SUNY Potsdam recently announced massive cuts in programs and personnel to close a $9 million budget gap. Their new president made the announcement, but it's certainly not the new president's fault.
SUNY Potsdam is not the only school in the SUNY system suffering from budget deficits. They are just the first to announce that the proverbial excrement has hit the fan. In 2023, about 30% (19 of 64 campuses) of the SUNY system is running a deficit.
Clinton Community College has proposed a budget with an $800,000 deficit. The good news in that news article was that last year's deficit was closer to $1 million.
SUNY Schenectady has proposed a budget that closes a $1.6 million budget gap by drawing from the fund balance.
Corning Community College plans to use $1.4 million from their fund balance, which will cover 5% of their total budget. That will leave them with about $8 million in the fund balance. In layman's terms, the party can continue for about 4 more years before they have headlines similar to SUNY Potsdam.
Fulton-Montgomery Community College approved a budget that draws $1 million from the rainy-day fund balance. Like their upstate neighbor, North Country Community College, they had about $6 million in their fund balance, largely due to COVID relief money that poured in from the federal government. Both colleges have budgets between $15 and $20 million, so they also have about 4 years until the fund balance falls below the recommended threshold.
But what happens when the Covid money is gone? Let's look at Potsdam.
Potsdam is cutting the BA in Art History. Forty years ago â€" yes, 40! â€" the University at Albany cut their Art History major citing two issues. No students and no jobs. Most of Potsdam's announced program cuts can be categorized as "great courses but not necessarily great majors." Learning Spanish is great, but 15% of New Yorkers grow up bilingual. Learning French is great, but Potsdam is two hours from a Canadian province where everyone grows up bilingual.
Dance and Music Performance majors will have to look elsewhere to get a bachelor's degree. So will the theater majors.
Is there some way to save these programs? Of course. Is SUNY ready? Of course not.
None of the SUNY schools need to be closed or merged as yet. We've already thanked COVID for that. But the programs need to change their format. Programs from 2 colleges can be merged into one. Field trips, job shadows and internships can bring students from both (or all) campuses together for face-to-face comradery. Lecture notes, which are largely on PowerPoint, can be placed online as videos. With the drop in enrollment, there are plenty of available dorm rooms statewide. Imagine those theater majors from Potsdam being bussed to SUNY Purchase for week-long workshops.
What about those lectures back on their home campus? No problem. Zoom? Skype? Microsoft Teams? Whatever video conferencing tool you need. And it's not like the other faculty aren't prepared. They've been through Covid. The infrastructure can handle it.
Thinking outside the box. The real question is "Can administrators across SUNY handle it?"
|
