Breaking News: Professional Staff Congress Rallies Members in Opposition to Paterson’s Higher Education Bill
by Advocate Staff
The Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York is vigorously campaigning against Governor Paterson’s proposed Higher Education Innovation and Empowerment Act, which the Governor has threatened to include as a rider in his upcoming budget proposal.
The proposed legislation would allow the SUNY and CUNY university systems to annually raise tuition as much as two and a half times the five-year average of the Higher Education Price Index (which measures inflationary increases in operating costs for colleges and universities across the nation) and to create differential tuition rates for different programs and degrees. This means that the CUNY Chancellor and Board of Trustees would be allowed to raise tuition by more than two and a half times the rate of inflation without any approval from the state legislature.
Proponents of the bill such as John Simpson, the president of SUNY Buffalo and CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, say the bill would provide the universities greater flexibility and autonomy. “In these difficult fiscal times, budget flexibility will enable the University to strengthen its responsiveness to the changing needs of students and to the changing economy,” said Chancellor Goldstein.
But the PSC, which represents more than 20,000 staff and faculty members at CUNY, disagrees, and they are calling on members to write letters to their state legislators in opposition to the bill. In a forceful statement issued on July 25, PSC President Barbara Bowen said
“The proposal strips CUNY and SUNY of public investment while limiting access for students. Under the governor’s proposal, tuition could go up by more than 9 percent per year, every year, and could rise even higher for certain colleges and academic majors. “This cynical proposal would accelerate the under-funding of CUNY while purporting to enhance the University. It is accompanied by devastating budget cuts to both CUNY and SUNY. If the proposal is enacted, the governor’s legacy will be public universities that are weakened and increasingly stratified by income and race.”
State legislators are expected to decide on the proposed budget by Monday, June 28.
