Why are the SUNYs ranked so low?

lostaccount
Wed, 25 Mar 2015 20:51:45 +0000

This is a reply to Oldmom’s post. There are fallacies embeded in the article linked to this thread. Tuition does not cover the full cost of attending SUNY’s. Even the full price of international tuition does not cover the full cost. So federal and state taxes, among other sources, supplement tuition for each student. Families of US residents typically pay into the system for decades prior to a student attending. After NYers graduate, many will continue to pay into the system for many more decaades. New Yorkers pay very high taxes, some of which is used to support the SUNY system. International students don’t pay taxes prior to attending and don’t pay a cent after graduating either. And their tuition isn’t paying their full cost. So those students are still costing tax payers money. Since they pay slightly more it may seem like each internationl student costs less, but US residents have usually already paid into the system for years. When an international students is accepted over a US resident, the US resident who should have priorty for having paid into the system for so long is being displaced. It is a horrible trend. It is not about “globalization”. It is about local campuses getting to keep more money but tax payers paying Albany more.

Based on what I’ve seen of enrollment patterns, each local campus probably gets to keep more $$ for each international student while Albany pays out for them which means that the cost is obscured while the local campuses have an incentive to recruit them. On top of that, they are very expensive to educate. At least some compuses have had to buld new offices for international students including special advisors and others to help with transitions, language and more. On top of that, unlike what was true in the past when there were many fewer international students, on at least some SUNY campuses a large segment of the Internationl students segregate themselves from others and socialize only with others from their native countries. That is understandable since some can barely speak English but it detracts from the college experience of US residents.