EDITORIAL: SUNY cuts are bad enough, but what's next?

September 30, 2008 04:00 am

— People who were wondering exactly how New York state's financial distress would materialize didn't have to wait long. SUNY is already taking drastic emergency measures that are bound to be felt by thousands.
New York is absorbing most of the shock of the multi-faceted turmoil in the markets. The most reliable estimates are that this state's revenue will be reduced by 20 percent just by the losses of Wall Street bonuses alone. New York has long been proud of its position of global leadership in the heady world of finance. Now it is suffering the consequences of its being headquartered here.
Everyone suspects state aid to many operations to evaporate, or at least to be minimized. People fear that public schools will even have to be compromised, though government leaders promise otherwise.
But the State University of New York, which has always had to fight hard for a share of the state treasury, has been told it can count on no new revenue and, in actual practice, will have to make do with far less. There will be no new spending, the state has said, which means an automatic reduction of at least 3 percent. That is the amount already owed to faculty through negotiated contract.
SUNY, the strength of which has always been its capacity to react almost instantly to changing needs ordained by a complex society and a shifting job market, will have to virtually stand still for the next few years. That is a crippling reality for a system reaching into so many corners of life.
Department heads at Plattsburgh State have already been told to reduce the size of their adjunct faculty. That group comprises the part-time teachers, hired out of the community to teach a course or two because of their professional expertise to fill the gaps left by openings in the full-time faculty. Those gaps are generally the result of previous pressures to limit the payroll.
People with vision realize the value of any state university system, but especially this one, as it is the largest in the country. The state is enduring a significant loss of young talent to other states with more promising futures. Without an effective, affordable higher-education system to feed existing and prospective businesses and industries, the exodus will only accelerate.
Yet this is the predicament facing this state at this point in its history. As important as SUNY is, it will pay a heavy price that will cost us all now and well into the future.
We expect that in hard times we will face losses of individual legislators' "member items," say -- grants to local projects that need some help. Some observers argue that is not a bad outcome.
But to know SUNY is going to be so hard hit points up the gravity of our situation. While considering the dire results of this new fact of life, we're left to contemplate what's next.