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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


As I shared in my budget workshop with the Board and the budget forum with the College community, the state’s 2016-17 budget did not include the $285/FTE increase in base aid that community colleges were requesting. Despite considerable advocacy on the part of SUNY, the community colleges, our faculty and staff, and our students, the state’s enacted budget will include only an additional $100/FTE. This increase will finally move our FTE aid back to the 2009 levels, but it does not account for any increase in costs that we have experienced over the past seven years.

I wish I could share more positive news with you. It may be small comfort, but a glance at higher education news from across the state and nation will quickly affirm that the budget prospects for MCC reflect national trends. National data show that state disinvestment in public higher education began almost two decades ago and accelerated during the last recession. The economic recovery should have provided states with the opportunity to re-invest in higher education, but this has not happened. As a result, students in every state have borne more of the cost of public higher education. Two decades ago, students paid less than a third of the cost; today, they pay almost half.

Based on the funding identified by the Assembly and the Senate, higher education did not seem to be a priority in New York this legislative session: the total dollars available for higher education increases this year were about a third lower than last year. For the third year, while the FTE funding for community colleges rose incrementally, the total dollars allocated to the state’s community colleges actually fell. Because of declining enrollment in SUNY community colleges, the state had the ability to make a more impactful increase in our FTE aid without changing the overall spending on our sector. They did not.

Chancellor Nancy Zimpher’s comments on the budget were direct: “We waged perhaps our most comprehensive advocacy effort ever and encountered strong support among our legislators. But in the end, we found that the Legislature’s advocacy on SUNY’s behalf came up short in the negotiation process. We are all disappointed with the results.” At this point, PreK-12 education in NYS is funded at almost twice the level that higher education is. Investing in our Pre-K, elementary, middle, and high schools is a positive for our state, but if these students graduate into an underfunded higher education system, no one benefits.

Please know that MCC is working to build a 2016-2017 budget that is pragmatic about our funding sources, realistic about our need to manage and contain costs, and mindful of our students’ ability to access the financial aid needed to keep college affordable. We will continue to seek efficiencies in operations that allow us to devote the majority of our resources to instruction and direct student services. I welcome your ideas on this topic. Please share them on the blog, by e-mail, phone call, or visit.

Anne M. Kress
Office of the President
04/06/2016