priorities, and I commend the Board for acting in the best interest of SUNY's financial well-being and on behalf of students,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “Our campus presidents know their communities and they know what their students need, and I am confident that they will provide us with new alternatives to the many financial aid opportunities that currently exist for our students.”

SUNY undergraduate students currently have more than a dozen different options for financial aid, including Stafford Loans, Pell Grants, Perkins Loans, grants, work study, and the New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), among others. A full list of the options currently available to students is available here. Of the approximately 175,000 undergraduate students enrolled at SUNY’s four-year, state-operated campuses, more than 60 percent (106,000) receive no TAP assistance, while 8 percent (14,000 students) receive the maximum TAP allowance.

Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Senator James Seward have introduced legislation (A.6915-A/S. 4709) providing for a five-year tuition plan that allows the SUNY Board of Trustees to set annual tuition rates provided they do not rise above 5.5 percent per year for the next five years. Rational tuition is supported by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, the SUNY Student Assembly, University Faculty Senate, UUP President Phillip H. Smith, Chancellor Zimpher, and the SUNY Board of Trustees. A rational tuition plan would not only provide SUNY with a reliable revenue source to maintain education quality but would also allow students and their families to plan for the cost of their education.

SUNY’s current annual tuition of $4,970 is the lowest among all state university systems in the northeast and in the lowest quartile of all such public institutions of higher learning in the country. Even with the modest annual tuition increases that are being proposed in the Peoples-Stokes/Seward bill, SUNY would continue to be the most affordable state university in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states and among the most affordable in the nation.

In March, the SUNY Board authorized Chancellor Zimpher to pursue negotiations with the governor's office and state legislature to craft the plan.

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 465,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with more than 2.5 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu 

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