ny suny 2020 testimony 12-11-13 (final)(1)

8/13/2019 Ny Suny 2020 Testimony 12-11-13 (Final)(1)

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State University of New York (SUNY): OfficialTestimony for December 12 Hearing

New Yorks Public University Systems Use of State

Aid and Revenue Generated by Tuition Increases

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and thank you for having us today. My

name is Nancy Zimpher, and I am Chancellor of the State

University of New York. I want to thank Chairperson

Deborah Glick, Members of the Assembly, and legislative

staff for allowing us this opportunity.

It is a privilege to come before you today on behalf of

SUNY to comment on the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant

Program. I am pleased to be joined today by Presidents

Harvey Stenger of Binghamton University and Candace


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Prior to the NYSUNY 2020 legislation, our state-operated

institutions were cut $145 million, added to $569 million

already cut over the three years before that. At the same

time, before 2020, SUNY was allowed to raise tuition only

13 times over 48 years. The smallest tuition increase was

7 percent ($310) in 2009-2010. The highest increase was

$802.6 M

$771.5 M

$662.9 M

$1,281.8 M

$400.0 M

$500.0 M

$600.0 M

$700.0 M

$800.0 M

$900.0 M

$1,000.0 M

$1,100.0 M

$1,200.0 M

$1,300.0 M

$1,400.0 M

2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

State Tax and Tuition / Other Revenue Support for State-operated Campuses2001/02 - 2010/11

State Tax Support to Campuses Tuit ion and Other Revenue


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43 percent ($650) in 1991-1992. Seventeen times since

1963, a first-year student entered SUNY and during his or

her college career never had to pay a tuition increase

while others saw two or three increases.

Tuition roulette,as it was coined, made it impossible for

students and families to properly plan for their educational

future. This approach was not rational or logical, and time

and again, SUNY advocated for change.

ANNUAL TUITION INCREASES& MAINTENANCE OF

EFFORT

This change came in the form of the NYSUNY 2020

Challenge Grant Act in late June 2011.


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Facing additional reductions in state-support for the state-

operated campuses, the Legislature worked in concert

with the Governor to give SUNYs campuses and students

their parents a framework that allowed them to plan for the

next five years. Not only was this a collaborative effort with

our colleagues up the hill, but this innovative approach to

tuition-setting was strongly endorsed and promoted by our

statewide student government. They knew it was a fair,

predictable, and responsible way to secure their university

as one of the most affordable in the nation and ensure

increased quality in the delivery of their education. Support

for our rational tuition policy also included SUNY campus

presidents, faculty governance bodies, business and

economic development leaders, and editorial boards state-

wide.


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The annual tuition increases, which provided SUNY with a

resident undergraduate tuition increase of up to $300

annually, as well as up to a 10 percent increase for non-

resident tuition levels at the four university centers,

allowed SUNYs Board of Trustees to follow their statutory

responsibility and ensure a steady source of revenue to

help fill the gap left by numerous reductions in state

support.

NYSUNY 2020 also included a Maintenance of Effort

(MOE) component. The MOE broke the long-standing

inverse relationship between state support and tuition by

ensuring that every dollar paid by a student could be

invested in that students education and not go to replace

lost state funding. The result was predictable levels of both


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tuition and state funding, allowing both families and

campuses to plan better.

RESULTS

While our presidents will speak to more specific examples,

I would like to share with you a few ways in which we have

realized results from the NYSUNY 2020 legislation.

Between when the bill passed and the end of Academic

Year 2013/14, SUNY projects will:

Generate $509M in cumulative incremental revenue;

Employ more than 520 more instructional staff,

including more than 270 net new full-time faculty;

Increase the percentage of historically

underrepresented minority students from 14 percent

in Fall 2010 to 18 percent in Fall 2012;


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Create more than 100 new degree programs at the

state-operated campuses, many of which reflect

investment in programs that will meet the needs of

New Yorks growing workforce and economic

revitalization, such as a masters in Community

Health and Health Behavior; masters and doctorate

in Genetics, Genomics & Bioinformatics; and various

doctorates of Nurse Practitioner all at the University of

Buffalo; and other expansions of programs, such as

Social Work offerings at Brockport; and

Improve student services offerings, such as the

creation of a centralized Academic Support Center at

Stony Brook, which will provide upwards of 32,000

hours of individualized tutoring for undergraduate

students.


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As a result of this legislation, our campuses have restored

full-time faculty, invested in recruitment strategies,

increased merit-based financial aid, bolstered funding for

academic services, and improved their offerings in co-

operative education, global education, big data, and

sustainability, in addition to many other critical areas,

including, of course, creating jobs through the Challenge

Grant capital projects. Oswego was able to restore full-

time faculty to the levels maintained before the cuts

experienced during the recession, and Cortland has been

able to achieve 100 percent renewable energy use on

campus.

During this time, SUNY has continued to serve a

significant portion of all New York State postsecondary

students: over 35 percent for all sectors of higher


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education, and nearly 25 percent for just our four-year and

higher campuses. Also, I am proud to say that, on a year-

to-year basis, fall enrollment at our state-operated

campuses is expected to increase slightly from 211,000 in

Fall 2012 to 212,000 in 2013.

Finally, despite the increases provided within this

legislation, our resident undergraduate tuition and fees

have remained below or on par with neighboring and peer

states.

TUITION CREDIT

I want to expand on one of the most direct ways SUNY is

ensuring that college remains affordable for the most

vulnerable New Yorkers. The SUNY Tuition Credit guided


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This program is also a perfect example of how SUNY has

approached challenges in recent years. For many years,

costs that may have been similar to the tuition credit would

have been the responsibility of the campus that incurred

them, and that campus alone. However, in the spirit of

systemness and to ensure that the tuition credit has a

fair impact on our campuses, SUNY has instead leveraged

our overall fiscal health to ensure the continued viability of

all campuses. To that end, SUNY ensures that all

campuses support the tuition credit equally by normalizing

the overall cost across all campuses so that all campuses

provide the same support. No campus pays more because

of the financial need of the population they serve.


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SUNY realizes the importance of the Tuition Credit, but we

remain cognizant of the cost it incurs on our campuses,

even when we ensure that all pay the same relative share.

Since the enactment of NYSUNY 2020, we estimate that

SUNY has committed nearly 30 percent of the estimated

revenue generated by the annual resident undergraduate

tuition increases, and we project a $140M investment in

the program over five years. As we move forward during

the NYSUNY 2020 legislation and beyond, we hope to

discuss other options that may exist to address both the

fiscal needs of eligible New Yorkers and allow further

investment of revenues in support of the direct educational

mission.

BEYOND 2020


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This law, resulting from the hard work of the Legislature

and Governor, has changed the way students pay for

college in New York State for the better for years to come.

Of course, SUNY has also worked to do its part to control

costs, and I would like to briefly mention three examples:

Shared Services

The same year the NYSUNY 2020 legislation was passed,

I made a commitment to our Shared Services initiative,

which continues to achieve operational efficiencies and

services excellence, allowing for the reinvestment of

$100,000,000 in administrative costs into academic and

student services over three years. Nearing the end of its

second year, SUNYs Shared Services initiative

represents one of few higher education systems


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attempting to do this on a university-wide scale. Already,

SUNY has developed collaborative relationships, identified

inefficiencies, and delivered strategies and solutions to

improve performance.

We have identified several areas, valued at $48 million,

where administrative efficiencies and shared contracting

will be implementedwith $26 million worth already

implemented. Examples of this include the review of

contractual agreements in order to identify and eliminate

waste, such as an agreement that required SUNY to

purchase 10,000 software licenses, of which only 200

were used at any given time each year. This contract has

since been renegotiated to provide concurrent licensing,

saving $3 million annually. With more potential savings


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like this in the horizon, we are confident we will meet our

goals.

Fundraising

We have also been able to leverage the stability that 2020

has provided to SUNY through annual tuition increases

and maintenance of effort as something that donors can

understand and rely on, ensuring that their investment

adds to our margin of excellence, rather than backfilling

cuts in state support.

Fundraising at our campuses is up considerably during the

years this legislation has been in place, compared to their


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historical trajectory. Two years, of course, doesnt make a

trend, but we think this is a good sneak peek into our

future potential. Since 2010 fundraising on a system-wide

basis has been well above average in two out of three

years, including an all-time record-breaking $333 million in

2012.

Furthermore, the Challenge Grants have served to drive

fundraising pledges related to these capital projects, and

they are now starting to come in. Our ability has improved

to drive co-investment toward a shared vision.

START-UP NY


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SUNY has proven itself as a reliable and trustworthy

partner for New York State, both through the work of our

campuses and Construction Fund in leveraging State

investment in the NY-SUNY 2020 Capital Projects, and in

the preliminary work done in the new START-UP New

York program.

Through START-UP, SUNY campuses now serve as a

beacon of opportunity for new and expanding businesses

to bring their innovationand the dollars that come with it

to New York. Already, more than 1,100 companies have

inquired about participating in the program, which allows

new or expanding companies creating new net jobs to set

up shop on or near our campuses, tax free, for 10 years.


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Our students and faculty benefit from these new

partnerships, as each and every one must support a

campuss academic mission. And so not only are we

attracting new jobs and revenues to the state, were

advancing research, providing our students with internship

and mentoring opportunities, and leveraging our existing

assets to bring ideas to market. The Governor has touted

this program as the most exciting economic development

initiative in the country, and our campuses get that.

Already, they are engaged with potential partners and

developing plans to strategically harness this opportunity

in ways that will best support their goals for academic and

student success.

CAMPUS POINT OF VIEW


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And so now I want to turn to our presidents joining me

today to share with you their experiences at the local level

with the NYSUNY 2020 legislation and how its has helped

them to meet their goals for academic and student

success. First, we are joined by President Candance

Vancko from SUNY Delhi, and then we will hear from

President Harvey Stenger of Binghamton University.

[VANCKO]

[STENGER]

CONCLUSION

As you have seen, this legislation has had a dramatic

impact on SUNYsstate-operated campuses, and allowed


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SUNY to succeed in delivering quality postsecondary

education and driving economic developmentall of

which improves the quality of life for New Yorkers.

SUNY continues to stand ready and able to be the states

partner in driving economic revitalization, improving the

quality of life for our citizens, educating more New

Yorkers, and educating them better.

NYSUNY 2020 has served as a critical foundation for a

far-reaching effort to keep New York competitive on the

national and global stagesand we are proud to be able

to say that, together with this legislature and the Governor,

we are able to accomplish that while also benefitting our

students and their families.


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I look forward to our continued activities in these areas, as

well as a robust discussion on the future of SUNY in

regard to our funding throughout the upcoming budget

season.

Thank you. We are happy to take your questions.

ny suny 2020 testimony 12-11-13 (final)(1)

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