February 23, 1995: Vol26n28: Greiner offers vision of future UB in radio talk

By STEVE COX
Reporter Staff
Despite painting a bleak picture of the magnitude of the damage that
proposed state budget cuts could cause UB, President William R.
Greiner reassured anxious students and faculty during a radio talk
show Tuesday: "We are not going out of business on my watch!"
	Greiner answered questions from callers and host Lydia Colbeda
on "Talk of the University," his hour-long, monthly call-in show on
WBFO-FM, UB's National Public Radio affiliate. He was joined by Vice
President for Student Affairs Robert Palmer.
	Budget politics dominated the discussion. Greiner also offered
insight into his vision of the UB of the future: that of a relatively
autonomous, state-aided, but not operated, university.
	Greiner said  Gov. Pataki's proposed $74 million funding cut
and $212 million tuition increase constitutes "a bigger reduction in
state tax support than any university has ever taken, that we know of,
anywhere in the United States." Though Pataki's camp refers to it as
simply a 4.8 percent reduction in appropriation, Greiner stressed to
listeners that, in fact, it is a reduction of 31.5 percent in state
support of public higher education.
	"In 1986, SUNY received about 90 percent of its funding from
direct state appropriation," Greiner explained. "By 1992, that level
had dropped  to about 60 percent, a cut of one-third. In one  fell 
swoop, Gov. Pataki is proposing to reduce state support of SUNY to 43
percent. It is an enormous change, and it comes in a budget  that was
put together in just four weeks."
	SUNY trustees would almost certainly have to close campuses if
this budget is implemented as proposed, Greiner said. That bodes very
badly for the small, rural institutions known as Agricultural &
Technical Colleges. "If tuition rises dramatically at the ag & techs,
students could  well abandon them for community colleges in droves."
Differential tuition rates, between types of institutions or between
types of degrees, and dramatically higher out-of-state tuition rates
are options Greiner would like to see placed  on the table.
	Greiner called  for an intensive reexamination of the nature
of public higher education in New York. He urged consideration of
"public benefit corporation" structures for at least the current
university centers. This would make UB a neo-private institution that
has greater control over its own destiny and receives state aid
without strings attached. The University of Michigan, Rutgers and Penn
State, as well as other public institutions, operate under this
model, Greiner said.
	Greiner told one caller he had the impression that the budget
was as much a shock to state legislators as anyone else. "Hey, George
Pataki is a man of courage. He is doing what he said he would do
during the fall campaign," Greiner said. "Legislators are trying to
figure out how to handle this." He went on to say, however, that
"There seems to be a sense emerging that this was an awfully large hit
on higher education. Higher ed cuts alone were enough to pay for the
entire tax cut in one year. Lots of legislators seem to be saying
'This is too much to ask.' "