More than a year later, those fears have been realized at many of SUNY’s four-year colleges and teaching hospitals.

With enrollments bulging, high student retention rates and a record number of applications to SUNY schools each year, many UUPers are finding themselves doing a lot more with a lot less on the job. As budgets are shaved, some college presidents are leaving positions vacant, looking for new positions to cut, and contemplating—or have already begun—dropping sections of courses that don’t meet new, higher enrollment quotas.

And despite a tuition increase approved by SUNY in 2008—90 percent of which was kept by the state to cover its budget shortfalls—the situation is certain to grow worse if Paterson turns talk of yet another round of SUNY state aid cuts in 2010 into reality.

The squeeze is on.

 “Enrollment is supposed to stay steady this year, but there wil be fewer (faculty) and they will be working longer hours,” said Darryl Wood, Binghamton Chapter president. “We’re not replacing people who leave, a double whammy because there are fewer faculty and more students.”

“Everybody is holding their breath,” said Yolanda Pauze, Farmingdale Chapter president. “Our president has not used the words ‘hiring freeze’ yet. He keeps saying he’d love to hire more people, but I don’t know whose crystal ball is cracked because I don’t see it happening.”

Times are especially tough at New Paltz, where college President Steven Poskanzer announced a $6 million deficit reduction plan in April that included phasing out the nursing program, temporarily shelving offerings in five graduate subject areas, cutting 70 jobs (51 are already eliminated), reducing new faculty hires, dropping the December graduation ceremony and cutting 35 low-enrolled course sections—with plans to drop courses with fewer than 20 students after fall registration.

New Paltz isn’t alone. According to reports in commercial and student newspapers, on college Web sites and in campus publications, many SUNY schools are beset with similar troubles as they contend with ever-growing enrollments, a flurry of applications and fewer dollars to deliver a quality education.

To wit:

• Hiring freezes and other restrictions (travel, equipment purchases, volunteer work reduction, four-day week, etc.) were or are in place at Albany, Plattsburgh, New Paltz, Geneseo, Potsdam, Canton, Cortland, Fredonia and Upstate.

• Positions will be or have been cut at Albany, Buffalo State, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Fredonia, Canton and Upstate.

During a recent meeting of elected UUP chapter officers, Albany Chapter President Candace Merbler reported that close to 100 faculty and staff positions have been eliminated at the university center.

• A number of schools, including New Paltz, Plattsburgh, Purchase, Fredonia, Geneseo, and Cortland, have increased class sizes. Other schools aren’t opening new course sections until every seat in open sections is filled. Low-enrolled courses that don’t meet new enrollment minimums will be dropped. Stony Brook is considering cutting several low-enrolled programs.

• Plattsburgh, Cortland and Farmingdale are relying more than ever on adjuncts. New Paltz is reducing its reliance on adjuncts, choosing to cut sections instead.

“For more than a year, we’ve been sounding the alarm about how devastating the budget cuts to SUNY are and will be to students, their families and communities,” said UUP President Phillip Smith. “So much of what we projected has unfortunately come to pass. SUNY must be properly funded to meet its mission: to offer an affordable, quality education to all qualified students.”

Flocking to SUNY

And there are more qualified students than ever knocking on the doors of SUNY schools, looking for a quality education at a price that won’t send them spiraling into debt for years to come.

SUNY colleges and university centers have seen substantial increases in freshman applications. Binghamton and Oneonta broke admissions records for fall 2009, while Old Westbury and Delhi saw applications jump by more than 36 percent since 2006, according to newspaper reports and school Web sites. Overall, SUNY schools got more than 317,000 applications in 2008-09, a 14 percent increase.

The surge in applications—most notably at SUNY’s four-year technology schools, where the New York Times reported that   applications jumped by 11 percent for fall 2009—has much to do with the economic downturn. With fewer job openings, high school graduates and laid-off workers seeking new careers are flocking to college.  SUNY’s affordable, quality education has been an easy choice for many cash-strapped parents and students.

Not surprisingly, most schools have seen enrollments swell over the last 10 years. Enrollments at Plattsburgh and Morrisville are at five- and four-year highs, respectively. Brockport will have its largest freshman class in 25 years in the fall; 1,125 students will be enrolled. Oswego and Potsdam have seen huge increases in transfer student enrollments; Oswego saw a 26 percent increase in transfer applications, while Potsdam had a 17 percent rise in transfer applications and a 29 percent jump in enrollment.

Fredonia exceeded its target for freshman for fall 2009, but it was forced to turn away “a lot of good students” due to the budget cuts, college President Dennis Hefner said in a May 8 press release. “Unfortunately, the excessive cuts we’ve incurred by the state Division of the Budget have meant that many qualified and deserving students are being left behind.”

Yet, Fredonia is counting on funds from over-enrollment to help close an estimated $3.5 million budget shortfall for 2009-10, according to information on its Web site. Over-enrollment brought in more than $1.2 million in additional funds to Fredonia in 2008-09 and is  anticipated to score almost $1 million in 2009-10.    

Even Delhi is bulging at the seams, with a record enrollment of about 3,100 students for fall 2009. The technology-based school, one of SUNY’s fastest-growing colleges, is “pretty much at capacity on campus,” said Craig Wesley, Delhi’s dean of enrollment services.

To meet demand, Wesley said Delhi has “grown off campus”—the college holds six four-year courses at community college campuses in Schenectady, Syracuse and Cortland, and offers an online bachelor’s nursing program. It also raised admission criteria for some majors; like many SUNY schools slammed by applications, it can afford to be more selective.

These days, it’s a lot harder for students to gain admission to a SUNY school, according to newspaper stories published in Buffalo, Oneonta and Syracuse on the topic.

“It takes a low- to mid-90 average and 1200 or above on your SATs to get into a SUNY Binghamton or a SUNY Geneseo,” said Russ Weinlein, a guidance counselor at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School in Saratoga County. “Applications to SUNY are up, so it become more difficult to gain admission to many SUNY schools.”

But enrollment growth has caused SUNY schools to struggle to deliver the quality education they are known for as they juggle ever-widening budget cuts, hiring freezes and job cuts, and burgeoning class sizes.

“As class sizes grow, it means that teachers will have to teach in a different way,” said Binghamton’s Wood. “Instead of multiple papers and essay exams, teachers will do more multiple choice tests and assign fewer papers. Students will not get the same quality education and it’s clear in my mind that this going to happen.”

“First, you have a solid enrollment and then not enough funds to provide services,” added Farmingdale’s Pauze. “We can’t give them the service they’re paying for.”

Farmingdale has dealt with low numbers of full-time employees—especially professionals—over the last 10 years. With its transition to a four-year baccalaureate institution in 1995 and the school’s steady enrollment growth—a 62 percent increase from 2000 through 2008—full-time hires haven’t come close to keeping up with necessary staffing needs, she said.

More than half of the academics teaching at Farmingdale are adjuncts. Some offices, including the Transfer Credit Office, Student Activities and the Student Success Center, are run by one or two people, Pauze added.

“There are people serving multiple departments because we don’t have enough staff,” she said. “I know our hiring has been solid for several years, but we always lose a bunch of people so we have yet to get up to the numbers we need in the academic and professional ranks.”

Adjuncts, who play a huge role in helping colleges manage and maintain growing enrollments, are finding themselves picking up more slack than ever at schools with hiring freezes in place. That’s not the case at New Paltz, where as many as 100 adjuncts weren’t renewed for fall. Others are teaching one course, which means they don’t qualify for state health insurance coverage.

“The administration’s goal is to eliminate 35 (course) sections per semester and they’re targeting adjuncts,” said Peter Brown, New Paltz Chapter vice president for academics and a distinguished service professor of German. “They say what they’re doing is more efficiently using resources. But a lot of adjuncts are losing their livelihood and their health insurance.”

Brown’s low regard of his administration’s budget crisis response (“I think Poskanzer is using the situation as a pretext to eliminate programs that are actually being cut for non-economic reasons”) doesn’t resonate on some other SUNY campuses. Several UUP leaders acknowledged that their campus leaders are doing what they can with what they’ve been dealt.

“I have to give the administration a certain amount of credit,” said Wood. “Reserves are being used judiciously and they’ve reiterated their commitment to no retrenchments. I think the university is doing its best to deal with a very difficult situation.”

A number of colleges, including Plattsburgh, Potsdam and Cortland, have taken myriad steps to avoid cuts to staff and programs. At Potsdam, where the administration is eyeing a $3.7 million shortfall for 2009-10, the school has invoked restrictions on travel with state funds, equipment purchases and restraints on “Other Than Personnel Costs” expenses.

At Cortland, overtime and travel for faculty and staff have been curtailed.

A major portion of the campus will be closed during the winter break, temperatures will be lowered in swimming pools and a four-day work week was considered for summer sessions. Canton began a four-day work week in December 2008.

Plattsburgh also has travel restrictions in place. The school has increased its facility rental fees, limited overtime pay, eliminated the winter commencement program, delayed significant contracts and purchases, and offered volunteer work reduction to eligible employees. 

However, more than a few Plattsburgh UUP members have shied away from that program, said Plattsburgh Chapter President David Curry.

“We support the concept,” he said. “But many people feel that if they take voluntary work reduction, there’s a fear that it might make them look (to administrators) like their job isn’t necessary.”

UUPers said they will continue to do their best on the job despite looming budget cuts and the ever-present possibility of widespread hiring freezes, program cuts and job layoffs.

But more support is needed from SUNY System Administration, which in June pushed aside a state Division of the Budget proposal to distribute $75 million in SUNY funds to its 64 campuses to help diminish the hit from last year’s mid-year budget cuts. SUNY also kept $40 million that DOB recommended be used to mitigate campus budget shortfalls.

“I’m sure (Farmingdale’s administration) could be doing more, but at this point, our biggest problem is statewide administration,” said Farmingdale’s Pauze. “The blunders up there are hurting everybody. It leaves too many administrators to come up with interesting ideas that aren’t well thought out.”

— Michael Lisi