State University of New York

Agency Web Site: https://www.suny.edu/

Mission

Created in 1948, the State University of New York (SUNY) is the largest public university system in the nation with 64 campuses offering a complete range of academic, professional, and vocational programs. The State University system is uniquely positioned to provide New Yorkers with access to quality postsecondary educational programs in all regions of the State.

Organization and Staffing

SUNY is governed by an eighteen-member Board of Trustees consisting of fifteen members appointed by the Governor, by and with consent of the New York State Senate, the President of the Student Assembly and the Presidents of the University Faculty Senate and Faculty Council of Community Colleges as ex-officio members. Aside from the Board, SUNY's leadership structure also consists of a Chancellor, individual college Presidents and centralized staff. Additionally, each of the thirty community colleges have their own campus presidents and boards of trustees. The State University includes 29 state operated campuses, 5 statutory colleges, and 30 community colleges, located across New York and employing thousands of academic, administrative, and facility personnel.

Budget Highlights

The FY 2020 Executive Budget recommends $11.1 billion for SUNY and projects a workforce of 46,092 consistent with FY 2019 levels.

The FY 2020 funding level represents a $73.8 million increase from the prior year, which reflects $41 million in additional support for employee fringe benefits and a $347 million increase in self-supported hospital operating appropriations partially offset by the non-recurrence of $301 million in appropriations primarily comprised of one-time capital funding for hospitals and other self-supported capital projects.

In 2017, Governor Cuomo created the historic Excelsior Scholarship, a first-in-the-nation program that provides free tuition at New York’s public colleges and universities for middle class families. In FY 2020, the Excelsior Scholarship will enter the third and final year of a three-year phase-in. For the 2019-20 academic year, the Excelsior Scholarship income eligibility threshold will increase, allowing New Yorkers with household incomes up to $125,000 to be eligible. To continue this landmark program, the Budget includes $119 million to support free tuition for an estimated 30,000 students. Along with other sources of tuition assistance, the Excelsior Scholarship and State tuition assistance programs will allow approximately 55 percent of full-time SUNY and CUNY in-state students, or more than 210,000 New York residents, to attend college tuition-free.

The Executive Budget includes legislation to implement the DREAM Act, opening the doors of higher education to thousands of New Yorkers. Since 2002, undocumented students qualify for in-state tuition at SUNY and CUNY if they graduated from a New York high school or received a GED in the state. Yet, each year, many talented students who graduate from New York high schools remain unable to fulfill their potential simply because they cannot afford the tuition and lack access to tuition assistance to help pay for school. The DREAM Act will give undocumented students access to the Excelsior Scholarship, the Tuition Assistance Program, as well as other state-administered scholarships.

The Executive Budget also continues New York’s predictable tuition plan which has kept public college tuition affordable. Average tuition and fees at New York’s public four-year colleges are among the lowest in the nation -- $2,040, or 20 percent, less than the national average and lower than 40 other states.

The FY 2020 Executive Budget maintains base operating aid for SUNY community colleges at $2,847 per full time equivalent student.

For more information on this agency's budget recommendations located in the Executive Budget Briefing Book, click on the following link:

Briefing Book – Higher Education (PDF)

Program Highlights

The State University of New York (SUNY) is one of the nation's largest comprehensive public universities, offering over 7,000 degree and certificate programs at the research universities, community colleges, medical schools, and colleges of technology that comprise its 64 campuses. Nearly 445,000 full- and part-time students - 232,000 at State-operated campuses and 213,000 at community colleges - are pursuing studies ranging from one-year certificate programs to doctorates.

To help students obtain an affordable education and graduate on-time, SUNY is expanding its high impact programs across the system. In addition to launching the third phase of the Excelsior Scholarship Program, providing undocumented immigrant students with financial aid resources, and continuing a predictable tuition plan, the FY 2020 Executive Budget is also making other strategic investments to ensure all of New York’s aspiring students can go to college and achieve their dreams. A sampling of these investments includes the following:

Family Empowerment Community College Program

To support the educational attainment of single parents, the FY 2020 Executive Budget will launch a pilot program providing customized supports for single parents attending SUNY and CUNY community college campuses. This innovative program will support 400 parents a year for three years. Participants will receive on-campus childcare, intensive personalized advisement, educational supports including tutoring, career counseling and assistance in transitioning to a 4-year school. These comprehensive systems of support will ensure that single parents are able to access higher education opportunities and help to move themselves and their children out of poverty.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

The FY 2020 Executive Budget invests $8 million to expand an open educational resource initiative that helps to reduce, and in some instances, eliminate the costs of textbooks for students. The cost of textbooks and related course material have increased at a rate far greater than most families' ability to pay. Unchecked cost increases on student textbooks have also led to a higher debt burden among college students. This funding will enable SUNY and CUNY to continue to advance the expansion of existing OER resources, making college more affordable for students and their families.

Note: Most recent estimates as of 1/15/2019