Why then change an institution that has achieved such success? Why "rethink it?" Because the environment in which public higher education has existed and has thrived is changing-in fact, has already changed. Higher education has been caught in our country's general concern to reduce taxes for public services. That concern, in my opinion, has not necessarily been targeted at higher education, but the effect has been the same nevertheless.

Since 1988, there has been a shift from the state paying almost 90 percent of SUNY's core operating budget to the state paying 49 percent of SUNY's core operating budget in 1995. In a few short years, SUNY has experienced a dramatic budget reduction yet still managed to fulfill its mission of access to high quality education. All evidence tells me that state support will continue to decline. SUNY cannot ignore this shift or pretend that the decline in state tax support will suddenly reverse itself.

To fulfill its responsibilities to New Yorkers and to the state, SUNY must change and adapt to a new environment, and must do so in productive and concrete ways. Public access to high quality education remains the Board of Trustees' major objective. But to achieve this goal in a time of fiscal constraints, SUNY must become more self-sufficient and entrepreneurial, more focused, and more creative. To do so, the State University will need greater management autonomy for SUNY campuses and for the System as a whole.

The document, Rethinking SUNY, submitted by the Trustees to the Governor and the Legislature, provides solid directions for achieving these goals. It is in response to a call from the New York State Legislature requesting a "multi-year, comprehensive systemwide plan to increase cost efficiency" in the University system. However, I believe it is more than a plan for reducing costs and increasing efficiencies, although that is a major component of the charge.

Rethinking SUNY is a plan that also enables all of us, from the System Administration to the campuses, to focus on the protection of academic quality, whether through efficiencies that allow resources to be redirected or by the delivery of services in more creative ways-using new technologies, forming partnerships with private industry, and forging alliances among campuses to achieve administrative savings.

The directions the Trustees set forth in this plan for the University will lead to more campus autonomy by empowering the campuses to directly manage more of their academic and operating affairs and use campus resources more efficiently. Recommending that campuses and the System be allowed to carry forward operational surpluses from year to year means that savings can be reinvested and planning can be done on a multi-year basis. This is one example of management flexibility that University administrators sorely need and one that will increase efficiency and enhance academic quality.

SUNY's hospitals are also in critical need of more operating freedoms. As state-operated units they are unable to compete in today's evolving health-care marketplace. To survive they, too, must be granted new management capacity.

As I said earlier, the Trustees are committed to access to high quality education. Public higher education has long been recognized nationally as a public good that benefits society and the individual. But access to quality public higher education does not rest with the taxpayer alone. It rests also with students, and their families. Some 73 percent of all students receive some form of financial aid. The Trustees are committed to the support of affordable tuition and adequate funding of state and federal financial aid programs.

So that students and families can plan better, the Trustees agree that tuition should be more predictable. A balance should be achieved among tuition increases, financial aid, and tax dollar support to protect both student access and the quality of the University's academic programs. The Trustees suggest that the Tuition Price Index and the Higher Education Price Index be considered as a guide to tuition increases as well as the cost of education.

The Trustees also recommend that SUNY be allowed to set differential tuition rates among campus types to reflect differences in cost. Right now it costs more to educate an undergraduate student at a research institution than at a four-year college. Differential tuition rates support campus flexibility and yet allow the Trustees to address University-wide priorities, including student financial aid. Most other public higher education systems in the United States already have the authority to set differential rates of tuition. The State University should be given the same authority.

We are also addressing the challenge of making some of SUNY's smaller campuses more efficient. Although these campuses increase student access and have a statewide economic impact, they are costly to operate due to their small size. But by combining some administrative services, they can become more efficient and focus more of their energies on their missions. The Trustees are encouraging the formation of strategic alliances that will link together some of these smaller campuses and foster the development of partnerships with the private sector.

The Trustees' recommendations mentioned here and many others contained in the plan are expected to lead to cost savings beginning 1996-97. However, rather than articulate savings, the plan presents the means whereby such savings might be achieved. As the multi-year systemwide plan that has involved the University community from presidents to faculty to students and that has examined all components of the University-mission, vision, structure, operations, revenue and tuition- Rethinking SUNY can guide us into the new century. The environment has changed, and the plan reflects and acknowledges this change. At the same time, it reaffirms the Trustees' commitment to access and quality.

SUNY is of critical importance to the citizens of the state, offering opportunity to many thousands of New Yorkers, who wish to achieve knowledge and skills for careers or personal fulfillment. Working together with the Governor and the Legislature, the State University can adapt to today's new environment and become not less but more. Campuses can be empowered to become all that they can be. The University can become more efficient and more responsive. Access and high quality education can still be synonymous with the State University of New York. November 28, 1995