Among its recommendations is a plan to financially reward campuses for increased academic and administrative productivity; support for differential tuition; measures aimed at reducing the amount of time it takes students to get their degrees; and increased management flexibility for campuses.

In releasing the early draft, SUNY Trustees Chairman Frederic V. Salerno cautioned that the report is directional and at this point "not a blueprint. We have more work to do." The draft is expected to be modified anywhere from one to three times before it is finalized and ready for distribution to the Governor and legislature.

The SUNY Board of Trustees and campus representatives from throughout the SUNY system have worked for months to make recommendations on what changes are needed to allow the State University system to deal effectively with the dramatic financial reductions it faces.

The report is being prepared at the request of the New York State legislature, which charged the Trustees with developing by Dec. 1, "a multi-year, comprehensive, system-wide plan to increase cost efficiency in the continuing pursuit of the highest quality and broadest possible access consistent with the state university mission."

Under "Rethinking SUNY," increased teaching productivity would be encouraged by allocating one percent of SUNY's campus budgets into a pool "to reward campuses for increased faculty productivity, both quantitative and qualitative" in an effort to make State University faculty "at least as productive as their national counterparts."

Administrative processes also would be redesigned for more operating efficiency. "We want to make it possible for campus presidents and their colleagues to operate more efficiently and to reinvest the savings on their campuses," the report said. In addition to increased management flexibility, this effort would include reduced monitoring of routine decisions and transactions, increased cooperation among units and a stronger focus on quality and customer satisfaction.

The proposed plan supports differential tuition, which would be established by the Board of Trustees "using rates that better reflect differences in cost, support campus flexibility and allow the board to address university-wide priorities and needs."

"Rethinking SUNY" also calls for System Administration in Albany to reduce its personnel by 30 percent within the next two years. "Ongoing reviews point toward a smaller, more focused system office which is more responsible for policy and monitoring educational results than for processing; which is less controlling of campus operations and more focused on serving the Board of Trustees," according to the report.

The proposed plan would increase tuition for students enrolling for more than nine semesters and "unnecessarily accumulating" more than 140 credit hours.

"Rethinking SUNY" seeks to shorten the time it takes to earn a baccalaureate degree by encouraging qualified high school juniors and seniors to earn college credits at a SUNY campus of their choice, with funding provided by monies that otherwise would support the students in their home districts. The plan also would ensure "the 'seamless' transfer of community college graduates as bona fide third-year students at state-operated campuses."

The plan also recommends a review of degree programs at all levels to eliminate duplication of programs, "especially those with low enrollment and high costs," according to the report. At the same time, distance learning technologies will be utilized to maintain the greatest possible access to degree programs.

Redundant administrative services would be eliminated through voluntary strategic alliances that would link some of SUNY's relatively small campuses. A pilot project being formulated will include the upstate Colleges of Technology and the Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, with a report to be available April 1, 1996.