The finance committee of the State University of New York (SUNY) trustees Nov. 11 approved a $1.65 billion budget for the current academic year that leaves the Cornell colleges $4.6 million short of the funds required to continue existing operations. A portion of that shortfall ($2.7 million) is attributable to a lack of available state funding for the SUNY system as a whole, and the remainder ($1.9 million) represents proposed reallocations among the state-operated and statutory colleges.
The budget was approved by the full SUNY board, which met in Buffalo Nov. 16.
The proposed budget allocates $130.4 million to the statutory colleges for the current SUNY fiscal year, which began July 1. That figure represents a 1 percent increase, or $1.3 million, over the $129.1 million allocated for 1998-99.
In order to maintain current operations, the statutory colleges need an additional $2.4 million to cover legislated salary increases that began last year and an additional $1.8 million for new salary increases for faculty and staff that will take effect during the current year, a total of $4.2 million. In addition, no funding is provided for annual increases in the cost of instruction purchased from endowed colleges at Cornell, library acquisitions, contractual rents for regional offices, utilities and other supplies and expenses. These real costs total an additional $1.7 million, bringing the total increase required to maintain current operations to $5.9 million. The $1.3 million increase contained in the SUNY financial plan allocation leaves an unfunded shortfall of $4.6 million.
As developed by SUNY, the $130.4 million allocation for the statutory colleges at Cornell does include allowance for the required salary improvement funds, but excludes funds that would be reallocated to other SUNY campuses as well as the funding not provided to SUNY as a whole to support the increased cost of purchases. That allocation also reflects a proportional share of reductions necessary because of losses in pooled SUNY income used to support campus operating budgets.
"The bottom line is that the statutory colleges have been allocated $4.6 million less than required to support current operations," said Cornell Provost Don M. Randel. "The reallocation of funds from our colleges to other SUNY campuses is particularly troublesome, because it is largely attributable to a policy that funds enrollment and research growth elsewhere in the SUNY system when no new funds have been provided by the state to fund that growth, at the expense of campuses that are not growing or growing as rapidly.
"Our policy is to improve the quality of educational programs, not to increase the size of our undergraduate student body, and the proposed SUNY allocation penalizes us for that," Randel added. "Despite the nationally recognized quality of their programs, our colleges received one of the smallest percentage increases in the SUNY system."
Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations, said, "Cornell is committed to paying our faculty and staff in the statutory colleges the full salaries to which they are entitled. All of the four statutory deans are now reviewing their budgets in detail to determine how they will respond to the shortfall."
Although college strategies for dealing with the proposed reductions have not yet been completed, the deans have concluded that the $4.6 million shortfall will require "significant program adjustments, affecting students and stakeholders in key economic sectors of the state served by the colleges' land grant programs," said Nathan Fawcett, associate vice provost for statutory college affairs. "The resulting inability to fill faculty positions will reduce the level of external funds the statutory colleges generate for New York state, along with the economic development that the activities supported by those external funds stimulate. In addition to the direct loss of jobs on state funds, the jobs supported by external funds that will no longer be generated will also be lost."
Donald F. Smith, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, expressed grave disappointment that SUNY would disproportionately penalize Cornell's statutory units just at a time when even greater investment in their programs would yield more robust returns for the state of New York.
"Though this budget cut will result in the curtailing of some important services to the state, we will stay the course and continue to invest strategically in our very highest priorities," he said.
Cornell officials will continue to meet with state and SUNY representatives to try to resolve budget issues, Dullea said. Randel, Dullea and Fawcett, together with Vice Provost Cutberto Garza, have been active in these ongoing discussions in Albany
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