Once again, SUNY finds itself left out in the cold in Gov. David Paterson’s proposed Executive Budget for 2010-11.

Did I say cold? Deep freeze may be a better way to describe it.

In January, the governor lopped off another $118 million in state support. Now, SUNY?is being subjected to an additional “employee savings” cut of $34.4 million, bringing the total cut to nearly $153 million.

As if that weren’t enough, he also proposed his so-called Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act that would allow SUNY campuses to enter into contracts, leases, partnerships and joint ventures without legislative approval or oversight by the attorney general and comptroller. Let me be very clear: This act will lead to privatizing SUNY and its workers! It is clearly an anti-labor proposal.

The plan could also raise tuition by as much as 10 percent next year. It would let campuses unilaterally impose differential tuition fees that wouldn’t be subject to a cap.

SUNY hospitals and health science centers didn’t fare well; they’d be required to absorb $75 million in new mandatory costs and fringe benefits, a recurring theme for more than a decade. This comes on top of $6 million in Medicaid cuts.

And the governor again set his sights on the New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI), this time proposing that NYSTI’s state funding be reduced by more than half this year and completely cut off by 2011 so it can become a self-supporting agency.

Is it freezing in here, or what?

One thing is certain. Our union will not take this lying down. Enough is enough. We must stand up and fight.

To be successful, we’ll need your help. We must bring our message to state legislators and urge them to keep the University an affordable, accessible educational avenue for students and to provide adequate funding for SUNY hospitals and health science centers.

There is much to fight for. For starters, if the governor’s $153 million cut goes through, SUNY will have lost more than $562 million in state aid over the last two years! That’s well over 25 percent of SUNY’s annual operating budget, and it would leave SUNY with $85 million less in state support than it got in 1990—when it had 40,000 fewer students.

Try cutting your household budget by 25 percent and see how difficult it becomes to make ends meet.

As you well know, many campuses are reeling from the continued cuts to SUNY, and are trying to make do with the least amount of impact to students, staff and programs.

It hasn’t been easy.

Retrenchments are already happening at Morrisville and are under discussion at Fredonia. Hard hiring freezes are in effect at Cobleskill, Fredonia and Stony Brook. At Delhi, operating dollars are at 2002 levels. And most campuses are experiencing larger class sizes and offering fewer courses as fund reserves begin to dwindle and the budget impacts begin to take hold.

This lack of access flies in the face of SUNY’s mission to provide an accessible, affordable, quality education to all New Yorkers. If cuts to SUNY continue, more and more students will be forced to stay in college for an extra semester or an extra year to get the courses they need to graduate.

And students and parents will continue to pay more for less. This year, they shelled out three-quarters of a billion dollars more in tuition than they did 10 years ago.

Gov. Paterson’s plan to let SUNY unilaterally raise tuition is one of the deepest flaws in his Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act. If passed, tuition may rise by as much as 10 percent next year, hitting the proposal’s cap on across-the-board increases. But there’s no cap on differential tuition, a supplemental fee above and beyond across-the-board tuition.

And we’re not buying SUNY’s claim that this “flex plan” will create 10,000 new campus positions and more than 64,000 construction jobs. Tuition would have to rise by $765 just to cover the governor’s proposed cuts—no job creation there.

Hospitals and NYSTI

SUNY’s hospitals must be adequately funded. Besides their teaching mission, our hospitals provide care to indigent and hard-to-treat patients. These institutions have been forced to cover more than $233 million in unfunded, unavoidable spending growth since 2007-08. The time has come to reverse that trend.

Finally, Gov. Paterson’s plan to make NYSTI self-supporting is ill-conceived. NYSTI is much more than a venue for theatrical performances. It is an invaluable educational and cultural resource for children that complements their public school opportunities. For many students, NYSTI provides their first exposure to theater and the arts.

We understand that New York is in financial trouble, but cutting SUNY to the levels proposed by Gov. Paterson and opening the door to huge tuition increases is unfair, unwise and unacceptable. Investing in SUNY is an investment in New York’s future. Now is not the time to slash SUNY.

For UUPers, it is a time of action. We need you to speak out against these cuts and proposals. We need you to get involved.

Please, volunteer to take part in one of our Albany advocacy trips to meet with legislators. Get involved on your campuses. Visit our new micro Web site—SaveSUNY.org—and sign a petition, or go to uupinfo.org and fax a letter to your local legislators.

Now is the time to act. The very viability of SUNY is at stake.