The Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act (PHEEIA) proposed by Gov. David Paterson in his Executive Budget has become a Trojan horse for those who wish to move SUNY closer to a private university system.

As I’ve said before, we must remember that SUNY was established 60 years ago to be a public system of higher education that would ensure access to an affordable and high-quality education for every New York resident.

The governor’s proposals will have serious, perhaps unintended, consequences.

PHEEIA would provide SUNY with autonomy to set tuition, lease state-owned campus properties, enter into contracts for services, and establish public/private joint ventures and partnerships.

Unfortunately, the governor’s proposals shift the discussion of priorities away from access and quality to concepts such as economic development and public/private relationships. We know, from hard experience, that the corporatization of our public university has already produced negative consequences.

While SUNY has moved public discourse toward concepts such as flexibility, thousands of qualified high school graduates were denied admission this year and there is every reason to believe that many times that number will be denied admission next fall.

The contention that flexibility will produce 10,000 new campus jobs and more than 64,000 construction jobs at SUNY’s university centers and at Upstate and Downstate medical centers seems unrealistic, at the very least. I can’t say where SUNY will come up with $8.5 billion to fund capital construction costs at the university centers—building that’s to spur all those construction jobs.

Despite our repeated requests, SUNY has never offered any analysis to show why it needs this authority, nor has it provided any back-up to the highly unrealistic financial assertions made in its various supported documents.

The governor’s proposals also repeal provisions of law requiring pre-approval of SUNY contracts by the attorney general and the state comptroller, and substitutes post-audits for the pre-contractual approvals required under current statute. But post- audits are infrequent, often performed years after contracts have been executed and funds expended. In the case of highly decentralized institutions, such as the University, it would be unrealistic to expect post audits to provide adequate oversight. Let me be clear: We do not oppose SUNY entering into contracts for goods without pre-approvals from the state comptroller and attorney general. However, we do oppose allowing SUNY to enter into contracts for services without state approval. The potential of outsourcing would significantly increase by relaxing those rules, leaving UUP powerless to stop those contracts before they were executed.

By removing oversight by the Legislature, comptroller and attorney general, the governor extends to SUNY’s public institutions the unrestricted freedom of a private university, or for that matter, its own research foundation. There will be no accountability for SUNY spending decisions and the transparency of SUNY operations will be virtually eliminated.

This proposal is clearly anti-labor.

Regardless of how comprehensive and well-drafted employee language might be, our attorneys have advised us that the enforceability of any language governing the actions of private employers cannot be sufficiently protective of the rights of public employees.

PHEEIA is no panacea. As our statewide awareness campaign states, Don’t be fooled by the Act.