The nation’s largest higher education union, United University Professions (UUP), as well as the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY union (PSC) held a joint press conference Monday calling on New York state leaders to increase SUNY and CUNY funding.
After what the two unions claimed was a decade of chronic underfunding, each requested $250 million in additional funding for CUNY and SUNY campuses – including the three SUNY public teaching hospitals located in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse.
Joining the PSC and UUP at the press conference in Albany were students, lawmakers and higher education advocates, all hoping to encourage Governor Kathy Hochul and her administration to further fund CUNY and SUNY institutions.
“While we thank the governor for addressing long standing issues like closing the TAP Gap and investing in the Excelsior Scholarship in her Executive Budget, her proposal falls short when it comes to providing SUNY with the dollars it needs to overcome a decade of underfunding and flat budgets,” said UUP President Dr. Frederick E. Kowal, Ph.D. “SUNY is down $7 billion in state funding since the Great Recession. And here we are, in the second year of a pandemic, and there are zero dollars budgeted—zero—for critical mission funding for SUNY’s public teaching hospitals. For SUNY to meet the governor’s goal of being the best public higher education system in the nation, the state needs to make a long-term investment in SUNY. That must start this year.”
UUP has requested an additional $255.8 million in order to fund and provide resources to SUNY campuses, including the three SUNY teaching hospitals. This money would be allocated with $100 million in direct support to campuses, with the additional $155.8 million to go to public teaching hospital operations and to address debt services – a cost that currently only SUNY hospitals have to shoulder.
PSC has requested $253 million in order to stabilize and increase funding for New York’s community colleges. The aim is to hire an additional 1,385 full-time faculty as well as 541 mental health and academic counselors. Combined with the investment of the executive budget, PSC would also plan to fund one year of the New Deal for CUNY legislation; which seeks to restore CUNY as tuition-free institutions.
“For so many in New York, public higher education has been their springboard into the middle class. By failing to fully fund CUNY and SUNY, we undermine that pathway for countless New Yorkers,” said PSC President James Davis. “Today, faculty, staff and students throughout the state are calling on Governor Hochul and the Legislature to reaffirm the values of equity, opportunity, and access to quality higher education by reversing years of underinvestment into CUNY and SUNY. Let’s build a better future for New York by building on the executive budget and investing much more in these critical institutions today.”
In Hochul’s 2022-2023 executive budget plan, the governor proposed an increase of funding to CUNY and SUNY campuses, however advocates familiar with the two institutions don’t believe the amount to be enough to support them.
“Investing in our public education is investing in our state’s growth, and it is crucial that our budget treats fully funding CUNY and SUNY with the urgency it deserves,” said Senator Andrew Gounardes. “We need another $250 million each for CUNY and SUNY. We need a New Deal for CUNY and game-changing investments in SUNY, and we need them now.”
Hochul’s office has not yet responded to requests for comments at the time of publication.
