Dozens of SUNY Buffalo State staff, faculty and students gathered in front of Rockwell Hall to rally against program cuts as the university faces financial hardship.
The rally — organized by United University Professions (UUP), the union representing SUNY faculty and professional staff — called for the State University of New York to provide additional funding to close the university’s $16 million structural deficit.
Union leaders say that deficit is a direct result of Great Recession-era cuts from over a decade ago and financial hits during the COVID-19 pandemic. UUP is calling for SUNY and New York State to allocate $41.8 million from the state budget to assist Buffalo State and three other institutions that are also in deficit — SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Environmental College of Science and Forestry.
UUP president Fred Kowal said that students at Buffalo State have been left paying the university's difference.
“Instead of having a public university system supported by public dollars, so much has to be funded by students – the tuition, the fees, the cost of housing,” he said.
Under a SUNY-mandated stabilization plan, the university has had to cut staff, initiate a hiring freeze and deactivate several undergraduate and master's courses.
Students shared their concerns about the future of Buffalo State amid financial challenges.
Elisha Martin, a senior and chair of the university's Student Welfare Committee, said that some of his peers are fearful of what programs the university could lose next.
“I've heard a lot of concerns, especially when last year, sociology was cut and now this year, a lot more majors are at risk of being cut. A lot more programs are at risk of being cut," he said.
Some speakers and students at the rally also expressed concerns about federal and state money being used to fund efforts like the war in Iran and U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts instead of higher education.
"While Buffalo State is hemorrhaging this money, we're seeing advertisements online in waves about a new forensics and criminal justice program at the same time as ICE is threatening our students," said Matthew Hogan an English Education graduate student at Buffalo State.
The university's local UUP chapter is currently running a letter-writing campaign to pressure New York State and SUNY to fund the university and to stop or mitigate more proposed cuts.
