Activists for the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, along with more than 200 advocates for higher education, went to Albany on Tuesday to speak with legislators and urge them to vote against the proposed cuts to SUNY, said Alejandro Fernandez-Lovo, project coordinator for the Syracuse chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

“In our opinion, they’ve been cut enough,” Lovo said. “The cuts will be coming in, and they’ll be coming in hard.”

ESF, along with all the SUNY schools, could soon be the victim of a drastic cut in state funding if Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget is passed. In response, ESF students have actively protested the cuts during the past few months by writing letters, signing petitions and publicly demonstrating.

The SUNY system stands to lose $95 million in funding, and the Tuition Assistance Program could be cut by $74.3 million under Paterson’s budget proposal. Lawmakers will announce their decision about the budget in April and will officially vote by the end of May.

Many of the activists came from NYPIRG, which encouraged student involvement through a letter-writing campaign. NYPIRG brought 42 personal handwritten letters to Albany and gave them to Senate Majority Leader John Sampson and Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver.

There seemed to be a consensus among lawmakers in Albany that this is a painful but necessary cut, Lovo said.

“They were telling us that our state is broke and everyone is going to be feeling these cuts that will come from all sectors,” he said.

Despite the dreary outlook, legislators are considering keeping the TAP award the same, at least for next year, Lovo said.

“From what we gathered, if SUNY cuts come through, TAP will be covered, but next year there will be cuts also,” Lovo said.

Daniel Amirian, a senior environmental studies major, said cuts to the TAP program would be detrimental to lower and middle-class students. Less assistance would require some students to work longer hours to pay tuition, which could lower their academic performance and hurt their chances at higher education, said Amirian, also an NYPIRG member.

“It is my sincere hope that the TAP program is spared,” Amirian said. “It’s an incredibly valuable program for New York students.”

In addition to speaking with legislators, ESF students and NYPIRG members have been showing their dissatisfaction with the cuts for months. NYPIRG held a protest Feb. 19 against the cuts on the ESF quad. Participants built snowmen holding signs that condemned the cuts, Lovo said.

“The signs were a visual to tell Gov. Paterson to not keep students out in the cold,” he said.

Kristen Gloeckler, a sophomore aquatics and fisheries science major, participated in a NYPIRG protest last semester on the ESF quad.

“We had a petition and asked anyone walking by to sign against the SUNY cuts,” Gloeckler said. “We gave them a Band-Aid because everyone is hurt by the SUNY cuts.”

Despite a low turnout because of cold and rainy weather, the group collected 30 signatures for the petition, she said. NYPIRG also ran a calling campaign and urged students to call their senator to explain how the budget cuts would affect them.

“It’s one thing to get a bunch of names on paper, but it’s another thing to have them call and hear why the budget cuts would hurt them,” Gloeckler said.

The cuts are going to make it more difficult for many students to go to SUNY schools because affordability is a selling point for them. If the cost rises, students will go to community colleges instead of SUNY schools, Gloeckler said.

Beyond tuition increases, Gloeckler said she’s worried that cuts could prevent ESF from updating lab equipment, upgrading buildings and having sports teams. She is also worried that vital opportunities could be reduced as a result of the cuts.

“One of the really great things about ESF is that they have a lot of opportunities to do research, which is really important to get into grad school or get farther into the scientific world,” Gloeckler said.

But Lovo said although the cuts will be difficult to accommodate without reducing the quality of education, ESF has the funding to pull through. ESF has a strong donor base that will help protect the college from feeling the full effects of the SUNY budget cuts, Lovo said.

ESF’s Undergraduate Student Association supports Paterson’s Empowerment Act, which will allow individual SUNY schools to set their tuitions as a means of dealing with the cuts, said Ben Schott, president of the association. The Undergraduate Student Association also supports the rallies and protests being held against the budget cuts.

Schott said students must stay involved in New York legislation, regardless of the outcome.

“Most importantly,” Schott said, “whatever legislation is passed and however this turns out, it is essential that students continue to play a large role in how legislation is shaped and how SUNY evolves.”

 

Published on March 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm