Download - Ny Suny 2020 Testimony 12-11-13 (Final)(1)
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State University of New York (SUNY): OfficialTestimony for December 12 Hearing
New Yorks Public University Systems Use of State
Aid and Revenue Generated by Tuition Increases
INTRODUCTION
Good morning and thank you for having us today. My
name is Nancy Zimpher, and I am Chancellor of the State
University of New York. I want to thank Chairperson
Deborah Glick, Members of the Assembly, and legislative
staff for allowing us this opportunity.
It is a privilege to come before you today on behalf of
SUNY to comment on the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant
Program. I am pleased to be joined today by Presidents
Harvey Stenger of Binghamton University and Candace
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Prior to the NYSUNY 2020 legislation, our state-operated
institutions were cut $145 million, added to $569 million
already cut over the three years before that. At the same
time, before 2020, SUNY was allowed to raise tuition only
13 times over 48 years. The smallest tuition increase was
7 percent ($310) in 2009-2010. The highest increase was
$802.6 M
$771.5 M
$662.9 M
$1,281.8 M
$400.0 M
$500.0 M
$600.0 M
$700.0 M
$800.0 M
$900.0 M
$1,000.0 M
$1,100.0 M
$1,200.0 M
$1,300.0 M
$1,400.0 M
2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
State Tax and Tuition / Other Revenue Support for State-operated Campuses2001/02 - 2010/11
State Tax Support to Campuses Tuit ion and Other Revenue
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43 percent ($650) in 1991-1992. Seventeen times since
1963, a first-year student entered SUNY and during his or
her college career never had to pay a tuition increase
while others saw two or three increases.
Tuition roulette,as it was coined, made it impossible for
students and families to properly plan for their educational
future. This approach was not rational or logical, and time
and again, SUNY advocated for change.
ANNUAL TUITION INCREASES& MAINTENANCE OF
EFFORT
This change came in the form of the NYSUNY 2020
Challenge Grant Act in late June 2011.
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Facing additional reductions in state-support for the state-
operated campuses, the Legislature worked in concert
with the Governor to give SUNYs campuses and students
their parents a framework that allowed them to plan for the
next five years. Not only was this a collaborative effort with
our colleagues up the hill, but this innovative approach to
tuition-setting was strongly endorsed and promoted by our
statewide student government. They knew it was a fair,
predictable, and responsible way to secure their university
as one of the most affordable in the nation and ensure
increased quality in the delivery of their education. Support
for our rational tuition policy also included SUNY campus
presidents, faculty governance bodies, business and
economic development leaders, and editorial boards state-
wide.
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The annual tuition increases, which provided SUNY with a
resident undergraduate tuition increase of up to $300
annually, as well as up to a 10 percent increase for non-
resident tuition levels at the four university centers,
allowed SUNYs Board of Trustees to follow their statutory
responsibility and ensure a steady source of revenue to
help fill the gap left by numerous reductions in state
support.
NYSUNY 2020 also included a Maintenance of Effort
(MOE) component. The MOE broke the long-standing
inverse relationship between state support and tuition by
ensuring that every dollar paid by a student could be
invested in that students education and not go to replace
lost state funding. The result was predictable levels of both
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tuition and state funding, allowing both families and
campuses to plan better.
RESULTS
While our presidents will speak to more specific examples,
I would like to share with you a few ways in which we have
realized results from the NYSUNY 2020 legislation.
Between when the bill passed and the end of Academic
Year 2013/14, SUNY projects will:
Generate $509M in cumulative incremental revenue;
Employ more than 520 more instructional staff,
including more than 270 net new full-time faculty;
Increase the percentage of historically
underrepresented minority students from 14 percent
in Fall 2010 to 18 percent in Fall 2012;
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Create more than 100 new degree programs at the
state-operated campuses, many of which reflect
investment in programs that will meet the needs of
New Yorks growing workforce and economic
revitalization, such as a masters in Community
Health and Health Behavior; masters and doctorate
in Genetics, Genomics & Bioinformatics; and various
doctorates of Nurse Practitioner all at the University of
Buffalo; and other expansions of programs, such as
Social Work offerings at Brockport; and
Improve student services offerings, such as the
creation of a centralized Academic Support Center at
Stony Brook, which will provide upwards of 32,000
hours of individualized tutoring for undergraduate
students.
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As a result of this legislation, our campuses have restored
full-time faculty, invested in recruitment strategies,
increased merit-based financial aid, bolstered funding for
academic services, and improved their offerings in co-
operative education, global education, big data, and
sustainability, in addition to many other critical areas,
including, of course, creating jobs through the Challenge
Grant capital projects. Oswego was able to restore full-
time faculty to the levels maintained before the cuts
experienced during the recession, and Cortland has been
able to achieve 100 percent renewable energy use on
campus.
During this time, SUNY has continued to serve a
significant portion of all New York State postsecondary
students: over 35 percent for all sectors of higher
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education, and nearly 25 percent for just our four-year and
higher campuses. Also, I am proud to say that, on a year-
to-year basis, fall enrollment at our state-operated
campuses is expected to increase slightly from 211,000 in
Fall 2012 to 212,000 in 2013.
Finally, despite the increases provided within this
legislation, our resident undergraduate tuition and fees
have remained below or on par with neighboring and peer
states.
TUITION CREDIT
I want to expand on one of the most direct ways SUNY is
ensuring that college remains affordable for the most
vulnerable New Yorkers. The SUNY Tuition Credit guided
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This program is also a perfect example of how SUNY has
approached challenges in recent years. For many years,
costs that may have been similar to the tuition credit would
have been the responsibility of the campus that incurred
them, and that campus alone. However, in the spirit of
systemness and to ensure that the tuition credit has a
fair impact on our campuses, SUNY has instead leveraged
our overall fiscal health to ensure the continued viability of
all campuses. To that end, SUNY ensures that all
campuses support the tuition credit equally by normalizing
the overall cost across all campuses so that all campuses
provide the same support. No campus pays more because
of the financial need of the population they serve.
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SUNY realizes the importance of the Tuition Credit, but we
remain cognizant of the cost it incurs on our campuses,
even when we ensure that all pay the same relative share.
Since the enactment of NYSUNY 2020, we estimate that
SUNY has committed nearly 30 percent of the estimated
revenue generated by the annual resident undergraduate
tuition increases, and we project a $140M investment in
the program over five years. As we move forward during
the NYSUNY 2020 legislation and beyond, we hope to
discuss other options that may exist to address both the
fiscal needs of eligible New Yorkers and allow further
investment of revenues in support of the direct educational
mission.
BEYOND 2020
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This law, resulting from the hard work of the Legislature
and Governor, has changed the way students pay for
college in New York State for the better for years to come.
Of course, SUNY has also worked to do its part to control
costs, and I would like to briefly mention three examples:
Shared Services
The same year the NYSUNY 2020 legislation was passed,
I made a commitment to our Shared Services initiative,
which continues to achieve operational efficiencies and
services excellence, allowing for the reinvestment of
$100,000,000 in administrative costs into academic and
student services over three years. Nearing the end of its
second year, SUNYs Shared Services initiative
represents one of few higher education systems
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attempting to do this on a university-wide scale. Already,
SUNY has developed collaborative relationships, identified
inefficiencies, and delivered strategies and solutions to
improve performance.
We have identified several areas, valued at $48 million,
where administrative efficiencies and shared contracting
will be implementedwith $26 million worth already
implemented. Examples of this include the review of
contractual agreements in order to identify and eliminate
waste, such as an agreement that required SUNY to
purchase 10,000 software licenses, of which only 200
were used at any given time each year. This contract has
since been renegotiated to provide concurrent licensing,
saving $3 million annually. With more potential savings
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like this in the horizon, we are confident we will meet our
goals.
Fundraising
We have also been able to leverage the stability that 2020
has provided to SUNY through annual tuition increases
and maintenance of effort as something that donors can
understand and rely on, ensuring that their investment
adds to our margin of excellence, rather than backfilling
cuts in state support.
Fundraising at our campuses is up considerably during the
years this legislation has been in place, compared to their
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historical trajectory. Two years, of course, doesnt make a
trend, but we think this is a good sneak peek into our
future potential. Since 2010 fundraising on a system-wide
basis has been well above average in two out of three
years, including an all-time record-breaking $333 million in
2012.
Furthermore, the Challenge Grants have served to drive
fundraising pledges related to these capital projects, and
they are now starting to come in. Our ability has improved
to drive co-investment toward a shared vision.
START-UP NY
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SUNY has proven itself as a reliable and trustworthy
partner for New York State, both through the work of our
campuses and Construction Fund in leveraging State
investment in the NY-SUNY 2020 Capital Projects, and in
the preliminary work done in the new START-UP New
York program.
Through START-UP, SUNY campuses now serve as a
beacon of opportunity for new and expanding businesses
to bring their innovationand the dollars that come with it
to New York. Already, more than 1,100 companies have
inquired about participating in the program, which allows
new or expanding companies creating new net jobs to set
up shop on or near our campuses, tax free, for 10 years.
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Our students and faculty benefit from these new
partnerships, as each and every one must support a
campuss academic mission. And so not only are we
attracting new jobs and revenues to the state, were
advancing research, providing our students with internship
and mentoring opportunities, and leveraging our existing
assets to bring ideas to market. The Governor has touted
this program as the most exciting economic development
initiative in the country, and our campuses get that.
Already, they are engaged with potential partners and
developing plans to strategically harness this opportunity
in ways that will best support their goals for academic and
student success.
CAMPUS POINT OF VIEW
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And so now I want to turn to our presidents joining me
today to share with you their experiences at the local level
with the NYSUNY 2020 legislation and how its has helped
them to meet their goals for academic and student
success. First, we are joined by President Candance
Vancko from SUNY Delhi, and then we will hear from
President Harvey Stenger of Binghamton University.
[VANCKO]
[STENGER]
CONCLUSION
As you have seen, this legislation has had a dramatic
impact on SUNYsstate-operated campuses, and allowed
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SUNY to succeed in delivering quality postsecondary
education and driving economic developmentall of
which improves the quality of life for New Yorkers.
SUNY continues to stand ready and able to be the states
partner in driving economic revitalization, improving the
quality of life for our citizens, educating more New
Yorkers, and educating them better.
NYSUNY 2020 has served as a critical foundation for a
far-reaching effort to keep New York competitive on the
national and global stagesand we are proud to be able
to say that, together with this legislature and the Governor,
we are able to accomplish that while also benefitting our
students and their families.
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I look forward to our continued activities in these areas, as
well as a robust discussion on the future of SUNY in
regard to our funding throughout the upcoming budget
season.
Thank you. We are happy to take your questions.