February 16, 1995: Vol26n17: Bloch, Wagner brief Faculty Senate on implications of proposed budget

The business of the Faculty Senate took a back seat to the future of
the university as Provost Aaron Bloch and Senior Vice President Robert
Wagner briefed senators on the proposed state budget and its
implications for UB at a Feb. 7 meeting.
	Bloch called the proposal "an extraordinarily serious" problem
which "threatens the viability of this university as we have known it.
	"No, we won't close," he said. "but it could be a very
different place than it has been. Our scope and scale could be changed
dramatically."
	Wagner echoed the seriousness of the proposed cuts, saying
"Ours is the largest decrease of any major agency in New York State."
	Gov. Pataki became the first chief executive of New York since
Thomas Dewey to propose an actual decrease in state spending, but
university administrators argue that SUNY is absorbing a
disproportionate share of the cuts.
	"I suspect," said Bloch, "the governor seriously overestimated
the amount of revenue that could be raised by SUNY. He has sought to
bring tuition to levels comparable to the average of our neighboring
states overnight. However, that may be an unrealistic comparison.
	"I've only experienced anything close to this magnitude once
in my career," Bloch continued, "and we must be careful: this type of
experience can bring a university together, or it can tear it apart."
	Wagner explained that the proposed budget would reformulate,
at a basic level, the way in which the university would be financed.
"Last year, SUNY received $900 million in state tax dollar support
and generated $600 million in income, for a total budget of $1.51
billion.
	"The proposed budget would see state tax dollar support fall
to $629 million and income support, namely tuition, rise to $815
million, for a total budget of $1.44 billion, down $74 million
overall" explained Wagner. The danger to SUNY lurks in the governor's
position that the total budget is only down by $74 million. The
governor's proposed budget reduces tax receipts statewide from $33.5
billion to $32.3 billion, or about 3.4 percent. Yet SUNY's share of
those tax dollars drops 10 times that.
	"While it's true that the reduction in SUNY's overall budget
is less than five percent, the reduction in state aid to SUNY is 31.5
percent," Wagner told the Faculty Senators. Adding to the problem are
simultaneous cuts in other programs, like the Educational Opportunity
Program and Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) funds for graduate and
part-time students, all of which would be wiped off the books.
	None of the options available to meet this challenge are
attractive, according to Wagner. To put it in perspective, he
described the $74 million reduction as amounting to roughly 1,900
positions that would have to be eliminated system-wide, and the
equivalent of 9,000 students (FTEs) who would be denied access to
SUNY.
uition, which has risen $1,350
	over the past six years, would have to go up at least $1,300
next year to meet the income projections. "To meet income projections
and to make up for the $74 million cut would require a tuition
increase of $1,900," said Wagner, "and that assumes making our
enrollment projections."
	The university is financially responsible for raising the
amount of income that would be generated by tuition levied against the
number of students in SUNY's projected enrollment plan. "That means,"
he added, "if the new tuition levels and reduced aid amounts leave us,
say, 1,000 students short of projected enrollment, we could face
another $4 million gap that would come out of our pockets through cuts
on campus next year."
	Closing campuses is another possible means by which to address
the cuts, but Wagner downplayed the effectiveness of that. "The
typical college has an annual budget of $27 million and generates
tuition income of $15 million," he demonstrated. "Assuming you can't
just shut the place down April 1, you would have to phase it out over
several years, so you save perhaps $4 or $5 million a year over three
years. You would have to close far more campuses than we have to make
up a $290 million gap."