March 3, 2020

UUP’s effort to see New York state close the TAP Gap for SUNY campuses and to gain new revenue streams for public higher education gained momentum March 3 with a series of productive meetings with lawmakers for the annual NYSUT Committee of 100 advocacy day.

UUP statewide officers and chapter leaders joined their NYSUT colleagues in Albany for meetings with lawmakers, and then gathered in the Capitol's Million Dollar Staircase for a rousing rally to demand full funding for New York’s public schools, colleges and universities.

There, UUP’s Vice President for Professionals Tom Tucker, above, led a roof-raising chant of “Fund SUNY Now!” as several hundred unionists, lawmakers and public education advocates who filled the surrounding staircase and landing joined in with him.

However, several lawmakers said that at least narrowing, if not entirely closing, the TAP Gap is a priority in both the Senate and the Assembly this year. Above, statewide Membership Development Officer Tom Hoey, left, hands a UUP palm card to Assemblymember John T. McDonald III, a Democrat.

The TAP Gap is the difference between the cost of tuition and the maximum state tuition assistance grant. Campuses are expected to make up the difference out of their own operating budgets. UUP seeks $75 million to close the TAP Gap.