SUNY students balk at tuition hike
Not so fast, governor, some State University of New York students said Thursday.
SUNY’s Student Assembly voted last month to support gradual annual tuition increases, the first time the group has backed an increase. On Wednesday, Gov. David Paterson proposed $2 billion in mid-year state budget cuts and a tuition increase of $600 per year. The first installment - $300 - would be due in the upcoming spring semester.
That’s a lot more than students had in mind, said David Belsky, a SUNY Albany graduate student in public administration and spokesman for the Student Assembly. They voted for tuition increases that are tied to inflation, such as the Higher Education Price Index. That rate for 2008 is 3.6 percent.
“Our rational tuition plan depends on the state not cutting us any further. Any increase in tuition can only be positive if the state stops cutting us,” said Belsky, a Binghamton University graduate.
The term “rational tuition” has been used in proposals by SUNY officials in recent years to mean regular but modest increases. The plans have not gained support of the Legislature and governor.
The $600 raise Paterson is calling for would boost the current $4,350 tuition by nearly 14 percent. Ten percent of the total would go toward SUNY in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31. For 2009-10, 20 percent would go to the system. The rest would go to the state’s general fund.
“We see this as just another way to patch the state’s budget problems,” Belsky said, adding that state officials have traditionally raised SUNY tuition in times of state budget crises, and by large amounts.
The plan to give SUNY a portion of the new revenue to offset general-fund spending on higher education is a departure from a practice in place for more than 30 years, Paterson’s administration said.
A separate proposal released this week by SUNY presidents at four-year and post-graduate institutions recommended a $1,090 increase, or 25 percent., with the first half due in the spring. Beyond that, they asked for annual tuition increases limited to the Higher Education Price Index. In years when the state appropriation doesn’t meet the increase in fixed costs, tuition should be raised no more than 10 percent, they said.
The Student Assembly opposes the presidents’ plan too.
Support has been growing for a tuition increase, which would have to be approved by the Legislature. One of the recommendations by the state Commission on Higher Education, which released a report in June, was to have small, predictable tuition increases. Carl Hayden of Elmira, chairman of SUNY’s Board of Trustees, and interim Chancellor John Clark sat on the panel.
SUNY trustees are scheduled to consider a budget plan Tuesday that includes higher tuition, potentially starting in the spring. That’s the same day the Legislature returns to Albany to consider the governor’s plan of cuts and tuition increases to make up for a budget shortfall this fiscal year. Lawmakers have expressed reservation about the governor’s plan.
State lawmakers and the governor have made a few cuts to SUNY already this year, which have a net impact of $210 million.
The last time tuition increased was in 2003, when it was raised by 28 percent.
Student trustee Jacob Crawford of Syracuse, president of the Student Assembly, said it’s “unbelievable” that the governor and his administration “think they can tax students $300 a semester and only give SUNY back $30.”
The governor is asking for an “irrational” tuition increase, Crawford said. “If they’re going to do any sort of tuition increase, 100 percent has to go back to SUNY,” said Crawford, who is from Syracuse and is also in the SUNY Albany public administration graduate program.
Fiona Murray, a senior at SUNY Geneseo, said it’s understandable that the school faces budget cuts because of the economic crisis. But to increase tuition by $600 all at once and without looking at other possibilities would not be wise, she said.
Murray, who is from Saratoga Springs, said she is in favor of gradual annual increases but thinks tuition should be raised for each incoming class and be locked in at the same amount until they graduate. Without a predictable policy, what’s to prevent another $600 increase a future budget, she said.
This report was written by The Associated Press
