CUNY head objects to Pataki plan to hike tuition
Chancellor Matthew
Goldstein, talking to joint legislative panel, also urges
restoration of cuts to CSI
Staten Island Advance - February 9, 2005
ALBANY -- A top official at the City University of
New York yesterday questioned Gov. George Pataki's plan to hike
tuition $250 this fall -- and asked the state to restore nearly $4.4
million to the College of Staten Island.
"We must protect, as a first priority, qualified students who cannot
afford to attend college," CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein said in
testimony given to a joint legislative panel on Pataki's $105.5
billion budget.
The Republican governor's budget calls for $250 tuition hikes for
undergraduate students at CUNY schools. It also sanctions annual
tuition increases -- which, if approved, would freeze tuition at the
level at which students start -- as long as they graduate on time.
Pataki's budget also withholds one-half of students' state Tuition
Assistance Program (TAP) grants until they graduate.
"I worry about the impact of undergraduate tuition hikes, combined
with the withdrawal of TAP support, early in the college careers of
our students," Goldstein said in his testimony.
Goldstein was "gratified" Pataki's budget included an overall
funding increase of $88.4 million or 7.1 percent.
Still, he testified that the governor's budget leaves CUNY with a
$70.5 million operating budget challenge. The college system will
need to raise $37.3 million through the $250 hikes, secure another
$26.3 million for unfunded mandates and finance $6.9 million to
restore the Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge (SEEK)
financial aid program, which helps financially and academically
disadvantaged students, including some at CSI.
"These are significant challenges," Goldstein testified.
He called on Pataki to restore more than $4.3 million to CSI -- cash
earmarked to pay for the renovation of the school's "2M" building, a
project intended to increase classroom space at the 12,500-student
college, which occupies some 204 acres in Willowbrook. The state aid
also would pay for parking and light improvements and refurbishing
study alcoves.
Lawmakers allocated the money for CSI as part of $151 million in
state aid to CUNY in last year's state budget. Pataki vetoed the
expenditures, arguing the budget had taxed and spent too much.
Goldstein asked for the $151 million to be reinstated, calling it an
"urgent request."
Michael Marr, a spokesman for Pataki's state Division of Budget,
said the governor has made "record investments" in CUNY and said
Pataki's latest budget has "built on that record of achievement."
He said Pataki's budget increases taxpayer aid to CUNY by 9.6
percent to a record $701 million and allows CUNY to "remain one of
the best bargains in America, that is comparable to or below that of
neighboring states."
In a related development, Pataki yesterday offered amendments to his
budget that included changes to the budget language in which his TAP
proposal is scripted. Insiders said the changes make it easier for
legislative leaders to restore TAP aid should they wish.
By Robert Gavin
Advance Albany Bureau
Reprinted here with permission from the
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