Archives
People are key to WNY revival
Buffalo must invest in human capital, Simpson tells PSS
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
Policy-makers in New York state need to concentrate less on “things” and more on people if they really want to revitalize the economy of Buffalo and Western New York, President John B. Simpson told members of the Professional Staff Senate during the body’s general membership meeting on April 24.
Referring to a lecture by Edward Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, who recently delivered the keynote address during a local urban policy forum, Simpson said that Buffalo has been pouring too much cash into “things like fishing stores, bridges, casinos” to keep people in the region, but failing to put sufficient funds into helping educate and train people for the jobs of tomorrow.
“There’s a fundamental problem with how Buffalo’s been thinking about doing things to ensure its future,” Simpson said. “What it’s failed to do is to invest in its human capital—and that’s what we do. We’re in the human capital business. And it seems to me the prescription for dealing with the problems Professor Glaeser pointed out is the people in this room and the people at our institution dealing with issues associated with human capital.”
Unfortunately, said Simpson, this perspective is not reflected in the 2008-09 state budget.
“Any major state university runs pretty close to the bone,” said Simpson, noting that an expected 2.9 percent cut to the university’s operating-funds budget is “not trivial.”
“We don’t have a lot of things that are frivolous—that don’t affect in some critical way how we do our business and what sorts of things we’re able to take care of.”
Although he said it’s “terrific” that UB expects to receive capital funds to support major construction projects—including renovations on the North and South campuses and a new building focusing on clinical and translational research on the Downtown Campus—he noted that a one-time cash infusion does not provide the support required to maintain an expanding campus into the future. He also pointed out that the state’s capital budget fails to differentiate between the various missions and financial circumstances of the SUNY campuses.
“Everybody in SUNY got pretty much the same thing, including Cornell,” said Simpson. “You get a big building and some money to deal with deferred maintenance issues. On the other side, though, what actually runs the university and pays for the heat, lights and all of our salaries—the operating money—we’re being cut.”
Citing a philosophy of “letting no crisis go without some good coming out of it,” Simpson said that UB will use this year’s budget cut as an opportunity to work more effectively and efficiently, including rethinking the responsibilities of certain positions at the university.
“Positions themselves may change—and some may appear that don’t exist now and some may be eliminated—but [in terms of] employment of individuals, I do not anticipate that we will lose any jobs,” he said. “We’re not going to be in the business of laying people off and we’re not going to be in the business of—in any wholesale fashion—eliminating programs, departments or anything of that line.”
After his main address, Simpson asked senators if they felt the university should lobby the state to raise tuition in order to counteract cuts in state funding.
Elaine Cusker, assistant dean in the School of Nursing, spoke in favor of a “rational tuition policy,” in which families would be able to plan for incremental and consistent increases in education costs, but urged Simpson not to push for an unexpected jump in tuition.
“We need a rational tuition policy that deals with the real issues of expense,” she said, “but I would argue for you to keep fighting for that because despite the fact we know it’s the legislators that are doing this to us, we will take the heat [for a tuition increase].”
Tirzah Evege-Thompson, assistant chief financial officer in the School of Dental Medicine, said that she felt this was a bad time for a tuition hike since major lenders are increasingly reluctant to participate in student loan programs due to the faltering economy.
William Condit, an instructional support specialist in the Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences, said that if UB implemented a tuition increase, it also should strive to provide a related increase in student scholarships.
Patricia Wilson, an academic advisor in the Division of Athletics, did not support a tuition increase due to concerns over its impact on disadvantaged students.
“Who’s going to get hurt by a tuition increase?” she asked. “It’s going to be the kids whose fathers are out of work, it’s going to be the lower-class students who have come from the inner-city schools.”
Also during the discussion, H. William Coles III, assistant vice provost for the Educational Opportunity Program, asked Simpson about the status of the endowment to support higher education that was proposed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
“There is general agreement among people I’ve talked to in Albany that this is a terrific idea,” said Simpson, “but nobody has a clue how to fund it.”