<p>Let me thank everyone here on CC who has helped identify SUNY admission and funding issues and, more importantly, encouraged me to communicate with elected officials. I spoke face to face this weekend with several NY State Senators and Assemblymen/women, including a member of the Higher Education Committees. As they are in constant communication with SUNY’s Government Affairs officer, they are well aware of SUNY funding issues. They all appeared sympathetic, but the entire state budget was affected by our economic problems. Constituents and interested groups are complaining about cuts in K-12 education, property tax offsets, health care, etc. If they have decided how to divide up the NY part of the Stimulus package, they weren’t telling me. </p>
<p>As to In-State v. Out-of-State Admit data, by institution, they did not seem familiar with the issue. I briefly explained the differential between IS and OOS tuition, as compared with the surrounding states, PA, CT and NJ, and gave my thoughts as to issues of transparency and fairness, and that until such is obtained autonomy for the SUNYs is problematic. That the SUNYs could increase tuition for OOS by a small amount, and increase OOS %; thereby increasing their own revenue at the expense of IS students, who can not attend nearby OOS schools at a cost similar to what SUNYs charge. That the SUNY tag line – there is a SUNY for everyone – does not address who gets to go to which SUNY, and it is important to be able to see admit data by institution. That there should not be OOS scholarships, unless funding comes from donations from outside persons designating such use. (Again, the SUNY admit stats should be disclosed separately by college, and should exclude EOP students - otherwise EOP isn’t really offering any benefits). The elected officials appeared sympathetic, and did not understand why, if overall admit data is disclosed, IS and OOS could not be disclosed and subject to audit.</p>
<p>Again, my sincerest thanks to all the CC people, including the moderators.</p>