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• “Conversations about how to change are going forward now, in this time of crisis, as they simply couldn’t in previous years.”

  President John B. Simpson

By KEVIN FRYLING

Published: October 8, 2008

The nation’s ongoing economic crisis seems to be creating a seismic shift in attitude toward SUNY among policymakers in Albany, President John B. Simpson said during Tuesday’s meeting the Faculty Senate.

The state’s financial turmoil—as well as the continued absence of a permanent SUNY chancellor—is contributing to “a lot of interest in thinking about how SUNY works and about how higher education works in this state,” Simpson said.

“It’s not unlike what happens over the course of many years, if not decades, when tectonic plates align and move,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of energy being unleashed—I do not know where it’s going—but I look upon this as an entirely healthy thing because I think SUNY, as it’s presently set up and functions, is sub-optimal.

“Conversations about how to change are going forward now, in this time of crisis, as they simply couldn’t in previous years,” he added.

But Simpson also noted that he and Provost Satish K. Tripathi are creating plans to respond to various budget-reduction scenarios.

“The budget reduction might lead to a conversation about what we do with our enrollments…in respect to who we enroll,” Simpson said. “I have been loath to have such a conversation before, but I sense that it is getting near time…given that the resource amounts we get from Albany are in jeopardy, if not decreasing.”

Tripathi, also executive vice president for academic affairs, presented an update on the activities of the university-wide Strategic Financial Advisory Committee, including the group’s effort to pinpoint UB’s core principles in order to preserve them through tough times. These include preserving the vision of academic excellence set forth under UB 2020, realizing the full potential of UB’s research enterprise and ensuring that undergraduate, graduate and professional students continue to receive a great education.

Protecting the core mission will require differential cuts and selective investments, added Tripathi, noting that an across-the-board reduction is not enough to counteract the $21 million UB expects to lose in statewide reductions. Unit-level cuts are coming, he said, although as much as possible will come from UB’s central budget before reaching down the pipeline.

“We’re also looking at [the question of] ‘Are there too many departments?’” he said. “I’m not talking about eliminating programs, but about the organizational structure. Can we do a more efficient job?”

Also speaking Tuesday was Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English and chair of the senate’s Academic Planning Committee, who encouraged faculty members to be more vocal in their support of UB and proposed that some official action be taken to bring that message of support to state leaders.

“I really think we should take some action,” she said. “I think that the Faculty Senate should come out and say that, as people who have given our lives to it, who really care about it, that there are many, many reasons why we really need now to protect [higher] education.”