SUNY campuses will be bearing the brunt of the $90 million midyear budget cut.

That’s the upshot of a decision made by the SUNY Board of Trustees at its Nov. 17 meeting. The board voted unanimously to amend the SUNY budget and remove $50 million of state funding from the campuses. Of that, System Administration, the statutory colleges and University-wide programs lose a combined $17 million. The remainder of the cut—nearly $23 million—will come from the University’s fund balances, but only as a one-time resource.

UUP President Phillip Smith said that while he’s pleased the board is finally tapping some of its reserves to cope with the budget shortfall, the campuses are paying a heavy price.

“The campuses have already absorbed much of the earlier cuts. This latest hit will make a bad situation worse, sparking more course cancelations and increasing the chances that more students will be unable to graduate on time,” Smith said. He recommended that the better alternative would have been to take more from the University’s reserves to help minimize the effects on the campuses, and not limit the practice to a one-time maneuver since the reduction is recurring.

In other action, the board displayed its determination to pursue so-called “flexibility,” passing a resolution in favor of the concept that would allow—among other things—differential tuition and leases of campus property without legislative oversight.

“We can’t be a party to a proposal that would unravel SUNY as a system,” Smith warned. “Differential tuition would allow campuses to raise tuition at will, limiting access to those students for whom public higher education is their only alternative. Allowing campuses the unfettered right to lease their property removes opportunities for future expansion of academic programs and services.”

The flexibility initiative would require legislative approval. So far, the Legislature has not voted in favor of such proposals, and UUP’s goal is to convince lawmakers to continue that stance.

Without any public discussion, the board also voted in favor of authorizing SUNY’s Downstate Medical Center—the home of the Brooklyn Health Science Center—to acquire the financially ailing Long Island College Hospital.

The vote followed a board committee’s approval of the acquisition, again with no public debate. Such a transaction would have to be approved by the state health commissioner.

The board also submitted its annual budget request to the state. The 2010-11 request totals $2.17 billion, down from this year’s request of $2.37 billion.

But the request includes a nearly $116 million increase in state support for SUNY’s hospitals.

Additionally, the board sought another tuition increase, which would hike tuition by $100 annually to $5,070 beginning in the fall of 2010.

The Legislature will have the final say on both the SUNY budget and the proposed tuition increase as part of the overall 2010-11 state budget that is due April 1.

— Donald Feldstein