If the SUNY Board of Trustees’ budget is approved by the governor and the state Legislature, SUNY-ESF students could be in store for a sharp increase in tuition.

The State University of New York Chancellor Robert L. King presented his budget for the 2003-2004 school year to the board, who approved the budget with a 10-2 vote Friday.

The budget includes a 41 percent increase in in-state tuition from the $3,400 students pay now to about $5,000, said Dave Henahan, a spokesman for the SUNY Board of Trustees.

“The board of trustees’ primary concern is the quality of education for the students,” he said.

If the board had followed the higher education price index or the tuition increases other state institutions have implemented in the past seven years when New York state schools had no increase in tuition the increase would have been higher than the proposed 41 percent, Henahan said.

For the past seven years tuition at Syracuse University has increased each year. From 1995 to 2003 tuition increased a total 34.23 percent.

The increased tuition money would go to the core institutional budget which accounts for such things as wage increases for faculty, maintenance at universities and improvements in such areas as libraries, he said.

Sean Vormwald, project coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group at Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said if tuition is increased there is no guarantee the money will be used for improvements at SUNY schools.

The price of higher education in New York is already too expensive, he added.

NYPIRG is now hoping the governor will not accept the tuition increases in the SUNY budget when he makes his own budget due to the Legislature Jan. 29, Vormwald said.

The budget passed by the SUNY board is a recommendation to the governor, who’s budget still must be passed by the state Legislature.

Syracuse Assemblywoman Joan Christensen said the state Assembly is on record as saying it would be against an increase in the cost of higher education.

Christensen is afraid students may not be able to afford the increase in tuition because traditionally SUNY schools are the schools where working men and women send their children.

The result of the raise in tuition could be sending students into debt for the rest of their lives or having parents unable to send their children to college which would not be a positive message to send, she said.

“We can’t say, ‘Go out and get an education’ and then put up barriers,” Christensen said. “If they had barriers just think of how many people would be denied the chance to go to college.”

Vormwald said because of the proposed increase in tuition, many students will not be able to attend and others will not be able to return.

Christensen, who sits on the higher education committee in the state Assembly, said she thinks the governor will propose an increase in tuition but it will not be as high as the 41 percent proposed by the board.

Henahan said New York is catching up with other states as a result not increasing tuition for seven years.

SUNY schools are making sure all students know of the financial assistance programs available to ensure as few students as possible are unable to attend, he said.

“This is a difficult time for higher education nationally,” Henahan said.

Published on January 19, 2003 at 12:00 pm