Statement from Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher on SUNY Student Assembly Rally
March 24, 2015
“I was honored today to join more than 50 SUNY students as they met with legislators and legislative staff in Albany to advocate for additional state funding not only for their individual colleges, but for our entire university system. As they did when it was first enacted, our students express a willingness to continue rational tuition, provided New York State also increases its financial commitment to SUNY.
“On behalf of the entire SUNY family, I thank our students for their continued support and encourage the state leaders to hear their call.
"All New Yorkers would have been proud to hear our students speak so passionately about the quality of their education and so confidently about their ideas to make our university system even better and more affordable. These students rallied for a fair and balanced legislative agenda that includes textbook affordability, increased base aid for the community colleges, on-campus child care, and student loan reform in addition to the extension of NYSUNY 2020.
“For the last three years, as our students invested more in their education through rational tuition policy, we have invested more in them, hiring more than 500 new instructional staff and introducing 100 new degree programs that reflect workforce demand. We have shown our students – and New York State – that an investment in SUNY is an investment in a brighter future, not only in terms of the individual successes of our alumni but on behalf of the state’s businesses, communities, and economy."
About the SUNY Student Assembly
The Student Assembly of the State University of New York (SUNY SA) is an organization comprised of student leaders elected by their peers from across SUNY’s 64 campuses. Empowering students throughout the state, the SUNY SA is committed to student life and ensuring the representation of its members on the state and national level as well as throughout the SUNY system.
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2023, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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