The State University of New York’s flagship centers, stymied by years of state funding cuts, are now eligible for competitive grants that likely would also trigger tuition increases.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the innovative use of existing state economic development funding and SUNY capital funds for the university centers at Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Stony Brook on Monday. Any tuition increases would have to be approved by the Legislature, Cuomo said.
Each university center could win as much as $35 million in challenge grants based on detailed proposals to improve the regional economy through partnerships with businesses and expand the campus, including hiring more faculty. Cuomo said he expects all campuses to include tuition increases above the SUNY-wide base of about $5,000 a year, which is low for public universities.
“It is the next phase for us in getting the economy running,” Cuomo said. “SUNY needs to be a world-class institution.”
The proposal is a scaled-back version of the long proposed UB 2020 plan for the University at Buffalo, a grand plan that included expansion into the city to create jobs. That proposal failed in the Legislature last year, partly because of lawmakers’ concerns about approving for one of the 64 campuses a differential tuition, a rate higher than that charged at the other campuses.
A spokesman for the Senate’s Republican majority noted the Senate had supported a differential tuition for Buffalo and could do so for other campuses.
“We share the governor’s goal of using the university centers to create jobs throughout New York state,” spokesman Scott Reif said.
There was no immediate comment from the Assembly’s Democratic majority on Monday. Its members have been among the strongest voices to keep tuition low.
The plan Cuomo announced along with SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher would be less than Buffalo sought but would be expanded to the other university centers. The university centers are larger, conduct more research and offer more graduate programs than SUNY’s other colleges.
Zimpher’s goal has been to raise SUNY to higher academic levels.
“We have pledged to educate the most adept workforce in the nation, discover innovative solutions to some of the most vexing scientific and socio-economic challenges, improve the business climate in our state and enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers,” she said.
For Buffalo, the plan is a fraction of the $5 billion UB 2020 proposal, which has languished for years in Albany. But it is a plan Cuomo can enact immediately because he controls the economic development money and SUNY capital funds in the challenge grants.
Cuomo defended the grants as “healthy” in a fiscal period that has forced cuts on SUNY and its own “crisis.”
Buffalo Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, a Democrat, defended Cuomo’s plan as realistic, one that will allow campuses to partner with businesses and expand in the face of state aid cuts.
By MICHAEL GORMLEY,Associated Press
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.