President Stanley and SUNY Chancellor Zimpher are on the precipice of initiating the biggest fundamental change since SUNY was created in 1948.

Barely six months into their tenures as heads of their respective institutions, Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley and State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher are on the verge of initiating the biggest fundamental shift in the way Stony Brook, and indeed all of SUNY, operates.

The change revolves around the so-called Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, an initiative that would end, or at least greatly reduce, the strict oversight by the state on tuition costs at each of the 64 campuses that compose SUNY.

If the plan is enacted, it would allow the SUNY Board of Trustees to set varying tuition rates at each campus, rather than one blanket rate. That new freedom will translate immediately to tuition hikes for all SUNY campuses.

The plan calls for a 6%-7% increase in tuition annually for the next 10 years across the board, with certain campuses potentially receiving even greater increases. At minimum, those increases would nearly double the current tuition rates by 2020. Supporters of the plan argue that the additional revenue—which, unlike previous tuition increases, would remain mostly at individual campuses—will help schools like Stony Brook hire more and better faculty, improve infrastructure, and boost the overall quality of education.

But those potential benefits are not enough to offset mounting anger over the plan. The increase, some argue, will inevitably make SUNY unaffordable to low-income families.

President Stanley addressed those concerns, saying that SUNY ran a series of models based on the proposed increases and are committed to ensuring that lower-income families are not shut out of SUNY.

“We plan on allocating 25 to 30 percent of the tuition increases for scholarships,” he said. “We would cover the gap between TAP and our costs.”

Still, doubt remains over whether those scholarships will be enough to maintain the current demographics of the university. And while low-income students would benefit from these scholarships, middle-class families would ultimately be asked to pay significantly more without the benefit of scholarships.

But President Stanley stands firmly behind the plan.

“It will do a great deal to improve the quality of education” he said.

Stanley and SUNY Chanceller Zimpher have also made it a point to emphasize the “predictability” of these increases as a benefit. Past tuition increases have been delivered suddenly and met considerable anger, and that is not fair to students and their families, says Stanley.

“It breaks a compact with our students,” he said.

Instead, these increases will be announced right up front, so families can know what to expect every time the bill arrives.

Another potential variable is a proposal made by former SUNY Chancellor Robert King, who suggested that incoming freshmen be guaranteed the same tuition rates for their four years in SUNY as they paid their freshman year. In other words, even if tuition were to increase during their time there, those students would not have to pay the increased rate.

That is not currently a part of the proposal, but President Stanley is open to the idea.

“I’d like to take a look at that,” he said.

SUNY spokesman David Henahan also added that the current proposal would effectively eliminate the fickleness that SUNY has dealt with in the past.

“This would take tuition costs out of the political arena,” said Henahan. “It would remove a lot of red tape.”

Currently, the SUNY board of trustees is restricted by the state of New York on what they can charge for tuition, and the cost is maintained across the state. Students at SUNY Fredonia, a smaller college in upstate New York with 3,500 undergraduate students, pay the same tuition as students at Stony Brook University, a school with almost five times as many students and many more associated costs.

The proposal, if approved, would likely create a tiered system much like the public education system in Pennsylvania. There, students who attend a “flagship” campus—Penn State’s University Park campus in this example—pay more than students who attend smaller state colleges.

Opponents of the plan are furious that SUNY and Stony Brook would even consider the proposal, which would significantly increase tuition costs.

Sources within and familiar with the Undergraduate Student Government have confirmed that USG Treasurer Matt Anderson will be resigning from his position effective Thursday after the USG Senate passed articles of impeachment. His resignation allows the Senate to confirm a new Treasurer to immediately take over.

“In the last senate meeting [on Tuesday], there was a vote on the resolution to impeach, and it passed unanimously,” said a source familiar with the situation.

Earlier this evening, USG President Jasper Wilson appointed Moiz Khan, currently a USG senator, to the position. If the senate confirms him at tomorrow’s emergency meeting, he will assume the responsibilities of treasurer on Friday.

The seat change is the result of weeks of building frustration with the office of the treasurer. Several student organizations have complained that they have yet to receive any notification about their fall budget revisions in writing, and within USG itself there have been a number of financial matters that have caused controversy.

According to multiple sources who wished to remain anonymous until this process is finalized, important paperwork had been laying around for weeks, club vouchers were not being signed and processed, and student-organized events were threatened with cancellation due to unresolved financial matters within the office of the treasurer.

Perhaps most egregiously, the spring budget process, which was supposed to be adopted by the senate a month ago, has yet to be addressed, and won’t be until the start of next semester, a source within USG has said.

Stay with Think and InTuition for the latest.

You get what you pay for.

That’s the simple concept behind President Samuel L. Stanley’s proposal to initiate a flexible tuition system on campus, giving the university significantly greater control of its tuition rates.

Language like that, “flexible tuition,” is sure to raise some red flags, and President Stanley readily admits that his proposal, should it be pursued, “probably means there will be a tuition increase.”

This comes on the heels of the very public and very vocal opposition to the last round of SUNY-wide increases, which raised tuition by $620 per student. Most of those additional funds went to New York State’s general fund and not to the 64 SUNY locations around the state.

Photo courtesy of Stony Brook University.

But these increases would be different. Under the current system, the SUNY Board of Trustees, and to a lesser extent the state government in Albany, set the tuition rates for each campus in SUNY. Those rates are remarkably low, even for a public university, and do not allow for much in the way of growth within the university.

“It makes us difficult to be great,” said Stanley of the current tuition model.

A flexible tuition model like the one President Stanley is proposing would allow Stony Brook administration officials to set the tuition rates for students while maintaining its status as a publicly supported university. President Stanley made it very clear that the university has no intention of pursuing a conversion to a private university.

President Stanley is hardly the first prominent SUNY official to propose a flexible tuition model. Last spring, the University of Buffalo and local state officials in western New York introduced a bill in the State Senate that would give UB—and only UB—the ability to dictate its own tuition. The bill is the highlight of UB 2020, the university’s large-scale plan to expand the campus’ reach and improve its stature as a top-tier public university.

The bill, “UB 2020 Flexibility and Economic Growth Act,” is still being debated in Albany and has received both praise and harsh criticism from legislators around the state, but President Stanley voiced his strong support in favor of the legislation.

“I really support that concept,” he said. “[SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher] is really supportive of this concept.”

State Senators John Flanagan (R., NY 2^nd) and Brian Foley (D., NY-3^rd) could not be immediately reached, but when we get their response we will update this article.

President Stanley also sought to dispel any concerns about whether his proposal would affect the affordability of Stony Brook University, saying that he would ensure that any tuition increases that result from the change “does not stand in the way of students’ ability to afford an education.”

[podcast]http://thinksb.com/audio/TOL%20201.mp3[/podcast]

The Faculty/Student Association formally announced yesterday that campus dining, long a target of student criticism, would switch contractors over the summer from Compass Group’s Chartwells to Lackmann Culinary Services.

But before you applaud the change, a few things to keep in mind. Stony Brook used to contract with Lackmann, a local dining service based out of Woodbury, Long Island, but they lost their contract in 1982 after a contentious bid dispute with the FSA. The contract was awarded to DAKA, which has since been acquired by the Compass Group.

And then there’s the matter of Lackmann’s current contracts. Several other colleges and universities use Lackmann in their dining halls, and the reviews from students have been less than stellar.

The Observer, a student newspaper at Broward College, is no fan of Lackmann, and the university’s Student Government Association (the equivalent of Stony Brook’s Undergraduate Student Government) has been pushing for changes.

Same at Hofstra, where there is even a student group (Students Amending Lackmann Associated Dining) that was created to address the shortcomings of their campus dining, also run by Lackmann. And in an editorial published in the Hofstra Chronicle, students allege that Lackmann and Hofstra’s dining services were failing to provide students with receipts upon request (as required by law), and that fraudulent charges to meal cards of both students and faculty went unresolved. (Hofstra officials responded to the charges in a follow-up letter to the editor, calling the charges unsubstantiated. Shocker.)

THiNK Magazine has yet to do its own reporting into the matter, so it would be unfair of us to pass judgment on Lackmann. And student complaints about campus dining are not exactly rare occurrences, no matter at which university or what food service provider holds the contract.

But there are several questions that should be answered. THiNK Magazine will keep an eye on this developing story, and hopefully so will the other campus publications (all of which have yet to report on this, oddly. Get on it, guys!)

Stay with THiNK and the InTuition blog for our own original reporting.

SSK on HuffPost

University President Shirley Strum Kenny penned an 1100 word blog criticizing not just Gov. Paterson, but any governor who is seeking to cut funding to public higher education. Turns out, SUNY isn’t the only state university system that is facing huge budget reductions: 13% in Washington State, $81 million in Kansas, and a whopping 36% in Nevada, according to Kenny’s letter.

Here’s a quick sample:

With such utter disregard for higher education, America is losing ground on a number of fronts critical to our future prosperity and progress. Once the U.S. led the world in the percentage of its population with higher education degrees. Now, among individuals ages 25 to 34, we have fallen to 11th, behind such countries as Russia, South Korea, and Japan. For the first time, the cohort of Americans of that age group is less educated than the cohorts that preceded it. Playing catch up will not be easy; a recent report shows that to keep up with international competitors, the U.S. will have to educate an additional 15 million-plus with either associate’s or bachelor’s degrees by the year 2025. That’s a whopping 37% increase over current production.

Read the full post here.