MCC Daily Tribune

Chancellor King and SUNY Board of Trustees on Investments for Education in the Approved NYS FY 2024 Budget

Statement from Chancellor King and SUNY Board of Trustees on Historic Investments for Public Higher Education in the Approved NYS FY 2024 Budget

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Contact: Holly Liapis (Holly.Liapis@suny.edu); (518) 320-1311

"New York State’s Enacted 2024 budget includes historic investments in both higher education directly and for the hundreds of thousands of students who turn to SUNY each year for a world-class education. This budget represents a significant step forward in advancing SUNY’s agenda for student success; research and scholarship; diversity, equity, and inclusion; as well as economic development and upward mobility.

“We are grateful to Governor Hochul and the members of the New York State legislature for their staunch commitment to educating generations of New Yorkers—and making that education accessible and affordable.

“Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State is increasing its investment with a historic recurring commitment to operating funding for SUNY, starting with an additional $163 million over last year’s budget. The Enacted Budget Financial Plan also provides a multiyear commitment for additional annual operating aid in each of the next two years, as well as increased flexibility to increase non-resident tuition. The budget also provides approximately $1.6 billion in capital support to provide state-of-the-art facilities, digital transformation, and modernize campus operations. This is in addition to maintaining the Community College 100% funding floor, and maintaining the 2022-23 levels of investment for essential programs such as the Educational Opportunity Program and Educational Opportunity Centers.

“Other critical investments in SUNY’s future include the $75 million Transformational Initiative Fund, which will support aligning workforce opportunity with regional industry demand, improve academic programs and student completion, and support efforts to increase enrollment. This will be coupled with investment for SUNY’s role as a catalyst for innovation and economic growth across our state, coming in the form of the first-of-its-kind $1.5 billion State Matched Endowment fund—which will bolster research led by our four University Centers and benefit the entire SUNY System, its staff, faculty, and students.

“Currently, 53% of NYS full-time resident undergraduate SUNY students attend tuition free thanks to the combination of the State investment from the Excelsior Scholarship and the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), as well as Federal and Institutional Aid. This year’s budget takes TAP another step forward by including more workforce-focused microcredentials and expanding part-time TAP to include the SUNY Colleges of Technology.

“We are also deeply pleased that the enacted budget creates SUNY’s first Black Leadership Institute to increase diversity within the leadership ranks of our campuses and system. Modeled after SUNY’s Hispanic Leadership Institute, which has grown since 2018 to graduate 51 fellows, this new Institute will provide emerging leaders within SUNY with an opportunity to further develop higher education leadership skills and proficiencies.

“SUNY hospitals play a critical role in our communities, and we are grateful this budget includes some relief from debt service for the second year in a row. We look forward to working with the Department of Health on financially distressed funding for University Hospital at Downstate.

“This year’s budget is a vote of confidence in the power and potential of public higher education, and SUNY is committed to ensuring that these historic investments translate into greater opportunity and success across our 64 campuses.”

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Patrick Morris
Community Relations
05/04/2023