WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, United University Professions (UUP) Statewide President Fred Kowal addresses a rally held outside Buffalo State University’s Rockwell Hall earlier this week that attracted hundreds of students, area Labor Leaders, Elected Officials and Community Activists, who came together to call on New York State to provide $16 million in aid to clear the Buffalo College’s deficit - and in the process save 160 jobs.  (WNYLaborToday.com Photo)

(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – Hundreds of Buffalo State University students were joined by their United University Professions (UUP)-represented Faculty and Professors on Tuesday (March 10th) outside Rockwell Hall to call on New York State to send $41.8 million in State aid to four State University of New York (SUNY) cash-strapped campuses in order to clear multi-million-dollar deficits - including $16 million for Buffalo State that would also save 160 jobs.

“($16 million) ‘is a pittance for the next generation,’” UUP Statewide President Fred Kowal told the very loud and boisterous gathering that assembled before him. “‘Instead of spending ($1 billion) a day (in a war) fighting Iran, we could use that money to educate people instead of committing genocide.’ ‘It’s us against the Epstein Class.’ ‘How much more do they need?’ SUNY ‘owes us’ and our State Legislators ‘need to do the right thing.’ Let’s put ($16 million) in the budget ‘to serve this community.’ ‘This is about justice.’ ‘Let’s get it done!’”

UUP estimated nearly 400 SUNY/Buffalo State students, Faculty and Staff joined area Labor Leaders - including Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council President Grace Bogdanove, and Elected Officials at the rally to urge Albany to send $41.8 million in aid to the SUNY campuses (notably SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Environmental College of Science and Forestry) that would work to clear multi-million-dollar structural deficits - including $16 million to Buffalo State, whose deficit, UUP said, is a direct result of drastic Great Recession-era cuts and more than a decade of flat funding.

Many in the crowd waved signs that read: Stop the Cuts!, Fair Funding for Buffalo State, Some Cuts Never Hea” and Hear Our Roar! - as speaker after speaker pointed to Buffalo State’s recent enrollment gains and the University’s role as a powerful economic engine in Buffalo Community and the Western New York Region. 

Such an infusion of cash would allow Buffalo State to plan for the future and focus on growing its enrollment, which saw a 3.7% increase in first-time and freshman enrollment and a nearly 8% bump in first-year retention rate in Fall 2025. 

SUNY’s plan will thwart the Buffalo Campus’ enrollment growth - which Kowal had attributed to three years of increased State funding to SUNY. 

“Buffalo State ‘has always been a place of opportunity,’” Buffalo Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope told those at the rally. “It’s a place where ‘first-generation’ College students have walked through these doors ‘and realized that higher education belongs to them too.’ It’s a place where students ‘from every background find a path forward.’ ‘So, when I hear about programs being placed on a deactivation list, when I hear that admissions are rescinded overnight and decisions are announced before any decisions have been had, people have a right to ask why?’”

SUNY’s Board of Trustees has decided against allocating those funds based on need - and that has negatively impacted Buffalo State, where SUNY has deactivated Undergraduate and Master’s courses, cut Staff, implemented a hiring freeze and is offering an early retirement incentive with no plans to fill those vacancies. 

Buffalo State Chapter President Lisa Marie Anselmi said 160 jobs could be cut, which amounts to about 25% of the University’s Staff: “Eliminating these positions ‘will hurt’ students, Employees, their families and local businesses ‘for years to come.’ We are told that with this deficit that cuts ‘are necessary and that there’s no other choice, but we know that with the support of the State and SUNY behind us there is a different choice.’ Public education ‘is a public good.’”

Buffalo Labor Council President Bogdanove (Pictured Above) told those at the rally: “‘When one Union is under attack, all Unions are under attack.’ (President Donald) Trump ‘made the largest cut to health care in our country’s history to give tax breaks to the wealthiest one-percent.’ ‘This is warfare against the Working Class by the Billionaire Class.’ ‘This is about (160) jobs and the future of hundreds of thousands of students.’ ‘It’s a planned extinction and that’s why the Western New York Labor Movement stands with you.’”

Nick Smith, who serves as President of United Student Government at Buffalo State, said: “Buffalo State ‘is the best campus in the SUNY System.’ ‘It is unlike any other and it is the people who make Buffalo State.’ ‘Diversity makes Buffalo State.’ Buffalo State ‘is full of opportunity with people who believe in you.’ Buffalo State ‘is’ Buffalo.”

Buffalo State Student Welfare Committee Chair Elisha Martin said: “‘We don’t need more cuts that will gut’ our campus community, our Professors and our programs. ‘This is how we thrive.’ ‘We’re asking for crumbs.’ ‘We cannot afford to lose - Buffalo State is worth fighting for.’”

UUP - the Nation's largest Higher Education Union, represents more than 42,000 Academic and Professional Faculty and Retirees.

Its Members work at 29 State-operated Campuses, including SUNY's Public Teaching Hospitals and Health Science Centers in Brooklyn, Long Island and Syracuse.

UUP is an Affiliate of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA) and the AFL-CIO.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Information provided by UUP in a press release was also used in this Labor News Story.