The letter below appeared in the Syracuse Post-Standard on March 30, 2011.

I congratulate Governor Andrew Cuomo for executing his vision and achieving an on-time budget and spending plan that will help establish the foundations for a thriving economy for all New Yorkers. I also commend the Governor for initiating a process that marks a tremendous step forward toward a more open and accountable state government. Governor Cuomo uncovered buried inconsistencies and formulaic escalators, and he refused to go along with claimed entitlements. He forcefully took up the charge for a more honest and equitable state government as well as a more efficient one.

But -- as the saying goes -- there is no rest for the weary. There is more work to be done. There is still a great dishonesty and gaping inequity in the way New York State gathers some of its revenues: it taxes every full-time student of SUNY a full $434 per year. The charge each student pays is called tuition -- but that is a sham, it’s dishonest -- for embedded in the tuition is $434 that is automatically swept off to the state to spend on other state purposes, not for SUNY. It is actually, then, a tax, but a tax on only SUNY students—not CUNY students, not any community college students, not students at any of the private colleges and universities in New York State. The result is completely inequitable.

In the new budget now headed for passage, SUNY's colleges and universities have again suffered deep cuts in state support, and no restorations are planned to replace the hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts we have endured the past three years. Any fat in our operations was long ago pared away; now it is likely the reductions campuses must make will affect students’ ability to complete and compete.

There is a solution here: By allowing the full amount of tuition to go to SUNY, we could at least partly fill the financial hole that the state's difficulties have created for our campuses. And, even more importantly, students would not incur any immediate rise in tuition—they would merely get the full value of what they are already paying.

Governor Cuomo, please complete your work of instituting a new era of trust and justice in our state government. Thank you for your powerful work so far and for your willingness to continue to work on additional unresolved issues affecting SUNY campuses. But now it is time to keep your promise in full: Give us an honest, just, accountable budget. Repeal the tax against those least able to pay. And keep our State University a strong, viable and affordable source of higher education for the people of our state.

Deborah F. Stanley
President, SUNY Oswego

You know something strange is going on when you read a headline like "SUNY students press for tuition increases."

At Oswego, we have been on a wonderful trajectory in so many ways -- expanding in the sciences, creating innovative arts events, enriching our region's workforce and cultural sphere, engaging schools and businesses in fruitful collaboration, renewing our campus with state-of-the-art facilities, thrilling fans with athletic prowess, partnering with researchers and educators around the globe, and offering our students world-class opportunity as they interact with our faculty and our alumni.

The path our college is on is a tremendous source of encouragement for our students and pride for our alumni.

Yet we all know that we need revenue to continue to be the vibrant and innovative college that you read about and witness with every visit to campus.

Still suffering from the recession, New York is not providing sufficient resources for SUNY: If the latest round of cuts (on the table as I write) go through, Oswego will have been cut $11 million over three years. At the same time, our tuition is artificially low, the lowest in the Northeast.

Our students recognize that the quality of their education and their future are imperiled by this state of affairs. Hence the headlines, as the Student Assembly joins SUNY's friends in calling for a five-year tuition plan with increases that are fair and predictable.

As someone who values the experience you had at Oswego and who wishes to see current and future students reap the full benefits that an Oswego education should afford, you can help us achieve revenue solutions by advocating for your alma mater at every opportunity.

I ask you to step back and picture the kind of the New York you want to live in -- confident, robust and radiant, offering opportunity to all our citizens. SUNY is indispensable to this vision, which is why your support for us now is so important.

Deborah F. Stanley
President