Students right to protest Pataki

To the Editor:

The students who were protesting the appearance of Gov. Pataki were correct to protest his appearance. Despite what the governor stated about what he has "done" for the SUNY system, the reality is that he has done very little for the system. During his administration, the amount of state aid given to UB and the rest of the schools in the system has declined as a percentage of the actual cost of an education in the SUNY system. The increase in the Tuition Assistance Program was needed to offset the increased tuition brought about by decreased state funds to SUNY.

Furthermore, the fact that the governor has served almost five full years in office and now is making only his first visit to UB is an outrage. UB is clearly the closest school in the SUNY system to a flagship school similar to Cal-Berkeley or UNC-Chapel Hill. The governor should have been at the school some time earlier in his tenure, especially since he was on the Sesquicentennial Committee when UB celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1996. The Sesquicentennial celebration lasted for one and a half years. Do you think the governor could have paid a visit to the campus during that time?

Although President Greiner is correct that it was important for the governor to see what is going on at UB, it appears that the key to the creation of the Center for Computational Research came about from a grant from the National Science Foundation. This money came from Washington, not Albany. Where was the money from Albany to help UB start such an important facility?

One can only hope that the visit to UB by Gov. Pataki will wake the governor up to the fact that UB is one of the top universities in the country and that he will see to it that there are no further cuts in state funding of UB and SUNY in general. The most important thing to keep UB great is for Albany to realize what it has in UB, and for it to fully fund and support the administration, faculty, staff and students at the university.