University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

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  “Although we have not yet made any decisions, additional large reductions in state support will leave UB no choice but to consider options that will impact our students, faculty and programs directly.”

  President John B. Simpson

By SUE WUETCHER

Published: February 3, 2011

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal for a 10 percent cut to SUNY’s operating budget would lead to reductions at UB that would directly and significantly impact students, faculty and staff, President John B. Simpson warned in an e-mail message to the UB community sent late Tuesday.

Responding to Cuomo’s executive budget proposal released earlier in the day that calls for deep reductions in state spending—including the 10-percent cut to SUNY—Simpson noted that UB already has weathered a permanent 30 percent cut in its operating budget—a loss of $63 million—since 2008. To absorb those cuts, the university made “strategic reductions in virtually every area of the university,” Simpson said, noting the cost-saving strategies included streamlining administrative operations, reducing payroll costs through early-retirement programs and a hiring moratorium, and depleting the financial reserves that were to be reinvested toward achieving the UB 2020 strategic plan.

While those strategies have allowed UB to handle that 30-percent cut without irrevocable damage to its academic mission, “I now fear, however, that we have reached the limits of what these strategies can do,” Simpson said. An additional 10-percent cut to SUNY “will make it even more difficult for us to continue to provide an excellent and accessible education to our students, advance our academic enterprise and enrich our communities.”

“Although we have not yet made any decisions,” he said, “additional large reductions in state support will leave UB no choice but to consider options that will impact our students, faculty and programs directly.”

Simpson said he was encouraged that Cuomo has introduced legislation that would provide support for policy reforms regarding procurement and public-private partnerships that are part of the Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act.

And while implementing a rational tuition policy—the reform that Simpson called “the key cornerstone” of the reform package—is not now part of the executive budget proposal, “we will continue working with Albany to secure this critical reform and toward the eventual enactment of all of these legislative reforms, which are vitally important for the future of our university, our region and our state,” he said.

Simpson said he’s optimistic about Cuomo’s positive statements in support of UB 2020. “I know that he understands the important role that public research universities like UB can play as the engines of innovation for their regions and their state,” he said.

“I urge UB, SUNY and Western New York to continue to fight for the policy reforms we have been seeking for the past three years. These reforms will help UB become a stronger and better university—one that makes an even greater impact on our surrounding regions.”