College of Staten Island President Endorses Education Improvements

Staten Island Advance -  Monday, December 17, 2007

A series of sweeping changes proposed for the state's public higher-education system, the work of a blue-ribbon panel, got the imprimatur of the president of the College of Staten Island yesterday.

"I think it's a great day for higher education in New York state," said Dr. Tomas D. Morales. "By and large, the recommendations in the report could have, and will have, an impact on the prosperity in the state ... [and] it will help Staten Island residents access higher education."

That would be accomplished via the establishment of a low-cost student loan program for residents attending college in New York state.

The study also recommended that lockstep tuition increases be abolished, that individual schools be free to determine what tuition they charge.

Released yesterday in Albany by the state Commission on Higher Education, the report calls for significantly more state dollars for New York's public colleges and universities and for greater tuition and fund-raising revenues.

It also recommends hiring 2,000 more full-time professors over the next five years and creating a $3 billion innovation fund for research grants in physical sciences, bioscience, engineering and medicine that can spark economic development.

Dr. Morales said CSI already has taken steps in some of the areas highlighted in the report, such as enhancing fund-raising, creating ties with secondary and elementary schools here and bolstering research, particularly in polymer chemistry and through its high-performance computing facility.

Commission members said New York's public research universities lag behind those in California, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina and a number of other states. That ultimately translates into a loss of jobs and revenue for New York.

"The commission believes that outstanding research universities are key to the state's future, and ... [the] State University of New York [SUNY] and City University of New York [CUNY] need significant investment to become competitive with other states' top public research universities."

There are more than 425,000 students on 64 campuses in the SUNY system, including those in CUNY schools, such as CSI.

The report did not provide a cost estimate for the recommendations, nor did it say how the state should pay for them.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer said the study's release was timed to let him incorporate several of its aspects in his upcoming state of the state address and the new fiscal-year budget.

Spitzer called the report "bold," adding that it is "critically important" for the state to upgrade and invest in higher education. He stopped short, however, of endorsing the report as a whole, calling its recommendations "expensive."

"Implementation will be the test," he said. "We will embrace parts [of the report], examine parts and evaluate economic realities," he said at the news conference.

Hunter R. Rawlings III, the commission chairman and former president of Cornell University, said the report tried to look forward "10, 15, 20 years."

Under a "compact," the state would pay schools' annual costs for salaries, fringe benefits and energy, along with 20 percent of master-plan investments it approves. In exchange, schools could enact a series of modest tuition increases and would have to boost fund-raising efforts and enrollment.

According to the report, the tuition spikes would average 2.5 percent to 4 percent a year.

Undergraduate tuition at CSI and other CUNY schools is $4,000 a year. It is $4,350 at SUNY schools.

A potential tuition hike might not sit well with legislators -- or students.

Dr. Morales said it was premature to speculate whether CSI would even push for one. The Willowbrook school has about 12,500 students. CUNY last raised tuition in 2003, by 25 percent, to the current $4,000 a year. The previous increase was in 1995.

But Morales said he is excited about the prospects of low-cost student loans, establishing partnerships with other schools and community members, and beefing up faculty and research.

By Frank Donnelly
Reprinted here with permission from the