{"id":1533,"date":"2021-11-01T15:04:44","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T15:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2021-11-01T15:04:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T15:04:45","slug":"kowal-testimony-fair-funding-for-suny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/kowal-testimony-fair-funding-for-suny\/","title":{"rendered":"Kowal testimony: Fair funding for SUNY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"uupdate<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the coronavirus pandemic receding, and lawmakers gearing up for the 2022 state budget, UUP President Fred Kowal told state senators and SUNY trustees in two days of hearings that they cannot rest on the temporary boost of the pandemic aid for SUNY.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe it\u2019s important to get state aid to SUNY, and at a level it hasn\u2019t seen in at least a decade,\u201d Kowal said in his opening remarks at an Oct. 27 hearing by the state Senate Committee on Higher Education, chaired by Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing unfolded at Stony Brook University with the goal of soliciting input from a range of public higher education advocates about the most essential needs in New York. Kowal used his time to note that UUP is optimistic about the upcoming budget, with Gov. Kathy Hochul striking all the right notes so far about building up New York\u2019s resources, including SUNY, and a SUNY chancellor, Jim Malatras, who has worked well with UUP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read UUP\u2019s press release HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOSPITALS DESPERATE FOR HELP<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

But optimism does not automatically translate to certainty and dollars. Carolyn Kube, statewide vice president for professionals and immediate past president of the UUP Stony Brook HSC Chapter, accompanied Kowal to the hearing. Kowal referenced all that Kube and the other academic medical center chapter presidents endured during the pandemic as he reminded the senators that helping SUNY means helping SUNY\u2019s four-year campuses and its public teaching hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear: COVID did not create the crisis of care at the SUNY hospitals,\u201d Kowal said. \u201cThe lack of state funding created the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike other branches of SUNY, the hospitals receive no state operating funds, and have not for the past three years. Yet they bore some of the greatest responsibilities for patient care during the pandemic, and now face terrible staff shortages in many critical areas, including respiratory therapy. The hospitals are the only part of SUNY that also must pay their own debt service out of their revenues, without any help from the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom COVID to debt service, to Medicaid cuts and changes to the DSH program, our SUNY hospitals have been under assault, while the need for their services and care only grows,\u201d Kowal testified. \u201cUUP is urgently requesting the proper state support for our SUNY hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PLEDGING TO WORK WITH SUNY<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For Kowal, it was the second consecutive day of testimony before state leaders in higher education who could help shape the next SUNY budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also testified before members of the SUNY Board of Trustees on Oct. 26, asking for their support in seeking an increase of funding for SUNY. In that testimony, Kowal also invoked the strong relationship that UUP enjoys with SUNY leaders, and especially with Malatras, and he pledged UUP\u2019s support in seeking an increase in operating funds for the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SUNY four-year campuses did fare better in the current state budget than UUP original feared, but that was largely due to an unexpected flood of federal pandemic aid to higher education in New York last spring. Perceptions of the state\u2019s role in averting financial disaster in the current budget differ, as was evidenced in an exchange between two members of the Senate committee at the Stony Brook hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORE, BUT NOT ENOUGH<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Oct. 27 hearing opened with Sen. John Liu of Queens directly contradicting Stavisky\u2019s opening remarks, in which she commented that, \u201cThis was a really good year for higher education.\u201d She went on to list several accomplishments in last year\u2019s final enacted budget\u2014gains which UUP has also acknowledged\u2014including a plan to close the TAP Gap and $1 million in new funding for mental health services for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liu countered that the current budget\u2019s funding \u201cmay be more than in recent years, but \u2018more than\u2019 is not enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stavisky announced that lawmakers plan another hearing on funding needs for public higher education in New York for Nov. 22, at the Legislative Office Building. Watch the UUP website and the Connect newsletter for details on that hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the coronavirus pandemic receding, and lawmakers gearing up for the 2022 state budget, UUP President Fred Kowal told state senators and SUNY trustees in two days of hearings that … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/purchase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}