(POTSDAM, NEW YORK) - A plan being made public to restructure and - according to multiple reports - potentially shrink the State University of New York at Potsdam could have been averted if SUNY’s Board of Trustees had allocated $163 million in new SUNY State funding in the 2023-2024 State Budget to lower projected multi-million-dollar deficits at Potsdam and 16 other SUNY Campuses, so says United University Professions, the Union that represents more than 37,000 SUNY Employees.

UUP has serious concerns about the plan, which could result in cuts to programs, Faculty and Staff in several departments at the college to mitigate a projected $9 million deficit.

UUP President Frederick E. Kowal said: “This is a manufactured crisis.  There would be no need for such drastic steps if SUNY’s Board of Trustees distributed the ($163 million) in new State funding to reduce multi-million-dollar deficits at Potsdam and sixteen other financially strapped SUNY campuses.”

UUP, through months of advocacy, was instrumental in securing those funds, which if distributed based on need, would have been more than enough to wipe out budget deficits at Potsdam and the other SUNY Campuses - many of them Upstate-based colleges, UUP said.

Added Kowal: “That money should have been distributed based on need, to erase projected deficits at Potsdam and our other campuses facing multi-million-dollar budget shortfalls - through no fault of their own.  But the Trustees chose to use it in other ways, which, combined with declining enrollments at some SUNY Colleges, has served to make the situation worse, certainly so at SUNY Potsdam.”

Budget shortfalls at Potsdam and other financially troubled SUNY campuses were caused, in large part, by massive Great Recession-era State funding cuts to SUNY and more than a decade of SUNY austerity budgets under the Cuomo Administration, UUP said.

According to State budget appropriation data, Potsdam has sustained a 74% cut in direct State funding compared to State Fiscal Year 2009-2010.

If funding had remained at the 2009-2010 level of $42 million, Potsdam would have received, in total, an additional $396 million in direct State funding, UUP said.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: UUP concerned over possible program, faculty cuts at SUNY Potsdam to reduce deficit (uupinfo.org)