Remarks at the Stated Meeting of the Faculty
24 February 2003
I will cut right to the chase and discuss what is on all our minds: the budget.
Let me give you the facts as we know them and turn then to what we can do about them.
As everyone knows by now, the Governor set out his budget for the coming year, 2003-2004, late last month. The Governor's budget is a recommendation. A final budget emerges only when the Executive and the Legislative branches have agreed. In New York State, notoriously, that process takes months. Meanwhile, we can take action.
The Governor's proposed budget would reduce support for the University by about $81 million. The University has indicated that mandated costs will require another $40 million, creating a deficit all told of about $120 million. The Governor's proposed budget would also restructure financial aid for students, providing them with two-thirds of what they will receive while they are in college and with the remaining one-third when they graduate. Over and above that one-third, they would be reimbursed the interest they may have paid on loans to complete their studies. No change is foreseen in individual financial aid awards or in degrees of eligibility. Finally, the Governor's proposed budget would eliminate the financial components of the SEEK Program: stipends, fee waivers, and book expenses.
Brooklyn College has traditionally received about 10% of whatever the University had to dispense. A deficit of this magnitude would cut deeply into the adjunct budget, into released time, into department and library budgets, into everyday maintenance and custodial service. It would require us to reconsider class size and credit for independent study. It would reduce services and lengthen response time.
Change in financial aid would affect more than half of our students. It might lead some to become part-time students, others to withdraw from college. If there is a tuition increase, we could see what we saw in 1995-96, the last time there was such an increase, when the University lost thousands of students. In effect, students would be stymied in their plans for study and for productive careers, and colleges would lose tuition revenues, compounding their difficulties.
How will we respond?
The University has taken certain internal measures:
It has announced that we will continue to recruit and hire new faculty, replacing all those who took advantage of the early retirement initiative just now -- some 35 at Brooklyn College. New faculty are more important than ever.
The University has however imposed a freeze on all other hiring -- administration and support staff. On-going searches are in jeopardy; vacancies created by resignation or retirement will not be filled unless they are in critical areas, for example, in health and safety. Existing staff -- or technological alternatives -- are expected to fill the gap. The University also intends to implement efficiencies -- eliminating redundancies across campuses, streamlining processes, and extending the use of technology.
The University has made clear that it will have to raise tuition. At this point we cannot know how much, or exactly how the increase will be imposed. The chancellor has said that to raise undergraduate tuition as SUNY has done -- by $1,400 -- would impose an intolerable burden on our students, 60% of whom come from families with an income of $30,000 or less. We can therefore conclude that higher tuition will fall not only on undergraduates but also on our graduate and professional programs. The increase will take effect in September.
During the period in which the Executive and the Legislative branches negotiate a budget, we -- both the College and the University -- can take external measures:
The budget is a political act; any remedy must also be a political act. Our goal is to persuade the New York State Assembly (and the Senate) to forestall, to the extent possible, the damage the Governor's proposed budget would inflict.
Our most important target is the proposed change in the structure of financial aid. If we can persuade the legislature to resist the Governor's proposal to defer one-third of financial aid, eligible students can survive a tuition increase. This measure is critical. Our students must be able to continue their studies; we must be able to maintain our enrollment. Here we will have the help of other colleges and universities in New York State, both public and private.
Our other great target is to soften proposed cuts in the budget. I say "soften" because the overall deficit the State is facing precludes our restoring a full $120 million to the budget. To the extent that we can reduce the cuts, we will reduce the need for a tuition increase.
Last month, before the budget was made public, I asked a committee to develop an action plan for the College. What needs to be done to secure a legislative solution? How can we contribute to securing such a solution? Who can we engage -- within the College and outside -- to champion our cause?
The starting point is keeping everyone informed. I have spoken at CAP and Faculty Council and speak today to the plenum of the faculty. We will follow up with fact sheets and communications on e-mail and on our website. We have scheduled a Town Hall meeting for students later this week, and others will follow. We have established a communications council composed of representatives from student clubs and student government. We will use our various publications to inform and alert and educate.
We must all participate in a major letter-writing campaign. I have asked you to do so before; this time it is more important than ever. We must send letters by the thousands. We will enlist not only all members of the college community, but also parents and families, the local community and the business community, alumni throughout the State (there are some 65,000), civic leaders and elected officials. We must coordinate our activities with those of colleagues across the University and with the PSC and with NYPIRG.
Calls and visits will supplement our letters. Members of the staff, together with three outstanding students, spent three days in Albany recently at the annual weekend of the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus. Later this week, the College will host the entire Brooklyn delegation to the State Assembly. We have scheduled other visits, locally and in Albany. We will hold rallies; we will make phone calls.
And we plan to sponsor our own workshops on financial aid. Not everyone who is eligible has applied for such aid. What is the obstacle? Is it lack of information? Mountains of paperwork? How can we maximize possibilities, not only of financial aid but also of jobs, on campus and off-campus, and of paid internships?
It is a mammoth effort. The stakes are high. Please help.
You can help by writing letters; we will send you instructions and arrange for the letters to reach the recipients. You can help by making calls; we will give you the names of your local assembly members and senators. You can talk to students. Investing a minute of classtime may yield great dividends. And you can help by giving me your suggestions and ideas.
These budgetary crises run in cycles. Their immediate impact can be devastating, on individuals and on institutions. But we have been through them before and recovered, and we will do so again. Society -- and the economy – depend on higher education. We must be there for our students (and for ourselves), so that when the tide turns, we will have the advantage of our efforts.
I will devote much of my time this spring to protecting the College. We must do this together. Numbers count; determination counts. The College is worth the effort.
Now the good news. Undergraduate enrollment is up by over 500 over last spring; total enrollment by close to 400. As of this morning, we have 14,523 students in residence.
We have worked together, sometimes painfully, to create a more flexible class pattern. The new pattern will take effect this fall, and we will evaluate it after three semesters to see how well it is working.
Committees composed of members of the faculty, the administration, and the student body have begun to discuss general education and outcomes assessment; a series of college-wide symposia on this subject will be held over the next three months. The periodic review report, due halfway between major assessments every ten years by our accrediting agency, the Middle States Association, is being prepared, and a draft will circulate for your review this fall.
We have a new Distinguished Professor: Sam Leiter of the Department of Theater. Please stand so that we may recognize you. And a new Presidential Professor, a title created specifically to honor members of the Brooklyn College faculty: Shlomo Silman, Presidential Professor of Speech Communication Arts and Sciences. Please stand so that we may recognize you.
And if you want to escape into fantasy, you can go to a movie that has a Brooklyn connection. Brooklyn College is connected in one way or another to 31 Academy Award nominations. Only Miramax does it better.
Michael Lynne, an English major, Class of 1961, Co-Chairman and CEO of New Line Cinema, gave us Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (nominated for 6 awards, including Best Picture), and About Schmidt (nominated for 3, including Best Actor).
Neil Meron, a Theater major, Class of 1976, is Executive Producer of Chicago (nominated for 13 awards, including Best Picture).
Joel Zwick, Class of 1962, with both a bachelor's and a master's degree in Speech and Theater, directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding (nominated for Best Original Screenplay).
And our own Michael Cunningham, Distinguished Professor of English and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, has given us The Hours (nominated for 9 awards, including Best Picture).
Brooklyn College really is a great place to be and a great place to be from.
I'll keep you informed about the budget. And I'll call on you for help.
Are there any questions? If there are none, the Stated Meeting stands adjourned.
