February 25, 2020
Hundreds of UUP members in Buffalo, Cortland, New Paltz, Old Westbury and Plattsburgh sent the same, unmistakable message to legislators and the governor: Fund SUNY now.
UUP members at SUNY Buffalo State, SUNY New Paltz - nearly 300 of them - and SUNY Old Westbury held rallies Feb. 25. They used the forums to call for more state funding for SUNY to help cash-strapped campuses deal with ever-dwindling direct support from the state. On Feb. 26, dozens of UUP members at SUNY Plattsburgh rallied outdoors as snowflakes fell.
About 75 higher ed advocates - Cortland Chapter members, students, county legislators and UUP President Fred Kowal, above - gathered March 3 in SUNY Cortland's Corey Union to let Albany know that the time is now for the state to begin investing in SUNY's future.
Many SUNY campuses—including Buffalo State, New Paltz, Plattsburgh, the University at Albany and SUNY Fredonia—are desperately trying to close budget shortfalls caused by years of SUNY underfunding. The gaps are also due in part to the widening TAP Gap—the difference between full SUNY tuition and the amount campuses are allowed to charge TAP-eligible students—which campuses must cover.
Loud and proud at Buff State
At Buffalo State, more than 150 UUP members who work at the college joined with colleagues from the University at Buffalo, students from both schools and fellow unionists for a boisterous 45-minute rally. Kowal, one of nine speakers, led the crowd in a chant of “Fund SUNY now!”
“This situation has gone on long enough,” said Kowal. “Our campuses are hurting financially, and yet again, direct state funding to SUNY is flat. Things have to change and now is the time for that to happen.”
Buffalo State Chapter President Fred Floss and Buffalo HSC Chapter President Phil Glick spoke at the rally, along with Buffalo State United Students Government President Gaelle Jean-Baptiste, and Buffalo Central Labor Council President Denise Abbott.
“We need to make public higher education a priority,” Abbott said. “We need to put public higher education at the top of the budget, not the bottom.”
“Rallies like this are important because they help us educate people about what the TAP Gap is and how detrimental it is to financially struggling campuses like Buffalo State and SUNY Fredonia,” said Jeri O’Bryan-Losee, UUP’s statewide secretary-treasurer, who was at the Buffalo State rally. “We’re also able to tell people how much it would help if we could just change the (TAP Gap) funding formula.”
Buffalo State is facing a $3.4 million budget shortfall, the exact amount of the campus’ annual TAP Gap loss. SUNY Plattsburgh—where a rally will be held Feb. 26—and SUNY New Paltz are struggling with budget deficits of $3 million and $2.9 million, respectively; they pay $2.1 million and $2.9 million respectively, to cover the TAP Gap.
Kowal urged legislators to create new revenue streams for SUNY, such as enacting an enhanced Millionaires’ Tax, and a pied-a-terre tax. UUP estimates an enhanced Millionaires’ Tax could generate an additional $2 billion in new state revenue. A pied-a-terre tax—which would tax luxury residential property not used by their owners as primary residences—would bring in an extra $560 million in new state funding.
"Don't clip our wings!"
At SUNY New Paltz, UUP members held an energetic rally that filled a plaza on the campus that serves as a pedestrian crossroads and central gathering spot.
And gather they did – nearly 300 faculty and students who chanted, hoisted signs demanding that lawmakers “#FUNDSUNYNOW,” and took turns holding up a six-foot pair of scissors fashioned out of plywood and cardboard, hinged so that the blades opened and closed. The scissors were a play on the chant at the rally, “Don’t clip our wings!” which referenced the New Paltz hawk mascot.
“We’ve got a big message for the (governor) and our state legislators, and that message is, ‘Don’t clip our wings!’” Chapter President Beth Wilson told the crowd, as she urged them to call their legislators to demand fair funding for SUNY. “We’re sending the message by gathering here today, and we’re going to continue sending it by ringing the phones off the hook.”
Tom Tucker, UUP’s statewide vice president for professionals, called on lawmakers to revise state tax laws so that New York’s ultra-rich residents would pay a greater share of taxes.
“It’s time we asked them to pick up their fair share,” Tucker said.
Among those at the rally were Anthony Dandridge, above, a new UUP member and a faculty member in the Department of Black Studies.
“I do value unions,” Dandridge said. “The under-funding impacts minorities disproportionately, both students and faculty. If it impacts one part of our community, it impacts us all.”
Fighting for fairness
At Old Westbury, more than 20 members held handwritten signs that said “Billionaires pay your taxes!” and “Fund $UNY” at a late morning rally. Talking through a megaphone, Chapter President Martha Livingston urged members to tell their elected state representatives to push for fair funding for SUNY.
UUP Membership Development Officer Tom Hoey and Farmingdale Chapter members, including Chapter President Vicki Janik, also took part in the rally.
UUP members at SUNY Fredonia staffed an information table Feb. 25 and handed out information about UUP’s legislative agenda. They signed people up to vote and collected dozens of “Real Progress for SUNY” postcards filled out by students and colleagues; the cards will be sent to legislators.
Rally in the snow
Nearly three dozen SUNY Plattsburgh students, UUPers and CSEA members chanted “Save SUNY Now!” amid the snowflakes that drifted down on Amitie Plaza, the site of an outdoor rally hosted by the Plattsburgh Chapter to urge the state to properly fund the University.
Speakers included O'Bryan-Losee, UUP Plattsburgh Chapter President Kim Hartshorn; chapter members Wendy Gordon, Gary Kroll and Richard Aberle; local CSEA President Ethel Facteau; and sophomore Mac-Olivier Lalanne.
The message was clear: If SUNY is to continue as a top-notch public university system, it needs to be properly funded. And the best way to do that is to close the tax loopholes and ask the millionaires to pay more.
"Right now, we could fill Yankee Stadium with the millionaires and billionaires who have homes in New York, and it's time that they paid their fair share," said O'Bryan-Losee, drawing cheers from the crowd.“The state has to pony up, and we have to demand it,” Hartshorn said to cheers.
Longtime member Jim Lindgren, above, carried a sign that read “Underfunding SUNY Undermines NY,” which was first used in the 1990s. He touted rallies as a way to remind the Legislature and the governor of the importance of SUNY.
“The squeaky wheel gets the oil and we need to squeak more—for the students and a quality education,” he said. “The funding (just) isn’t there.”
Fund SUNY now!
Kowal, above, led the crowd in a chant of "Fund SUNY now!" that echoed through the Function Room in SUNY Cortland's Corey Union. He told advocates that the only way to get more state funding for SUNY is to tell their elected officials to make it a priority.
Above, a group of Cortland Chapter advocates hold signs to amplify the importance of UUP's push for more state funding for SUNY.
He also pushed for millionaires and billionaires in New York to pay their fair share through an enhanced Millionaires' Tax and a pied-a-terre tax.
"I mean, c'mon, if you're a millionaire and there's a little increase in your tax rate, it will probably leave you as a millionaire," Kowal said.
"We certainly cannot continue to allow the Legislature to underfund SUNY," said Callie Humphrey, coordinator of student advocacy for SUNY Cortland's Student Government Association. "A public higher education isn't a privilege, it's a right."
Speakers included UUP Cortland Chapter President Jaclyn Pittsley; statewide Executive Board member and Cortland Chapter member Rebecca Bryan; and Cortland County legislators Susan Wilson and Beau Harbin.