Reporter Volume 26, No.20 March 9, 1995

By STEVE COX
Reporter Staff
The director of UB's Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) is out
front in the statewide battle to save the $15 million endangered
program from Gov. Pataki's budget ax.
	Since Gov. Pataki released his budget, Henry Durand, who
chairs the New York State Council of EOP Directors, has been
buttonholing gubernatorial aides, calling on legislators, collecting
thousands of signatures and mobilizing an army of EOP students and
alumni across the state. It appears that their efforts may be having
some effect.
	"Some legislators are very supportive and want restoration,"
Durand said. "Some others are uncommitted. I don't really know of any
who are outright unsupportive." Between EOP and its counterparts in
the City University (SEEK) and at private institutions (HEOP), more
than 35,000 students could be adversely impacted by Pataki's proposed
cuts.
	Durand and his colleagues have developed a comprehensive
"strategic plan" to secure restoration of EOP, TAP and part-time TAP.
"Number one, we hope to gather up one million new voter registration
forms," explained Durand, "and drop them on the governor's desk."
Other activities include gathering petition signatures in support of
EOP, a print and broadcast media campaign, even filing class action
suits against the governor and the state legislature that contend the
state had a "contract" with EOP students it is obliged to fulfill.
	EOP, SEEK and HEOP students, alumni and administrators will
converge on Albany March 14 for a rally at the state capitol.
	The governor, in his budget message, called EOP an ineffective
minority funding program, but Durand says he is dead wrong. EOP
actually serves only slightly more African American than white
students. Currently, 37 percent of EOP students statewide are black,
32 percent are white and 18 percent are Latino. In fact, Durand
projects that, based on the applications and acceptances already
logged  white students will become the largest ethnic block next year.
Durand pegs the average annual cost of attending UB at $10,301. The
average family income
of UB students generally is $43,000, but the average annual income of
EOP students is only $11,000. Also, the six-year graduation rate for
EOP students is 32 percent. While that is below the graduation rate of
the university as a whole, it is substantially higher, Durand
explains, than the national graduation rate for students in that
income bracket: 6 percent. 
	"EOP is not a minority program, it's an economically and
academically disadvantaged student program," Durand explains," and the
state gets a big return in its investment. Conservatively, it is
estimated that the 30,000 graduates of EOP each year generate $754
million in income and pay over $182 million in federal, state and
local taxes each year. They are academically disadvantaged students
when they arrive, but not when they graduate." The state currently
spends less than $17 million on EOP, Durand explains, and about 80
percent of EOP graduates remain in New York State.
	"In a conservative fiscal climate, I find the elimination of
this program puzzling," Durand explains. "It would seem to me to be
what you want; the students stay and contribute back to the state,
working largely in underserved areas."