PLATTSBURGH — At a college council meeting Monday, SUNY Plattsburgh President Alexander Enyedi reiterated that the institution’s financial future will depend upon student enrollment, retention and state funding increasing in the coming years.
“Our strategic plan is unambiguous,” Enyedi told the college council.
“It’s absolutely clear as to what success and what, essentially, the keys to our success are going to be.”
UNION CONCERNS
But some are not convinced the plan is as solid as it could be.
Enyedi’s remarks come on the heels of a United University Professions (UUP) press conference last week that revealed SUNY Plattsburgh was one of three North Country schools facing a budget deficit in the millions of dollars for the current fiscal year, while also advocating for more state support in funding SUNY campuses across the state.
UUP had said SUNY Plattsburgh’s projected budget deficit was $7.8 million for the current fiscal year, but Heather Haskins, executive director of Strategic Communications and Marketing at the college, refuted that exact amount.
“The college entered the fiscal year with a $14.3 million operating reserve balance. If all dollars currently budgeted are spent, that balance would be at $3 million at the end of the current fiscal year,” Haskins said by email. “Operating reserve balance is basically a cash balance/reserves. We enter the year with that.”
“The operating deficit is real; the college is projected to spend about $11 million more than revenues in the current fiscal year, which would use much of the reserves. We will need to make some adjustments accordingly to planned spending.”
TWO SCENARIOS
To address these lingering financial concerns for the campus, Enyedi had laid out two possible scenarios during Monday’s meeting:
Scenario A, where the campus doesn’t address any issues and continues to see flat state support, no tuition increase, unfunded contractual salary increases, declining enrollment and retention percentages like they are seeing now or;
Scenario B, otherwise known as Plattsburgh Next, where the campus works to improve enrollment, retention and advocacy for more state support and a tuition increase, all while unfunded contractual salaries still increase.
“I will assure you scenario A is not an option,” Enyedi said.
“But I want to put this out there to say that if we choose to do nothing, which we will choose not to do, I can’t emphasize that enough, we would be in a very precarious position for the campus.”
In scenario B, the goal is to raise the retention rate from 80% to 82%, something the campus has achieved in the recent past, he said. Projected enrollment would also increase by approximately 100 students each year in this 5-year scenario.
“What does 100 students translate to in our campus? Every additional 100 students that we gain, corresponds to a number somewhere between $800,000 and $900,000 a year. Every 100 students we lose, same rule applies,” Enyedi said.
“So there’s a very strong connection between where we sit with enrollment and where we sit with revenue.”
‘WE ARE IN PAIN’
Michael Cashman, Town of Plattsburgh Supervisor as well as college council member, was particularly concerned with an area of both scenarios where millions of dollars in permanent reductions had not yet been identified.
“Is retrenchment on the table? Are closing academic programs on the table? … Has DSI (discretionary service increases) been frozen on campus? I mean we are in a significant financial pain, I’ve lived it myself, I’ve been here,” Cashman said to Enyedi.
“I’m not trying to say I’m perfect, or I know all the things here, but the morale of a campus will erode very quickly without transparency on those core issues and when I look through here, the thing that really concerns me is ‘Includes $5.2 million in permanent reductions not yet identified.’”
IDENTIFYING, MAKING CUTS
Enyedi responded to Cashman’s questions by saying that “those budget reductions are always maintained and decided upon in November or December of the year proceeding.”
“We’re on that track right now to identify that and I would say if you look across that graphic, we’ve done a pretty good job of identifying and making cuts and they have been painful and they have been challenging for the campus.”
Cashman later told the Press-Republican that even after the meeting, he still has “more questions than answers right now” when it comes to the current financial situation at the college.
He said he would like to see faculty, staff and students included and engaged in more of these types of conversations moving forward.
“SUNY Plattsburgh has a shared tradition of shared governance, and shared governance … means everybody has the same information to crowdsource the best solutions so that the decision maker can lead on everyone’s behalf,” he said.
“We need to engage all members — faculty, staff, students — because this challenge is not an easy one, but it requires the campus to punch well above its weight and not to hope for a ‘white knight’ to come and save the campus, because it is among many in a pack that are fighting for similar resources.”
And until he has some clarifications on what is being cut, Cashman will continue to raise his questions.
“The way that I would put it is, from the materials that were provided to the college council, the budgetary issue is only getting compounded year after year without making the identified permanent reductions and cuts that will need to be made and that’s been identified by the administration,” Cashman said.
“My question is what is the decision-making model that is going to be used to make those permanent cuts? We’re in November. Is it going to be across all divisions? Is it going to be specific academic departments? Some questions that I think should be answered: is there a hiring freeze? Typically, when you look at organizations that are in fiscal stress, often there are hiring freezes or permanent freezes … I don’t know what that answer is. I’ve asked it a bunch of times and I feel like I haven’t been given a direct answer,” he continued.
“The devil is in the details, and I look forward to hearing more about how the campus is going to approach that.”