ALEXANDER BUCKNAM
Special to The Leader
President Stephen Kolison made an announcement on Dec. 6, 2023, where he notified the campus community of program cut proposals, which left many students angry and upset.
Fredonia unions quickly took action to make up plans on how they could help save the programs.
United University Professions (UUP) and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) are two of the biggest unions Fredonia is affiliated with, which makes them responsible to protect SUNY Fredonia faculty and staff.
It’s important to note that these program cuts are not yet official. The announcement made to the campus was only a proposal. We do not know when or if these programs will get cut.
“At this point no programs have been deactivated yet,” UUP Chapter President Christopher Taverna said. “We are at the beginning of the process. My understanding is that 10 of the 13 programs being considered for deactivation have submitted plans for consideration.”
Nobody knew about the meeting until a few days before President Kolison’s speech. Faculty, staff, unions and students were all kept out of the loop as to the content of the meeting.
Programs that are potentially being cut consist of all of the foreign language programs Fredonia offers, four visual art programs and two education programs.
Christopher Taverna also stated “It is a possibility that significantly fewer programs will be deactivated than were initially listed”. A list of the 10 programs that have been submitted for being deactivated was not given.
Without any program being fully deactivated yet, “it’s still too early to Determine what effects, if any, on staffing there may be” Taverna stated.
Program cuts may result in professors being let go and students transferring, which could bring down the graduation rate and cause an even lower enrollment rate.
These effects are only potential. Currently, no professors have been fired.
Last fiscal year, UUP advocated and won $163 million for 18 financially distressed campuses. Fredonia got $2.8 million when they were supposed to get $16 million.
Fredonia isn’t the only campus that has turned to potentially cutting programs. SUNY Potsdam is currently facing similar problems as Fredonia. Potsdam will potentially cut 14 different undergraduate programs, and three master degrees.
With a total of 18 SUNY campuses facing financial deficits totaling $160 million, this means the $165 million UUP advocated for would have been more than enough to fix every financial deficit in the SUNY system.
When the state legislature announced the amount of money SUNY was getting, they left it up to the SUNY Board of Trustees to distribute it, as is usual.
SUNY chose to disproportionately distribute this money to certain schools based not on their need, but on the money they could generate the Board, thus denying all 18 financially distressed campuses the money they would need to escape their debt.
“UUP’s advocacy started before these cuts were announced,” said Taverna.
UUP argues that it is not done fighting for Fredonia and other financially distressed campuses and has multiple things planned for the future.
In December, UUP held a silent march, to protest the unfair distribution of the $163 million.
This silent protest is what gave students across campus the idea to form a last-minute rally on Dec. 7, 2023.
After the students protested, the then-unofficial club Students for Fredonia (SFF) was formed. Since then, UUP has helped SFF put together speeches and events to make sure faculty and students’ voices are heard.
UUP is planning to keep advocating in Albany and has even scheduled an event titled UUP Advocacy Day in March. On this day, members of UUP will travel to Albany and speak to lawmakers to ensure that the money they are advocating for gets to the campuses that need it the most.
UUP is also helping SFF plan a trip to Albany in February, whereby 50 students from Fredonia will go and talk to legislators and advocate for campus faculty and students.
The Leader reached out to CSEA Chapter President Stephanie Teachman, but she said she would have to go through her communication department before being able to take questions.
As of right now, no information has been provided as to what CSEA has planned to help Fredonia get its fair share of funding.
Since the programs have not been officially cut from the curriculum, many students believe that now is the time to have their voices heard in order to keep the programs that they have come to love.
Things you can do to advocate for the continuation of the programs at risk include writing to your congressperson, messaging Kathy Hochul, messaging people on the SUNY Board of Trustees and putting a “we demand fair funding for Fredonia” sign in your window.
According to Taverna, “The time is now for everyone’s voices to be heard before any final decision is made.”