Here’s one thing you don’t get as president of UUP: a crystal ball. So, as The Voice goes to press, it’s impossible to say if New York will have a new state budget by the April 1 deadline. However, all signs point in that direction.

I don’t need to be a clairvoyant to say this: UUP has been running a full-court press to restore the $100 million in state budget cuts earmarked for SUNY in Gov. Cuomo’s Executive Budget.

We’ve also kept up the pressure on lawmakers to return $154 million in state aid to hospitals and restore millions in Medicaid funding that the governor shortsightedly cut from his proposed budget. Our state representatives are seeing things differently in this area, thanks in large part to UUP’s efforts; the Senate is calling for a $115 million restoration, while the Assembly advocates a $64.3 million restoration.

Rest assured we will continue to push legislators to invest in public higher education and reconsider hospital cuts, no matter the odds or what the latest news reports say. As I told a reporter over the din of hundreds of SUNY and CUNY students shouting to save public higher education at the Capitol March 15, this game isn’t over.

As a wise old Yankee once said, it ain’t over till it’s over.

PULLING OUT THE STOPS

Our push for SUNY has been a multi-faceted one that began in late January with the first in a series of weekly Albany advocacy days—that won’t end until the budget is passed. Hundreds of UUPers from all corners of the state came to Albany to tell elected officials how more than $585 million in cuts to SUNY over the past three years have impacted campuses. Members from Brooklyn HSC, Buffalo HSC, Stony Brook HSC, and Upstate Medical University chapters warned lawmakers that cutting state funding to SUNY’s three public hospitals and medical schools would be catastrophic, especially to uninsured and underinsured patients who rely on the hospitals for vital services.

While we held rallies at the state Capitol to bring attention to the proposed SUNY cuts, we took things a step further this year.

IN STEP WITH STUDENTS

In March, we joined with students from SUNY’s Student Assembly and CUNY’s University Senate, at a Student/Faculty Higher Education Action Day at the Capitol. Nearly 500 students, faculty and public higher ed supporters from UUP, NYSUT, the Professional Staff Congress, and the New York Public Interest Research Group took part in the event, which started with a boisterous march to the Capitol and ended with a press conference.

It was a great way to get our message across and an exciting day for SUNY.

ON THE AIR, ON THE WEB

What we didn’t do in person, we did with airwaves and ink.

We saturated the state with our message in March with an extensive advertising campaign that included TV and newspaper ads, billboards and Long Island Rail Road transit posters. The two-pronged campaign was focused on restoring budget cuts to SUNY, and our hospitals and medical schools.

The 30-second TV spot was particularly effective. It featured a student who looked like he was packing for college. In reality, he was packing his dorm room to leave college; state budget cuts made it impossible for him to get courses needed to graduate on time, forcing him to stay an extra year in school—which his parents couldn’t afford—or leave without a degree.

We also revived our saveSUNY.org micro-website, a treasure trove of information about proposed state aid cuts to SUNY and how important SUNY is to New York and New Yorkers.

NEVER SAY NEVER

If you’re reading this and the final 2011-12 budget has restored state cuts to SUNY, thank you for your hard work. If the budget doesn’t restore the cuts, then we’ve got our work cut out for us.

Scores of you heeded the clarion call and joined the battle to save SUNY. But we need you to keep doing what you’ve been doing: spreading the word that public higher education must be a priority in New York. Keep visiting, calling and e-mailing your state representatives. Go to saveSUNY.org and sign our petition, and tell your friends to do the same.

Keep making it clear to lawmakers that state public higher education cuts must end. New York can’t cut itself out of this crisis. It needs a strategy that builds and invests in public higher education, not one that tears it down.