COLIN PERRY
Assistant News Editor
The fate of a bill that would help state schools across New York pay for their most basic operating costs — without having students make up costs through tuition — now hangs entirely in the hands of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. And higher-education activists are doing everything they can to get it passed.
Professors have been roaming the halls across campus the past few weeks, attempting to gain support for the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) bill that is set to be delivered to the governor’s desk before the end of the year. If the bill is signed, it will ensure that all revenue from tuition at SUNY and CUNY schools would be spent on educational costs, while the state would provide funding for anything related to maintenance of facilities (like electricity or snow removal) or mandatory costs (like already-negotiated salary increases).
As of this academic year, 12.41 percent of Fredonia’s total budget comes from state support.
Those who have been approached have been asked to fill out postcards addressed to Cuomo that urge him to “do what’s right for students” and sign the bill, rather than veto it or allow it to expire.
As of last Friday, an estimated 650 postcards had been collected by the Fredonia chapter of the United University Professions (UUP), all of which will be dropped onto the governor’s desk alongside the bill as an illustration of its support.
It should be no surprise that the MOE bill is wildly successful on college campuses. It also breezed through the state legislature with nearly unanimous, bipartisan support; only two members of state government, one each in the State Senate and the House of Representatives, cast votes against it. Were he not to sign the bill, Governor Cuomo would effectively become the third elected official in New York state to disagree with it.
President of the Fredonia UUP chapter and Chair of the Computer and Information Sciences Department Ziya Arnavut equated the current inflationary costs students have been paying to an indirect tax on their education, one that he feels is unfair.
“If the government doesn’t pay its fair share, then they’re going to push students to pay for this,” he said. “If we are a state school, then the state has to pay its fair share.”
Tuition rates across SUNY have risen in recent years in part due to the implementation of rational tuition policies, which establish stable amounts that colleges would increase their tuition by every year. Since 2011, Fredonia has added $150 to the cost of tuition per semester, or $300 annually. By the end of next spring, tuition for students will amount to $6470, a 4.86 percent increase from last year.
While rational tuition has garnered support from many at Fredonia in the past, some, like professor and English Department Chair Bruce Simon, feel that the policy hasn’t fulfilled its purpose.
“Rational tuition was not supposed to back-fill deficits or cover operating costs that already existed, it was supposed to fund new faculty lines or allow universities to invest in areas they wanted to grow strategically in. It was supposed to end up in higher quality to students,” Simon said. “Every time tuition gets raised in New York, they cut the state support by more, so it ends up being a net cut.”
Simon says he, like many others, does not know why Cuomo has yet to sign the bill, given its overwhelming support.
“It seems like a pointless political fight,” he said. “I don’t know why [Cuomo] would say no. Certainly on his watch, you’ve seen a greater and greater proportion of public higher education’s budgets come out of students’ tuition and fees, and he always proposes tuition hikes. He’s a fan of Rational Tuition, but he doesn’t seem to be a fan of true maintenance of effort.”
According to Simon, students have overwhelmingly supported the MOE bill when approached about it. Many students have concerns about the rising cost of college, senior English major Daequan Starkes among them.
“College students already have enough to worry about, and we’re already not guaranteed a job, so why should we be in more debt?” he said. “It shouldn’t be on the backs of students.”
Helen Manning, senior music education major, has had to work two jobs throughout her entire college career in an attempt to offset some of her debt. When a broken foot prevented her from working, she needed to take out a loan three times larger than what she had needed previously.
“There’s no need for [college] to cost as much as it does. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “Students are our future.”
As the campaign in support of the MOE bill winds down, state colleges across New York must now wait and see what decision Cuomo will reach on it, if any. Regardless of whether it is signed into law or not, students and faculty everywhere can be assured that their voices will be heard.
“This is not my fight,” Arnavut said. “This is our fight.”
Governor,
Please sign the MOE bill to ensure that my
Tuition dollars enhance the quality of my
Education and are not used to pay the day-
To-day mandatory and inflationary costs of
My campus. Those costs are the state’s responsibility.
Sign the MOE bill to strengthen CUNY’s and
SUNY’s role in providing a great college
Education to New York State students.
Do what’s right for students like me.
Thank you.