Politics on the Hudson

   Senate Higher Education Committee Chairwoman Toby Ann Stavisky, D-Queens, is asking State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher to release $115 million from the school’s income-reimburseable accounts to help campuses cover the cost of preserving full-time faculty and other campus workforce positions and to preserve student access to undergraduate programs. 

   SUNY was authorized to make a $75 million transfer from those accounts to help adjust to 2008-09 mid-year reductions in state funding, according to Stavisky. The current budget for SUNY reduces state funding by $40 million, which was supposed to be offset by a taking $40 million out of the income-reimburseable accounts, she said.

   “The university has so far refused to implement either of these authorizations despite the fact that it currently holds hundreds of millions of dollars in these IFR accounts,” Stavisky wrote, adding they are supposed to total more than $380 million on March 31, 2010.

   “Because of SUNY’s refusal to utilize these balances, many of the campuses are now making substantial cuts and drastic changes in their workforces and operations. All of these actions will have a significant and recurring impact on academic programs, student educational opportunities, timely graduation, and student financial assistance,” Stavisky said.

   Students accepted for some Fall 2009 programs are being told that those programs are no longer available, the senator said.

   Chancellor Nancy Zimpher did not have a public response to Stavisky’s letter, SUNY spokesman David Henahan said. She responded to Stavisky and prefers to work directly with the senator on the matter, he said.

   The SUNY Student Assembly sent a letter to Stavisky today, reiterating that students are upset the state budget requires the university system to use money from the IFR accounts. IFR accounts are held by individual campuses, and they are not collected centrally, the letter states.

   “These fees are collected for specific purposes, including but not limited to healthcare, academic technologies, athletics, facility upkeep, and student activities,”  Student Assembly President Melody Mercedes and David Belsky, director of government relations, wrote to Stavisky.

   Mercedes and Belsky said the practice will lead to “double charging” students for services they have already paid for. “Asking SUNY to use dollars collected from fees to supplement what was supposed to have been covered by tuition and state support is asking students to pay twice for that service,” they wrote.

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