Reporter Volume 26, No.20 March 9, 1995

By STEVE COX
Reporter Staff
The alumni message to state legislators: We need Time, TAP and Tools.
	The legislators' response to the alumni: Keep up the good
work, but bring us a plan.
	Members of the UB Alumni Association Legislative Action
Committee met with nearly two dozen state lawmakers on Tuesday, Feb.
28 during a daylong mission to Albany. The trip came with just a month
left until the legislature is due to adopt a state budget.
	The legislature is divided politically, between the
Democratic-
controlled State Assembly and Republican-dominated State Senate.
However, legislators from both houses gave indications to alums they
spoke with that the proposed cuts to SUNY were disproportionate.
	Long Island State Sen. Ken LaValle, chair of the Senate Higher
Education Committee, when questioned by UB Alumni Association
President Sarah Anderson on the elimination of programs like EOP and
part-time TAP, said, "I think you will find that legislators are
committed to ensuring access. It's more just a question of 'Do we have
to spend $60 million to do it?'
	"The independents (private colleges), SUNY and CUNY are trying
now to agree on a program that allows access through opportunity
programs for less."
	Responding to her plea for greater flexibility for SUNY,
LaValle noted "We did that. In 1985-86, we gave SUNY flexibility.
Critics then said it would just shift the bottleneck from the state
Division of Budget to SUNY Central. You know what, they were right."
LaValle added that, to make any restorations at all, SUNY had to
present a workable counter proposal. "SUNY needs someone to say 'I
have a game plan....This is my vision of SUNY."
	Learning that UB President William Greiner's scheduled visit
with him was cancelled by an ice storm that closed the Albany County
Airport, LaValle picked up the phone and called Greiner in Buffalo.
Stephanie Sorrentino, representing Assemblyman Edward Sullivan, told a
half dozen students and alums, 
"Simply put, Mr. Sullivan is taking the governor's budget as an
unacceptable proposal." Sullivan, who chairs the Assembly Higher
Education Committee, has been traversing the state speaking to SUNY
students. He is slated to speak to UB students during a noontime rally
in the Student Union tomorrow.
	Sorrentino felt the prognosis for the SUNY budget was not as
bleak as others may say. "You have an audience here, you know.
Probably half of the legislature's employees are graduates of SUNY. I 
think we have the governor's people sweating a little bit."
	State Sen. Dale Volker of Depew, himself a UB Law grad, shared
with fellow UB Law alum Jean Powers, a partner in the downtown firm
Jaeckle, Fleischman and Mugel, his frustration with SUNY Central's
lack of a coherent message in the capitol. Nevertheless, Volker said
the State Senate had usually been kind to SUNY when proposed cuts ran
deep, and he hoped the same could be true this year. Volker encouraged
the group to "keep the pressure on, that's what legislators respond
to."
	A member of the Democratic minority in his house, Sen. William
Stachowski of Buffalo told Angola attorney Wally Pacer, "I have never
been this far along in the budget process without having any grasp on
what is going to happen. I feel completely shut out."
	Frank Horsch, legislative director of Assemblyman Sam Hoyt's
office, told Don Roberts, "The proposed tuition increase would move us
from 13th most expensive public university to third. The assemblyman
feels there is almost nothing about this budget to support. This is a
serious and unpleasant game of brinkmanship." Horsch invited the
alumni to attend Hoyt's next "town meeting" on March 11, in Moot Hall
on the Buffalo State College campus.
	Other legislators visited by UB alumni include Assemblymembers
Robin Schimminger of Kenmore, Paul Tokasz of Cheektowaga, Sandra Lee
Wirth of West Seneca, William Parment of Jamestown, Arthur Eve of
Buffalo, Patricia McGee of Olean, Joseph Pillittere of Niagara Falls,
Richard Keane of South Buffalo, Charles Nesbitt of Brockport, Thomas
Reynolds of Springville and Francis Pordum of Orchard Park. Also,
Senators Mary Lou Rath of Amherst, Jess Present of Jamestown and
Anthony Nanula of Buffalo.