Juliette Price came to Oneonta with a year’s worth of college credit earned in high school and a goal to graduate in three years, which would give her a jump on finding a job and save her parents a full year of college tuition.

So much for best-laid plans.

Instead, Price, a junior pursuing a double major in anthropology and French, is going to be at Oneonta for an extra semester because she can’t get the advanced French courses she needs to earn her degree. According to Price, one teacher retired and fewer course sections are available. So she’ll have to wait an extra semester until the course she needs is offered.

“I was really frustrated when I sat there with my advisor and realized it wasn’t going to happen,” she said. “I didn’t take all those (high school Advanced Placement courses) for fun, I did it to help my family out and cut out a year of college, and I end up getting stuck anyway. It’s very discouraging.”

Price’s parents considered summer courses for Juliette, but they clash with her work schedule. And dropping French isn’t an option; after college, Juliette plans on working as a journalist covering international politics.

“It’s a sore point for me,” said Price’s father, Scott Price. “Higher education is tough enough to fund without having (the state) ship tuition money off for other purposes. Picking on higher education is regressive.”

Juliette’s situation isn’t unique. At campuses statewide, SUNY students are increasingly feeling the impact of $410 million in state cuts to SUNY over the last 18 months—including a whopping $90 million midyear slashing of the University’s budget in October that knocked SUNY funding to its lowest levels since the 1990s.

Courses have been cut and classes are packed at many campuses, while other schools are coping with a shortage of professors and an over-reliance on part-time faculty to fill the void. Still other campuses have seen cuts to services and increases in student fees. And SUNY students absorbed a pair of tuition hikes in the spring and fall that increased college costs by $620.

At Plattsburgh, the administration is considering cutting almost 70 jobs to cover an expected $3.8 million state aid gap. In November, Plattsburgh President John Etting informed full-time faculty that they may be asked to teach a fourth course or assume additional responsibilities in the upcoming spring semester.

Starting in fall 2010, all full-time faculty at Plattsburgh, except for those who teach only graduate courses, will teach a minimum of 21 credits per academic year. The move is a “temporary measure” to address the potential impact of the state’s $90 million midyear cut to SUNY.

Further, professionals who have been teaching for extra-service pay may be asked to teach one academic course per year—and have that duty built into their performance programs.

Plattsburgh student Jay Koo can relate. Koo, a student leader on campus, spoke out about the state cuts to SUNY at a student-led rally on campus in late October.

“I’m a child from the ghetto and the disenfranchised like me need an education,” he said. “These budget cuts are putting a lot of kids in jeopardy.”

UAlbany senior Samantha Bernstein was forced to take out more student loans to help pay for her education, a bill her parents are helping her cover. What irks her more than the increase is that 90 percent of the spring tuition hike went to help offset New York’s budget deficit. This year, 80 percent of SUNY’s tuition increase will go to the state; 20 percent will go to SUNY.

“I don’t think students would mind a tuition increase so much if they knew it was going back to their school,” said Bernstein, who, as a senior, had trouble getting required classes for the fall semester. “But I think this state university has become the ATM for the state, that we are who they go to when they need money to fill the deficit that they created. And the students carry the burden.”

Plattsburgh student Charles Meyers is also feeling the sting.

“I’m worried about larger class sizes and fewer course sections,” he said. “I’m already experiencing it in my psychology classes. Right now I have four classes with 50 people in them and they’re taught only once a week. The courses I need are not being offered or are only offered at the same time as other courses I need.”

Nancy Burton, whose daughter, Annie Leue, is a Fredonia freshman, can empathize. Even though Annie came to Fredonia with 30 credit hours earned in high school AP classes, Burton is already bracing for the possibility of paying for an extra semester based on the difficulty Annie had in getting courses. To compound that, her daughter’s three scholarships run out after four years—meaning that the proposition of a fifth year of college will be an expensive one.

“It’s infuriating to me that I’m paying tuition but it’s not going for tuition,” she said. “It’s going to support something else in the state that I’m already supporting with my tax dollars.”

“We have to invest in the state university system not only for our kids, but for the University to be recognized as a national leader,” she added. “We have it all here and we’re squandering it by not investing appropriately.”

— Michael Lisi