Why Now is the Time to Invest in SUNY

Our state is back on track after recovering from the Great Recession with true New York grit and determination. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature led us from bleakness to prosperity, and now we are facing our first budget surplus in recent memory. The State University of New York was the backbone of New York’s recovery from Long Island to Buffalo. And it remains committed to its role as an economic engine, not only preparing our workforce and laying the groundwork for the jobs of tomorrow, but also creating thousands of jobs through construction and research today.

In 2011, SUNY students invested in their future by supporting a rational tuition policy that ensured fair, predictable and responsible increases that would improve academic and student services. SUNY, students, and their families shouldered the burden of flat state funding in the face of increasing costs of providing a world-class education.

If there were ever a time for the state to see a return on increased investment in the SUNY system, it is now. New York is finally stable. SUNY is finally stable. Students are willing to continue doing their part if the state matches their investment. Let’s bolster SUNY while the foundation is strong and new dollars can be used to truly make a difference for our students.

That foundation has been built by Chancellor Nancy Zimpher over the last five years. She has hired 40 new campus presidents, steadied our finances, cleaned up a scandal-ridden Research Foundation, promoted efficiency through shared services, expanded access through online education, and—most importantly—for the first time ever got our 64 distinct campuses rowing together through her vision of “systemness.”  

Now, at the beginning of the chancellor’s sixth year and Gov. Cuomo’s second term, we have the chance to write New York’s next chapter. Chancellor Zimpher has clearly defined our challenge: we need to invest in educating more people, and we need to educate them better.

Our country has a college completion problem, and New York is not immune. SUNY’s record on completion is good—better than the national average—but we are still losing too many students.

And it is completion that is the root of debt for SUNY students, not cost. SUNY remains the most affordable system of higher education in the Northeast. There is no doubt that higher education is a sound investment, but student debt without a college degree is like a mortgage without a house. Given the resources to invest in the programs that we know boost completion, SUNY can do more to control student debt by graduating even more students on time.

That is why Chancellor Zimpher is committed to increasing the number of graduates from 93,000 each year to 150,000 by 2020. That’s game changing.

To get there, the chancellor has proposed a SUNY Investment Fund from the state. For five years, give SUNY $50 million annually to bring the programs that we know work—not based on preferences but on data—to scale across our 64 campuses, and to more New Yorkers than ever before.

These are programs like Finish in Four, which offers the support and course availability to get students to graduate on time, an applied learning experience to every student to promote job readiness, and remedial pathways in math, which promise double the success rate in half the time. Our Educational Opportunity Program, which has 30,000 applicants for 2,500 seats, boasts graduation rates above those of traditional students. This isn’t just about getting students out the door faster—it’s about putting them on the road to success from day one.

So we say to New York: invest in SUNY. We know what works. We won't spend a single new dollar on anything but educating New Yorkers and making sure they graduate on time.

New Yorkers deserve the best system of higher education—the best chance at long-term success—in the nation.

H. Carl McCall has been chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees since October 17, 2011. He is a former New York State Comptroller and was the Democratic candidate for governor in 2002.