By Vincent M. Cooke, president of Canisius College, Joseph L. Levesque, president of Niagara University; Denise A. Roche, president of D’Youville College; Cynthia Zane, president of Hilbert College; Richard T. Jurasek, president of Medaille College; Paul B. Hurley, president of Trocaire College; and Marcella Marie Garus, president of Villa Maria College.
While the economy of upstate New York remains challenged, one of the most significant assets for all of upstate is its vast network of colleges and universities.
It is both accurate and important to link higher education to economic development. Investing in students and colleges and universities will yield the returns we need to revitalize our region.
The state and its taxpayers are being urged to expand the development of the State University of New York, including the University at Buffalo. As we consider investing in a larger and more robust SUNY, we must keep in mind that an essential complement to the SUNY system in New York is our private, not-for-profit, independent colleges and universities numbering more than 100 institutions, and enrolling 462,000 students, including 295,000 New Yorkers.
One-third of New York resident students at our four-year campuses come from families earning less than $40,000 per year, which is a greater proportion than at all SUNY campuses. In addition, a majority of the African-American and Latino students who earn their bachelor and graduate degrees in New York are alumni of independent schools.
Independent colleges and universities represent a great bargain for New York taxpayers. At four-year campuses, it costs New York state just $920 for every full-time equivalent student in the independent sector, compared to $15,800 at SUNY.
For this reason, recent suggestions that the state should pull back on aid to independent colleges and put that money into SUNY instead are both ill-advised and divisive. Independent colleges and universities serve an indispensable public purpose; we are partners with SUNY and the City University of New York with the shared goal of educating all New Yorkers. In the spirit of partnership, we should be seeking to increase the state’s overall investment in higher education rather than fighting about reallocating existing funds.
So let’s continue to look at higher education in New York collectively. The state will continue to be asked to make large investments in SUNY and to provide an extensive network of public institutions. At the same time, we need to keep in mind that our state’s independent colleges and universities are playing an equally critical role in meeting the education needs of New Yorkers in a cost-effective manner.
Efforts to improve higher education opportunities upstate will produce results that fall right to the bottom line and help this region grow. Higher education is one of the best investments that we can make, and one of the keys to Buffalo’s revival.