University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

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• “I’m not sure there’s a realization on the part of those who put this proposal together that they’re disproportionally impacting research campuses.”

  Sean Sullivan

  Associate Vice President for Academic Planning and Budget

By KEVIN FRYLING

Published: January 22, 2009

The first meeting of the spring semester of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee opened yesterday with a presentation by Sean Sullivan, associate vice president for academic planning and budget, who outlined some of the challenges ahead for UB under the state’s proposed budget for 2009-10.

“The governor has added some things, and taken away some things, from the [proposed] budget compared to 2008-09,” he said, citing SUNY-wide additions of $80 million and deletions of $211 million, for a net reduction of $131 million in taxpayer support.

The additions include a promise of nearly $62 million to fully support SUNY’s various collective bargaining agreements, $8 million to cover inflationary costs and $10 million to cover what Sullivan called “modest energy cost increases” across the system.

But deletions under the proposed budget far outweigh the increases and, according to Sullivan, “disproportionately impact” SUNY’s research universities, including UB.

Among the state budget proposals, including their impact on UB, are:

• A proposal to return to the state 80 percent of tuition income from UB’s professional programs, including the M.D., D.D.S., J.D., Pharm.D., M.B.A. and DPT programs, as opposed to the current situation in which UB retains 100 percent of the funds being targeted. These programs generate nearly 25 percent—or $30 million—of UB’s tuition revenue, despite accounting for less than 10 percent of the total student population.

• A proposal to reduce support for various “university-wide programs,” including cuts specifically targeting UB’s Research Institute on Addictions, MCEER and the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) program, each by 50 percent.

• A proposal that could result in the reduction of graduate tuition scholarships and minority graduate fellowship budgets by 15 percent.

• A proposal to impose a state “tithe” on sponsor reimbursements for indirect costs incurred by universities to deliver sponsored research programs, which could impact UB by approximately $2 million to $3 million.

“I’m not sure there’s a realization on the part of those who put this proposal together that they’re disproportionally impacting research campuses,” said Sullivan, “but research campuses are more diverse, they have more ways of raising money, they have more things to invest in—they plan over a longer period of time—and that means there are [more] revenue sources that can be cut.”

Action is being taken to raise awareness of these issues, he added, noting that President John B. Simpson sent a letter outlining his concerns to the chair of the SUNY Board of Trustees and the Western New York legislative delegation sent a similar letter to Gov. David A. Paterson.

“This is the beginning of the discussion—the beginning of the budget season—not the end,” Sullivan said. “There are significant actions we’re taking as a campus—that SUNY’s taking as a system—to respond to these threats.”

In other business, Elias G. Eldayrie, associate vice president and chief information officer, spoke about his office’s decision to outsource its student email services to Google.

“There is no competitive advantage in providing email service to students anymore, quite frankly,” said Eldayrie, pointing out the significant cost saving associated with no longer providing and maintaining the server space required to store and protect student email.

In contrast, he said Google Apps for Education, whose free email service also includes a number of other online applications, provides students significantly more email storage space—7 gigabytes versus UB’s limit of 250 megabytes—as well as more powerful online collaboration tools, greater support for mobile devices and virus protection at least as powerful as UB’s. Student email addresses will continue to end in “@buffalo.edu.”

Other institutions outsourcing student email services to Google include Cornell University, George Washington University and the University of Virginia, said Eldayrie.

The switch to Google Mail will begin with the fall 2009 semester for incoming students, he said. The remaining student accounts will be imported gradually into the new system.