February 9, 1995: Vol26n16: Grim news in budget released Feb. 1; UB faces major cuts, tuition increase

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
Reporter Editor
T
he news, when it came out of Albany Feb. 1, was far more grim than had
been anticipated. In addition to the $25 million cut to the current
budget, SUNY is facing a reduction of nearly one-third of its state
support in the 1995-96 fiscal year.
	An analysis of the 1995-96 executive budget shows a budget
reduction of $75 million and a requirement that an additional $215
million of income be raised for a total reduction in state support of
nearly $290 million.
	With the possible exception of the University of Massachusetts
system, this is the largest single reduction that any college system
in the country has ever taken, Provost Aaron Bloch said Tuesday.
	UB " is the most comprehensive public university in the
state," he said, one that is unparalleled in the "breadth and
synergism of its programs." However, these budgetary cuts could result
in a devastating reduction in the breadth of UB's programs.
	Faculty, staff, students and parents need to be "vigorous in
expressing their views" about the SUNY budget to the state legislature
and the governor's office, he said.
	And while university officials know there will be major
reductions in funding for the system, they don't know what reduction
to expect for UB. Gov. Pataki has 30 days to amend the executive
budget, and the state legislature has until April 1 to pass it. The
system then will decide on distribution.
	All told, the executive budget represents a 32 percent
reduction in support to SUNY. Funding for the Educational Opportunity
Program would be eliminated and other specialized minority access
programs, such as the Liberty Partnership Program, are threatened. The
budget also eliminates the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) for
graduate students and aid for part-time study.
	"SUNY cuts amount to half of the state operating reductions,
so higher education will be paying for a lot of what government is
trying to do" in New York State, Bloch said.
	"The expectation out of the governor's offices is that the
(SUNY) system will absorb a cut of approximately $75 million in
expenditures," as well as raise about $215 million in revenue,
according to Bloch. "That would translate into a massive tuition
increase at a time when they're reducing tuition assistance for
undergraduates and eliminating tuition assistance for graduate
students."
	One of the fundamental problems with the 1995-96 budget, the
provost said, is that it is based on the expectation that UB -- and
all of SUNY -- will be able to maintain enrollment in the face of
these drastic cuts. But when an anticipated rise in the cost of
tuition is combined with reduced, or eliminated, tuition assistance,
"probably these financial changes are tuition assistance, "probably
these financial changes are going to work toward lower enrollments,"
he said.
	"We need time to discuss internally and with state government
and SUNY Central administration just what the shape of the university
is going to be," Bloch said. "We're talking about an entirely
different economy and the expectation that this large a change can
occur while maintaining a constant enrollment, is probably
unrealistic."
	According to Bloch, the financing and structure of higher
education in the future is in for "massive" changes. "We have to
prepare ourselves as a community to deal with those changes."
	One of the challenges UB faces is "to understand what a stable
enrollment pattern would be under radically changed economic
conditions," Bloch said.
ver the last two years, UB has worked
 	hard to try to optimize enrollments, to structure its academic
programs to allow students to complete their degrees faster, and to
find the best distribution of resources, Bloch said. 
	"Now all our assumptions are completely undermined, and we
will, in a sense, be starting all over again."
	The university community will need to be vigilant that the
changes UB will face in the future do not undermine the unity of the
institution, Bloch said.
	"A stress like this can bring a community together or it can
tear it apart. We have to make sure we work together. Faculty,
administrators, students and staff cannot afford to be divided. We are
a heterogeneous community, appropriately so, and we'll have to use our
separate strengths toward common goals."
	In the coming weeks, the university will need to combine
planning with patience, the provost indicated. 
	"Before we start speculating, we need to understand how the
budget plays out over the next 60 days. We intend to be vigorous
participants in that debate," Bloch said. "Then we have to see the
SUNY distribution. We intend to be vigorous participants in that
discussion, too. There are strategy decisions that need to be made by
the trustees and central administration of SUNY."
	Until the final numbers are in, "we'll be making our views
known on the outside and getting ourselves prepared for the decisions
we'll have to make. I expect there will be broad participation
throughout the university community in intense discussion on the
future shape of UB," Bloch said.
	"We need to preserve as much as possible of the momentum we
have been gathering over the past few years. You cannot turn a
university on a dime, but we want to be more efficient, more
effective, more entrepreneurial, less dependent on state support, more
in control of our own destiny," Bloch said. 
	"We need time to manage the transition in an orderly and
responsible way."