CHLOE KOWALYK
Editor in Chief
DAN QUAGLIANA
News Editor
On May 2, the SUNY chancellor and Board of Trustees unveiled the budget for the system of 64 colleges and universities, one month before the anticipated date.
A press release from the aforementioned date states, “The State University of New York Board of Trustees today announced the additional allocation of $114 million in Direct State Tax Support across the State-operated SUNY campuses from the FY 2025 Enacted New York State budget.”
“SUNY has been able to allocate the significant resources our campuses deserve so that we can retain and attract stellar faculty, enroll the largest class of students in a decade, increase paid internships and expand our research capabilities. There is a place at SUNY for every New Yorker, and this funding further positions SUNY as a leading academic institution that delivers on the promise of student success at an extraordinary value,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr.
Despite King’s and the Board’s announcement, the new money was not as equitably distributed as their language made it seem. Fredonia’s annual deficit has been listed as ranging from $9 million to $21 million, according to various campus administrators, but the university only received $1.4 million in new funding.
“I am disgusted by Chancellor King’s actions, as yesterday he and the SUNY Board of Trustees once again allocated the historic gains in state funding to campuses that do not need the extra funds like we do,” said Christopher Taverna, Fredonia’s United University Professions (UUP) chapter president and an applications administrator/applications trainer in Information Technology Services. UUP is the union representing professional faculty and staff across the SUNY system.
Last year, the Board of Trustees distributed $163 million in new funding across the SUNY system, but most of that money was given to the four big “university centers”: SUNY Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook. This year, the same thing happened with the new $114 million.
On May 3, the student advocacy group Students for Fredonia (SFF) led a protest around Fredonia’s campus, where student leaders of the group explained why SUNY’s lack of funding is harmful to the university.
“SUNY got that money, and they gave almost all of it to the big four schools,” said Ben Evans, a co-vice president of SFF. “[They] screwed us over royally.”
According to King’s memo dated May 2 about the budget to the Board, the new money was meant to maintain “the allocation of the $163.0 million provided in 2023/24 in the same manner as approved in that year.”
“For the second year in a row, the Trustees approved an allocation plan that sends the lion’s share of funding to the financially secure university centers and doles out what’s left to the rest of the campuses — including those dealing with multimillion-dollar deficits,” said a UUP press release that was also dated May 2. “Some of those campuses, like SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Fredonia, have announced program and staff cuts to reduce deficits of $9 million and $17 million, respectively.”
“The chancellor and the Trustees have again refused to do the right thing by not allocating state funding to our campuses based on need,” said UUP President Frederick E. Kowal. “It’s unconscionable and it ignores nearly two decades of SUNY underfunding under the Cuomo administration.”