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Like the fabled boy who cried wolf, our critics delight in claiming that we’ve overemphasized and overplayed the impact of this year’s round of SUNY state budget cuts.
They claim that even as SUNY faces $148 million in state budget cuts, our warnings that class sizes will grow, course offerings will be cut, student-faculty ratios will be lopsided and patient care will suffer are overreactions that aren’t nearly as dire as our echoes proclaim.
If it sounds like we’re repeating ourselves, it’s because we are. But we’re not crying wolf. Not by a long shot.
Gov. David Paterson has made it painfully clear that these budget cuts are not one-time reductions. Rest assured that the $148 million that SUNY is facing this year won’t be going away next year, or the year after that. And who’s to say that the governor won’t decide to take away the $109 million in SUNY revenues being held hostage by the state’s Division of the Budget?
So, yes, we’re pounding the same rock. And we’re going to keep pounding, because this same, simple message needs to be sent, over and over again. Without question, this is the worst situation the University has been in since the 1960s. We need to be loud and bold, because if we are not, academics and professionals, students and parents, and SUNY communities and businesses in those communities will feel real pain for years to come.
We’re not overstating fact here. Simply put, $148 million is equal to the entire operating budget of one of SUNY’s University centers or the operating budgets of three University colleges. The governor’s office and legislators across the state also need to know about the multiplier effect of SUNY campuses in their communities. SUNY is certainly an “engine of economic growth” in New York, with every dollar spent on SUNY returning an average of between $6 and $8 to local communities.
This is not rhetoric. This is fact. That’s why we need you, our members, to take our message to the streets, to your communities and to your local elected officials. The UUP Outreach Committee is working on plans to involve our members in this grass-roots advocacy mission, which could — and hopefully will — see UUPers join with small-business owners in their communities to illustrate SUNY’s powerful economic multiplier effect.
We need to think of new, innovative methods to send our message. I have suggested that advocates enlist high school juniors and seniors — many of who are future SUNY students — and their parents to help spread the word. We must remind them that these outrageous cuts are unprecedented, unfair and unacceptable.
But save some of that shoe leather. There is other important work that needs to be done for the upcoming presidential election, easily the most important election of the new millennium. The distinctions between Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain are as plain as day. I cannot understate the importance of electing a president who is committed to a strong, vibrant educational system and who will fight for issues and ideals espoused by organized labor.
Becoming involved can be as simple as spending a few hours working on one of NYSUT’s phone banks or volunteering to be one of the hundreds of AFT “road warriors” who go into battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire to campaign for union-endorsed candidates. Volunteers sign on for two-week tours of duty, knocking on doors, staffing phone banks, doing literature drops and whatever else it takes to spread the word for Obama and other AFT-friendly candidates who need help.
The battle isn’t just on the national level. There are candidates here at home in New York who also need our help. It’s easy to get involved. All it takes is a little time and a big belief that we can create positive change, one UUP member at a time.
I’m sure our critics will still think we’re crying wolf after the election and as legislators begin working on next year’s state budget. But our message isn’t meant for their ears. It’s meant for state legislators, for parents, for students and for businesses — especially those in SUNY communities. And we’re going to keep sending it, until we are heard.