United University Professions President Frederick Kowal speaks at a rally at SUNY Fredonia (April 30, 2024)
United University Professions President Frederick Kowal said he’s disappointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees’ decision to underfund 19 financially distressed campuses in its state aid allocation to the system’s state-operated colleges and universities.
Kowal said that for the second year in a row, the Trustees approved an allocation plan that sends the lion’s share of funding to the financially secure university centers and doles out what’s left to the rest of the campuses—including those dealing with multimillion-dollar deficits.
Some of those campuses, like SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Fredonia, have announced program and staff cuts to reduce deficits of $9 million and $17 million, respectively.
While Kowal said the Trustees’ allocation plan will help the university centers, they could have used those funds to wipe out a combined $146 million deficit at the 19 campuses, many of them located upstate.
He said, “Nearly $300 million in direct state aid to SUNY is in the enacted budget and can be used to make our financially strapped campuses whole. But the Trustees—following the chancellor’s plan—chose not to do that.”
Kowal said that most SUNY campuses have never recovered from massive Great Recession-era cuts to SUNY and more than a decade of austerity budgets under former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Smaller campuses, such as Fredonia, Potsdam and Buffalo State, have been particularly impacted.
On April 29, Kowal joined more than 200 Fredonia students, faculty and community leaders at a rally to call on the Trustees to distribute direct state aid based on campus need.
Last December, Fredonia administrators—pressured by Chancellor John King—announced the termination of 13 majors in an attempt to reduce a $17 million deficit. In October 2023, Potsdam administrators announced plans to cut as many as 10 degree programs to help close a $9 million shortfall.
Kowal again urged the Trustees to reject King’s allocation plan and fairly fund campuses in need.
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