ALEX BUCKNAM
Managing Editor
In December 2007, the United States entered the Great Recession, triggering major cuts to the State University of New York system (SUNY).
In the 2008–09 New York State budget, $215 million was cut from SUNY.
Over the next three years, the system lost more than $1 billion—nearly one-third of its operating budget at the time—money that was never fully restored.
By 2009, the consequences of these cuts were already becoming clear.
In a UB Reporter article written by Charlotte Hsu, former SUNY Chancellor D. Bruce Johnstone warned that students would be affected.
“Tuition is rising, which could force students to take time off from school to work to make money,” Johnstone said. Johnstone expressed concern that students from disadvantaged backgrounds could lose their ability to attend college altogether.
More than a decade later, those warnings are becoming reality.
Smaller-sized SUNY schools are struggling with declining enrollment, budget shortfalls and increasing financial pressure.
As a result of years of reduced funding, campuses such as Fredonia, Buffalo State, Potsdam and Geneseo have gradually fallen into multi-million-dollar deficits.
According to Dr. Judith Horowitz, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Fredonia, the state has grown less willing to continue to help these SUNY schools out of their large deficits.
Instead, SUNY schools are being pushed to resolve their deficits independently.
Horowitz has mentioned that SUNY’s decision leaves colleges with few options.
This has led her and the current Fredonia administration, among other schools like Potsdam and Buffalo State, to cut programs that they offer and to cut funding for other programs.
Fredonia, for example, has already eliminated 13 programs and is assessing additional program cuts.
Colleges across the system are also reducing faculty, letting adjuncts go and, in some cases, choosing not to replace full-time professors.
In other instances, full-time positions are being replaced with adjunct instructors.
Decisions like these directly affect the quality of education students receive and have made students feel like they have an education gap.
To make this clear, this is not just a Fredonia issue.
In The Record, Buffalo State’s student-run newspaper, Marcus Ramos wrote about the college’s elimination of eight academic programs in February 2026, after the college got rid of 19 programs and 12 staff positions in May 2025.
“These actions are in accordance with Buffalo State’s five-year Framework for Financial Sustainability plan, where the university is attempting to reduce its $16.2 million deficit,” the article read.
Both Fredonia and Buffalo State have promised students in affected programs that they could finish their degree but have failed to address that students’ education will be affected with professors and programs being let go.
Horowitz, when confronted with this idea in a 2025 town hall meeting by photography student Jean Cestaro, didn’t make a full public statement about it but also didn’t fully deny the fact and encouraged Cestaro to reach out to her independently.
Students are at different stages in their academic careers, and many required courses are now offered less frequently—or, in some cases, not at all.
Students who miss a required class may be forced into course substitutions or overrides that do not fully replace the original material.
This leaves students with gaps in their education and places them at a disadvantage when applying for jobs or graduate schools.
Employers and graduate programs often look for specific skills developed through coursework—not just the degree itself.
Students have seen what the budget cuts have done to this school, and in some cases, they are considering transferring.
They are not alone in feeling this way.
According to SUNY data, there has been an increase in transfer activity across the system, with much of it being SUNY-to-SUNY transfers.
This shift suggests that students are actively leaving campuses that are cutting programs, reshaping the identities and stability of smaller SUNY schools.
While enrollment may fluctuate and budgets may tighten, long-term disinvestment in SUNY is impacting students’ long-term degree goals.
Smaller campuses play a critical role in providing accessible education, particularly for students from working-class and rural backgrounds.
When programs are cut, those opportunities disappear for them.
These students now make the decision to leave to find a college that has fewer opportunities for them or stay and risk an education gap.
Or even worse, they leave college altogether.
SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. has not spoken publicly on the downsides of the cuts and budget shortfalls on students.
Instead, he has said enrollment has increased for the third year in a row, helping with the overall deficit.
King has also publicly been asking the state for more money and a five-year capital plan that would give them a set amount of money to fix massive maintenance issues at SUNY schools.
If the state continues to push financial responsibility onto individual campuses without restoring the meaningful funding SUNY once had, the consequences will only worsen.
SUNY schools cannot cut their way to stability without sacrificing the quality of education they are meant to provide.
If this problem is not fixed, schools like Fredonia will start to die.
There will be a day when the last program is cut and doors close on campuses.
The SUNY Board of Trustees must acknowledge the disproportionate impact of budget cuts on lower-income and disadvantaged students and bring that to state legislators.
State leadership must implement fair funding to smaller schools that also restore historical funding to regional campuses like Fredonia and Buffalo State to ensure equitable educational access across the system.