What’s happening at West Virginia University is deplorable.
In September, West Virginia’s flagship public university announced plans to cut as many as 28 degree programs and lay off more than 140 faculty members, killing its foreign language degree programs and gutting its languages and literatures department.
Pointing to a $45 million budget deficit—due mostly to a 10 percent drop in enrollment since 2015—the university’s Board of Governors also approved cuts to WVU’s arts and music programs and terminated its math graduate degree programs.
And yet, the money was there. WVU has spent nearly $200 million on new construction projects since 2019, including $100 million for a new business school building.
Sound familiar? It might if you’ve been following the news about SUNY Potsdam’s plans to cut programs, faculty and staff to reduce its multimillion-dollar budget deficit.
And like at West Virginia University, it could have been avoided.
In September, new SUNY Potsdam President Suzanne Smith announced a drastic—some might even say severe—financial restructuring to reduce a projected $9 million shortfall. Fourteen degree programs would be cut and an undetermined number of faculty and staff would lose their jobs
On October 24, Potsdam announced it would keep four programs, apparently reaching the decision after conversations with the campus community. Nine programs, including Physics, Philosophy, Spanish, French and the Theater department, remain on the chopping block.
Smith warned that SUNY Potsdam would get no help from the state or SUNY to solve its financial woes, which were caused in large part by massive Great Recession-era state aid cuts and a decade of SUNY austerity budgets under the Cuomo administration.
And yet, the money was there—more than necessary to close a $9 million shortfall. My union, United University Professions, helped see to that.
Our relentless advocacy was instrumental in securing $163 million in new state funding for SUNY in the 2023-2024 state budget. Our intent was to see those funds used to close major deficits at Potsdam and 18 other SUNY campuses.
But the SUNY Board of Trustees chose otherwise. They apportioned the money in a way that left many cash-strapped campuses in the red—even though they could have closed deficits at Potsdam and the other campuses if the funds were distributed based on need.
They manufactured a crisis.
And that begs the question: Why?
We certainly understand the necessity of a long-range plan to guide campuses into the future. But we are very concerned that Potsdam’s so-called “restructuring plan” will become a template for similar cuts at other financially troubled campuses, like SUNY Fredonia and SUNY Buffalo State. Eventually, campuses will become financially unsustainable—and that’s when they’ll be closed.
And that would be a terrible mistake.
Financial solvency at our campuses cannot be accomplished by systematically cutting programs and the hard-working, knowledgeable faculty and staff that provide these important services.
To be successful, to meet the goals of SUNY’s mission, we must invest in our campuses and grow them—not cut them.
A more prudent approach would be to close the deficit at Potsdam—and 17 other SUNY campuses—and then develop a plan going forward.
Working together with the governor, the Legislature and the Board of Trustees, we can reclaim SUNY’s mission. We must turn away from the tuition/fee-based system of financing our campuses—which, combined with years of austerity budgets for SUNY under the Cuomo administration, led us to this situation.
SUNY is a public good. Let us together advocate for funding in the next state budget to finally and completely erase the Cuomo-created deficits.
Only then can our campuses work to build a better, stronger, more accessible and more diverse SUNY for ALL New Yorkers.
Indeed, let us make our system the envy of the world — once again.
Dr. Fred Kowal is President of the 35,000 member United University Professions, which represents faculty on 29 New York State Campuses. UUP is an affiliate of NYSUT, The American Federation of Teachers, The National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.
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