UB Lobbying

[UBBulls]

You can "hide" all the URLs you want in your message. I guess that passes as being smart at SUNY Buffalo? You must be a doctoral candidate?

 

A master's candidate, actually. It's crass to insult my intelligence considering I applied, was accepted, and enrolled at UAlbany College of Arts and Sciences, just the same as the majority of everyone posting here. My UA experience was full of disappointment (grades not included, I transferred to UB with a 3.9 GPA), and have strongly embraced UB and Buffalo. Obviously, your opinion is UB is 3rd or 4th in SUNY (AAU inclusion of UB and SBU argues otherwise, being more salient than rankings based mostly upon undergraduate education at institutions). That's cool. I do not and will not take personal shots at posters, nor at UA [we save it for the UB forum], but I will debate to defend un-researched assertions and outright pot-shots at UB and Buffalo

 

The fact remains this is a naked power grab by a power hungry nut at the expense of the other SUNY Centers. The other SUNY Centers just don't have the advantage of being in a dying region and thus coercing their city fathers to back a huge building spree.

 

“I had a capital city that was in serious decline” said Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings [in regards to billions of state investment spent in the CD].

 

No different than Bruno and $800 million in the Nano College. From what I have read, estimates for UB2020 would be less than that amount.

 

That's not to say I think UB should grow and improve because any place or institution received state investment, so UB should too. It should be incumbent of each Center to plan and develop as leadership decides.

[MRSGDG]

As Bing Alumn I get their emails.... since this mentions the UB2020 and UAlbany I thought I would post it:

 

 

 

Dear Binghamton University supporter (of which I am not ),

 

In January 2009, Buffalo-area legislators introduced Bill A.2020/S.2020 (the "UB 2020 Flexibility and Economic Growth Act") to provide the University at Buffalo relief from burdensome state regulations. Shortly afterwards, I joined with the presidents of the other SUNY University Centers to request that Binghamton, Albany and Stony Brook be included in the legislation.

 

The bill seeks to implement several recommendations made by New York's Commission on Higher Education, including increased spending and contracting flexibility and greater access to capital funding. These common-sense regulatory reforms will allow the SUNY University Centers to increase quality, compete for the best students and reduce costs. Given the current fiscal crisis, reducing New York's excessive red tape represents the most viable path toward reaching our goal of becoming the nation's premier public university. None of our peers are subject to similar bureaucratic processes that New York State requires of our outstanding academic institutions.

 

The Senate Committee on Higher Education is currently considering this legislation. Please go to http://think.binghamton.edu (New York residents click here; Out-of-State residents click here) and send your message to designated New York legislators today, urging them to pass this long overdue legislation with all four SUNY University Centers included.

 

Thank you for your support.

 

Lois B. DeFleur

President, Binghamton University

[Michigan_Dane]

As Bing Alumn I get their emails.... since this mentions the UB2020 and UAlbany I thought I would post it:

 

 

 

Dear Binghamton University supporter (of which I am not ),

 

In January 2009, Buffalo-area legislators introduced Bill A.2020/S.2020 (the "UB 2020 Flexibility and Economic Growth Act") to provide the University at Buffalo relief from burdensome state regulations. Shortly afterwards, I joined with the presidents of the other SUNY University Centers to request that Binghamton, Albany and Stony Brook be included in the legislation.

 

The bill seeks to implement several recommendations made by New York's Commission on Higher Education, including increased spending and contracting flexibility and greater access to capital funding. These common-sense regulatory reforms will allow the SUNY University Centers to increase quality, compete for the best students and reduce costs. Given the current fiscal crisis, reducing New York's excessive red tape represents the most viable path toward reaching our goal of becoming the nation's premier public university. None of our peers are subject to similar bureaucratic processes that New York State requires of our outstanding academic institutions.

 

The Senate Committee on Higher Education is currently considering this legislation. Please go to http://think.binghamton.edu (New York residents click here; Out-of-State residents click here) and send your message to designated New York legislators today, urging them to pass this long overdue legislation with all four SUNY University Centers included.

 

Thank you for your support.

 

Lois B. DeFleur

President, Binghamton University

 

 

Great post! Please call your legislator. A call is 10x more effective than an email and is quicker/easier. I guess I'll be siting my family's New York address for this call :-)

[uofalbany]

A little Help Finding Reps:

 

http://uofalbany.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-...eform-bill.html

[UA_MA_2000]

I've always thought that one way to go about getting funding for a stadium is to weave it into a broad, campus-wide initiative; one that is akin to UB's 2020. How about: "UAlbany, U Know, 2015" (or something that the powers in control would have or, in the alternative, pay a firm $200,000+ to come up with).

 

My point is there is not much we can do to stop Buffalo from coming up with a plan, giving it a label, and lobbying for it. There is also nothing to stop us from doing the same. Going for a new stadium and business school is nice, but too small. Buffalo has 2020; let's trump it. Buffalo is, sadly, a rust belt. If we came up with a plan that integrates local business, industry, and professions (i.e., law and medicine), we could provide much more promise than the City of Buffalo, no?

 

I suspect that with a full-time president in house now, things will develop at a faster pace and hopefully more to our liking.

 

 

For the record, I am an alumnus of Buffalo (B.A.) and Albany (M.A.), so I wish them both well, but it's not fair to screw Albany, Bingo, and Stony, at the expense of Buffalo.

[alum73]

Everything I've heard on this is that it will be for all University Centers or none.

[Michigan_Dane]

Another stupid UB article and my response to them:

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/editori...ory/683934.html

 

 

"Albany should help UB

Assembly and Senate bills offset harm by allowing more campus flexibility

 

If the Buffalo area is to keep one of its best paths to prosperity open, New York State cannot both choke and leash the University at Buffalo. With budgetary diversions choking off the potential flow of tuition-increase money to what should be the state university system’s flagship institution, the Legislature at least should unleash more of the research university's development potential.

 

That can be done by increasing campus management flexibility in ways that other states’ universities already enjoy. Otherwise, the critically important UB 2020 plan’s expansion and development goals could be pushed back to 2030, or beyond.

 

All campuses in that state system are dealing with the tuition- increase diversions Albany is using to bolster its recession- damaged revenues, but the two major SUNY research universities—Buffalo and Stony Brook—also are losing chunks of research grant money in ways that hamper development potential. UB President John Simpson is leading efforts to increase other campus revenue possibilities and save the UB 2020 plan, and the Legislature can and should pass similar Assembly and Senate bills—A2020 and S2020—to curtail over-regulation and add local flexibility.

 

The bills would allow the campus to raise tuition on its own under a “rational tuition policy,” allowing incremental, predictable and small increases—and letting students see the benefit of their money by having it funneled directly to UB instead of to state coffers.

 

The bills also allow the campus to negotiate with private developers who want to build projects on site, let university officials borrow money through bonds and allow the purchase of goods and services without multiple levels of state preapproval.

 

The governor’s proposed budget would severely limit the college’s ability to implement UB 2020, a plan to grow the university by 10,000 students and 2,500 staff by that year. The university should be given, at a minimum, the ability to determine its own fate.

 

Moreover, the state should curtail its practice of “sweeping” public university funds to close budget gaps. Individual campuses need the freedom to determine which budget lines to trim to meet state goals. State officials strongly disagree with that characterization, blaming instead SUNY trustees they say set campus-by-campus allocations, but the harm remains.

 

UB has delineated the negative impacts of the executive budget:

 

• An indirect cost recovery fund “tithe” that campus officials said is a punitive assessment on university reimbursements given for indirect costs for sponsored research. This diversion of funds to the state for support services paid for by the campuses would cost the campus approximately $2 million to $3 million.

 

• An increase in SUNY graduate school tuition by up to 21 percent, while reducing graduate school scholarships and minority graduate fellowships by 15 percent, at university centers that generate 70 percent of this tuition-increase revenue.

 

• State retention of 80 percent of professional program tuition increases is, university officials said, a departure from past practice in which campuses received 100 percent of the income to invest in these high-profile degree programs centered at research universities.

 

• The proposal to reduce SUNY state tax support, equal to $40 million held in SUNY campus Income Fund Reimbursable reserves—and in addition to the tithe and tuition offsets— is particularly damaging to research campuses such as UB.

 

• Reductions in university-wide programs are arbitrary and selectively injurious to research universities that would receive as much as 70 percent of funds in this category.

 

Against that harm, local campus management flexibility is not a complete answer. But it is a tool UB and others can use to explore relief and improvements in other ways. UB is poised to make a significant economic impact on the Western New York region through expansion and increased research; legislators are in a position to aid in that effort and make it happen sooner rather than later—or, worse, never —by passing these bills now."

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

My response:

 

I read your article today entitled “Albany should help UB”. New York has never had a “flagship” campus and never will. SUNY Buffalo's insistence that it is the sole campus of importance is only isolating itself. It is in its own interest to work with the four SUNY Centers toward a common goal. Each of the four research centers brings something to the table. SUNY Albany has a $5 billion Nano College rated #1 in the world. SUNY Binghamton has the best undergraduate rankings. SUNY Stony Brook has the best math and basic sciences. SUNY Buffalo has many great professional programs.

 

New York's state university system is akin to California's. There is room for New York to have a UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego etc. As one of the 144,000 UAlbany grads I take exception to this “I'm the greatest” policy. Many of the policies that SUNY Buffalo is advocating would benefit all four SUNY Centers.

 

Why make the other three SUNY Centers your adversaries when we can be you allies?

[UAalum72]

Good response, but I hope you can correct 'advisories' to 'adversaries'

[Michigan_Dane]

Good response, but I hope you can correct 'advisories' to 'adversaries'

 

 

Hah ha, damn spell checker is on automatic. I'm so fired up about this issue that I send off letters to the editor between meetings. I should spend more time crafting it but I'm just so passionate about the topic (and I don't have the time). Anyway, the editor corrects simple gramatical or spelling issues so no worries.

[uofalbany]

As of right this minute, where does the A.2020/S.2020 proposal stand in the NYS government?

 

Is it being debated? Or what?

 

 

 

Again, if anyone needs this info:

 

http://uofalbany.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-...eform-bill.html

[danefan]

As of right this minute, where does the A.2020/S.2020 proposal stand in the NYS government?

 

Is it being debated? Or what?

 

 

 

Again, if anyone needs this info:

 

http://uofalbany.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-...eform-bill.html

 

 

Bill went to committee and was amdended in joint committee last week. The full text of the bill can be found http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi by typing S2020-C as the search term. The Assembly bill is the same.

 

Changes from 5/22 committee do not include adding other schools.

 

 

You guys will love this addition though:

 

. The state of New York and the State University of New York shall

24 disregard any tuition increases for students at the State University of

25 New York at Buffalo pursuant to clause A of this subparagraph in deter-

26 mining any annual core instructional support or other annual appropri-

27 ations to be provided to either the State University of New York or the

28 State University of New York at Buffalo. In amplification and not in

29 limitation of the foregoing, neither the state of New York nor the State

30 University of New York shall provide any increases to annual core state-

31 tax funded instructional support, employee salary or fringe benefit

32 payments or other annual appropriations of any kind or nature to or on

33 behalf of any other SUNY University Center (i.e., State University of

34 New York at Stony Brook, State University of New York at Albany or State

35 University of New York at Binghamton) or any SUNY four year college at a

36 level, that is, in any way, inconsistent with or inferior to the funding

37 methods employed for increases in annual core state-tax funded instruc-

38 tional support, employee salary or fringe benefit payments or other

39 appropriations of any kind or nature made to or on behalf of the State

40 University of New York at Buffalo. Furthermore, until such time as the

41 program objectives of the State University of New York at Buffalo's UB

42 2020 initiative are achieved, neither the state of New York nor the

43 State University of New York will reduce annual core state-tax funded

44 instructional support, employee salary or fringe benefit payments or

45 other appropriations of any kind or nature made to or on behalf of the

46 State University of New York at Buffalo so as to cause the proportionate

47 level of support, payments and appropriations for any other SUNY Univer-

48 sity Center (i.e., State University of New York at Stony Brook, State

49 University of New York at Albany or State University of New York at

50 Binghamton) or any SUNY four year college to be greater than the level

51 of such support, payments and appropriations afforded the State Univer-

52 sity of New York at Buffalo in comparison to such other institutions for

53 the two thousand eight--two thousand nine state fiscal year.

 

The change would deny the legislature the ability to reduce state funding to UB and increase funding to Albany, Bing and SBU despite the fact that UB will now get more tuition revenue having the ability to raise their tuition on their own.

[MRSGDG]

As of right this minute, where does the A.2020/S.2020 proposal stand in the NYS government?

 

Is it being debated? Or what?

 

 

 

Again, if anyone needs this info:

 

http://uofalbany.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-...eform-bill.html

 

 

At this time the bills are not "same as" because the text are different. S2020 is a "C" version and has been amended three times, while the Assembly version A2020 is only a "A" version and does not yet match the Senate's text.

 

Today it seems like the Senate moved their bill out of the Finance committee, and moved it to the Senate Calendar #487. After the bills are done in committees they move to the floor calendar. In order for the bill to be voted on it has to be on the Floor Calendars of each Legislative Body. A bill on the floor calendar does not ensure that it will be voted on any time soon or that it will be voted on this year. Often the last few days of session they will go through the whole floor calendar and do hundreds of bills, while during the year they often might vote on only a few pieces of legislation a day.

 

If you watch the floor calendar tomorrow we can see if in fact the Senate did move it to the Floor Calendar http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf...NQUERY=CALENDAR

 

Some people might already know this, but for those who are interested.....On debating a bill, the legislators meet daily in their Party Conferences to debate behind close doors any issues they have that they need to hash out, not in front of the cameras. Once they have enough votes to pass it, and the Majority conference wants to vote on it, it will then be brought up for a vote on the floor. At that time the Legislators can debate the bill (but if the issues were solved behind closed doors, their might not be a public debate and after the vote all legislators have a chance to explain their vote.) This is what the public sees, we don't see the debates that go on in the Party Conference Rooms.

 

As for watching the status of the Assembly bill, watch the Higher Ed Committee Agenda, but I would guess that the Assembly would Amend their bill to match the Senate before moving it through the Higher Ed Committee...but who knows... I would also think that after Higher Ed Committee the bill has to go the Assembly's Ways & Means Committee (Finance), and then to the Assembly Calendar.

 

As an FYI, the Chair of the Assembly Higher Ed Committee Deb Glick was the commencement speaker at the UAlbany undergrad graduation ceremony.

[UA_MA_2000]

Looks like Buffalo is becoming the flagship institution right before our eyes.

[Michigan_Dane]

Its very sad. The other 3 SUNY Centers seem to just be sitting back and letting Buffalo walk all over them. I'm a business man, I can't imagine my company or any company sitting back and saying "I fine with being number 2, 3 or 4". Jack Welch (GE) would never stand for this.

 

Wake up UAlbany! The UC system has 10 campuses, all of which are better than SUNY Buffalo. There is room in NY for all four SUNY Centers! Fight these jerks at Buffalo!

[UA_MA_2000]

With regard to this quote: "UC system has 10 campuses, all of which are better than SUNY Buffalo," that's a load of Siena. I'll give you UCLA and Berkley, but you're going to have to argue with me for each of the 8 schools after that insofar as you claim that those schools are better than Buffalo. I know the above post was just a statement "from the hip," but still, that the UC system has 10 schools better than Buffalo---you will have to present a heck of an argument to persuade me on this one, because I don't think that the above statement can be supported with ease.

 

Moreover, there are not 10 UC schools better than UAlbany! And Buffalo rates higher than Albany in the US News and World "Mis-Reports."

 

The basic point of the above post I agree with, of course, and that is that there is plenty of room for several high quality academic SUNY Centers.

 

Remember, Buffalo was a very respected college before SUNY came along and bought the school up, and it's status as a private school--and its endowment--is why Buffalo has so much money to pursue a 2020 plan now. Buffalo's endowment crushes Bingo, UA, and Stonybrook, combined, if I'm not mistaken!

 

In passing, I don't think anyone can fault Buffalo for doing what it's doing. Why should they act in our best interests? The City of Buffalo is a dump, and SUNY Buffalo is one of its few glimmers of hope. Don't blame Buffalo, blame ourselves for not doing enough to keep up wtih them.