Network television only splices news into their daytime programming when something huge happens. Events such as presidential assassinations, terrorist attacks, or, as seen last week, the imminent collapse of the economy are among the few that take precedence over previously scheduled television lineups. So when CBS interrupted Ellen last week for a report on Wall Street mayhem, and the apparent, but not yet declared federal recession, it was clear that something big was happening.
While the country isn’t officially in a current state of recession, New York State’s declining economic activity is projected to increasingly carry on for the next three years. The determination of a recession is based upon real income, industrial production, real gross domestic product, wholesale-retail, and most notably in this area, unemployment rates. This current economic contraction is being projected to be worse than the slump the state faced immediately following 9/11, with a $5.2 billion deficit already. There is debate if it continues in this direction it could become an economic depression as large as, if not larger than the Great Depression.
The current recession is being compared to the one created by the 1973 oil crisis. Both were characterized by the price of food, gas, and energy increasing drastically, while average income stayed the same. According to an article published by The Wall Street Journal on January 14, 2008, the two situations are analogous as consumers are having problems with the simultaneous devaluation in residential real estate and equity assets. The real estate and financial sector are being hit the hardest and the effects of the slump are already visible. But what about the aspects of a recession that are not as easy to see?
Of all of the impacts a recession has on daily life, perhaps the hardest hit is education, specifically higher education. Colleges and universities across the state, and State University of New York school system (SUNY) in particular, will be affected immensely by budget cuts and less aid. This hurts college students in more ways then just tuition increases.
The state schools are more directly targeted during a recession because a majority of their funding comes from the state. SUNY is the largest public university system in the nation, consisting of 64 campuses. The total enrollment of this system is 413,000 students, with an additional 1.1 million others continuing their education.
According to a September article on the World Socialists website, funding for SUNY schools for the 2008-2009 academic year has been reduced by $96 million. The University at Buffalo is among those hardest hit by the budget cuts, losing 10.3 percent of its state funding, amounting to more than $21 million. On September 11, 2008, Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, told the UB Reporter, “If you think about the average salary of staff and faculty [as being] about $50,000 to $60,000, you’re talking about 300 to 400 people. Of course, not all money is being taken from salaries, but that’s just to help you think about the impact of this size cut.”
Corey Tarreto, the Buffalo State Project Coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), feels that the proposed budget cuts are a response to the failing economy, but the SUNY cut could actually do more harm than good. NYPIRG is New York’s largest directed consumer, environmental, and government reform organization. They are a not-for-profit group that helps train students and New Yorkers to become advocates. Tarreto feels that the aftermath of the budget cuts could leave too many students without access to quality higher education. “By weakening SUNY’s ability to strengthen the workforce and spur investment and innovation the state is losing out on key ways to pull itself out of its fiscal deficit,” said Tarreto. “Students and their families are also struggling with shrinking household budgets and rising energy and food costs and further cuts to educational quality, financial aid, or opportunity programs.”
Aaron Walsh, a senior biomedical sciences major agrees with Tarreto’s stance on SUNY budget cuts. He feels that, “cutting the school budget is counterintuitive to taking money from the schools, because they are just going to keep doing it, and it will make things worse.” Walsh discussed how the government has already taken money from high schools and younger education levels and now this, “will piss off students instead of just parents.”
President Simpson is also troubled with the cuts in UB’s state funding, but for different reasons. With these cuts, he feels that the fate of UB and UB 2020 in particular is as uncertain as ever. In his third annual community address on September 24, Simpson made an argument against UB’s dwindling state funding, stressing the importance of UB to the Western New York community. He argued that investing money in UB would eventually benefit the entire region: “Our region needs economic growth. That growth can only come from innovation and new knowledge. And providing that innovation and new knowledge is what UB does.”
According to Simpson, UB 2020 would increase the university’s economic impact on Western New York from $1.5 billion to $2.6 billion annually, and would generate $7 million a day for the local economy. “It is no surprise to all of us that many people in Western New York believe in UB 2020. What puzzles me is why so few people in Albany seem willing to commit to it,” Simpson concluded.
UB will no doubt use the trickled-down Reaganomics argument in order to assuage Albany for some more money. “We need to make Albany understand that UB 2020 is our community’s bold initiative for the future and that they cannot deny this to Western New York. UB cannot achieve this under the current economic conditions, with our hands tied behind our back. We need a long-term investment from the state, and we need relief from unnecessary regulations,” Simpson appealed. Yet his Kennedy-esque “a rising tide floats all boats” reasoning has yet to yield any results, and as such, departments, faculty, staff, and activities are continuing to be cut.
The budget cuts could also cause firing of adjunct professors, cancellation of classes, increased class sizes, and less funding to campus-run clubs and programs. More importantly, serving more students on less money is detrimental to the SUNY design: quality education at low costs.
When discussing the effects of the recession’s budget cuts on SUNY schools, Tarreto feels that higher education funding is a feast and famine cycle, “SUNY and all higher education usually get budget increases during times of plenty and cuts when the budget gets tight.”
This is unfortunate because enrollment generally increases as the economy slumps. “High school graduates are left with fewer job opportunities, and so, they enter college and community college. College graduates are more likely to go to grad school to get an ‘edge’ in the job market. Members of the workforce return to school to upgrade their skills to better compete for jobs,” said Tarreto, “These three factors combined leave public colleges scrambling to serve more students with less money.”
UB is aware of the frantic changes that are immediately ahead from the recent decision of budget cuts to the SUNY system. They are quickly preparing now, for the crucial changes they have to settle on soon. Simpson and Tripathi created the Strategic Financial Advisory Committee this past August as a means of dulling the blow of these budget cuts. The committee is supposed to help UB stakeholders respond to the budget cuts by gathering their opinions and input. Their mission statement on their webpage states, “The advisory group has been charged to provide advice regarding how best to achieve financial targets while preserving the university’s mission, vision and strategic objectives.” Walsh feels that this committee is good in theory, but that is it. He feels that one small group of people cannot represent the thoughts for everyone on this campus.
On the Strategic Financial Advisory Committee’s webpage there is a spot for students to voice their opinion on what should be done to help UB absorb the budget cuts. There is also a link for this survey on students’ MyUB home page. The survey asks questions such as, can UB improve efficiency or eliminate waste, quick ways for UB to reduce costs, and can UB generate more revenue? The committee hopes to generate a long list of ideas for coping with these budget cuts to present to Tripathi and Simpson later this month.
Walsh has a few suggestions for the committee. Instead of increasing the tuition for everyone, Walsh thinks that only out-of-state tuition should increase. Walsh thinks that it is very important for UB to, “increase stipulations on wasting energy.” He commented on UB’s notes posted on campus asking the students to help them by turning off lights. Walsh feels, “they don’t do anything about it.” He feels that there is a lot more UB can do to save on energy costs.
Cole also agrees that small increases in out-of-state tuition could help with the budget cuts. Other than that, she feels that it should not be the school’s responsibility to make up for what is happening. “Basically people need to stop spending money they don’t have and start investing again,” said Cole. “School is already too expensive for a lot of people.”
Along with budget cuts, education bills have been proposed in the State Senate as well. In a September, New York State Governor David Patterson, vetoed a bill that would make it easier for students to receive more state tuition assistance if their parents’ income shrinks, if they are called to active military service, or become ill and/or disabled because of other unexpected circumstances. A separate bill regarding the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) was also vetoed. TAP is a state financial aid program for residents of New York State which provides midyear emergency financial adjustments to the students after the semester has begun, or if their family is affected by any large and unexpected changes.
With a state deficit reaching into the billions, residents of New York are distressed. Students are no exception. New York State is trying to fix this problem, but its solutions are not without negative effects, most of which fall on higher education. Whether or not federal attempts to reverse the recession will work is still in question. What is not in question is the damaging effect it can have on schools and students.
