February 27, 2020

Hundreds of SUNY students who never thought they would go to college had their day to tell lawmakers that they’d beaten the odds.

That day was Feb. 27, a day that some 500 students from SUNY and CUNY traveled from all over the state to be in Albany for the annual Higher Education Action Day.

For the state’s higher education unionists who champion these outstanding young adults, it was a day for them to tell those same lawmakers to shine a light on New York’s higher education budget.

The state’s two top legislative leaders, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, as well as the leaders of the two legislative higher education committees, State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, were among more than a dozen legislators and advocates—including UUP President Fred Kowal—to address the students.

Each speaker pledged their support for a better higher education budget, in what everyone realizes will be an especially tough year. The state faces a $6 billion shortfall.

Kowal to students: Tell your stories

Kowal, above, who led students in a boisterous chant of “Fund SUNY Now!” during his short speech, reminded students that their own stories make an indelible impression when it comes to explaining why SUNY, CUNY and the community colleges need an infusion of cash to close the TAP Gap and stop tuition increases.

“When you meet with lawmakers, tell your stories,” Kowal said. “They need to hear from you. You are not just speaking for yourselves—you are speaking for the future.”

Many of the students who came to the Action Day are in the Educational Opportunity Program at a SUNY or CUNY campus, or are students in Educational Opportunity Centers, which are part of the state’s public higher education system and offer education and job training to mostly older or returning students.

Two of them were Stony Brook freshman EOP students Emmanuel Leyva, at top, left, and Demi Bhojedat, at top, right. Higher Education Action Day was their first advocacy event. The parents of both students immigrated to the U.S. Leyva’s family comes from Mexico; Bhojedat’s from Guyana. Leyva is a first-generation college student.

But the day’s overall theme was a demand for a fair and realistic public higher education budget in New York for all students, instead of the flat funding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget proposal sets out for the state’s public colleges and universities.

Leaders pledge support

Heastie, above, Stewart-Cousins and the other lawmakers told the students that they will work hard for them, even in this tough year. UUP Vice President for Professionals Tom Tucker, and Membership Development Officer Tom Hoey also spoke, along with statewide student leaders.

The students heeded Kowal’s urging to tell their stories. SUNY students from three colleges—SUNY Farmingdale, SUNY Geneseo and SUNY Cortland— joined UUP member Rony Rodas, a Farmingdale EOC counselor, for a meeting with staff to Sen. Monica Martinez, a Long Island Democrat and a graduate of Binghamton and Stony Brook universities.

Messages of hope from students, UUPer

The students included sisters Chermin and Edith Hernandez, who attend Geneseo and Cortland, respectively, and are both in the EOP. Chermin Hernandez told how she spent Thanksgiving in a spirit of fellowship with other EOP students —“I want other kids to experience that,” she said—while her sister, Edith, described how she aspires to become a social worker and “tell other kids to chase their dreams.”

And as proof that it’s never too late to get an education, Farmingdale EOC student Max Morehouse described his life-changing decision in his late 40s to “reinvent myself” after a career of “swinging a hammer” as a tradesman. He’s 50 now, he’s almost finished with his EOC program, and he has a job in his chosen field as a counselor and advisor to developmentally disabled adults.

“I’m not even here for myself; I’m here for the people who come up behind us,” Morehouse said. Rodas, the UUP member whose own life story matched many told by the students, spoke up at the end of the meeting. He recounted how he came to the United States at age 13 from his native Guatemala, knowing he wanted an education but finding the path to a degree long and rocky. He finally earned his bachelor’s degree while serving in the Army, and is now working toward a Ph.D.

Of the students who did indeed tell their own stories, as Kowal urged them to do, Rodas said, “They are trying to do something to better themselves. Funding is needed to break the cycle of no education for the next generation.”