The Student Assembly unanimously passed a resolution last night to support a proposed SUNY tuition hike — if it meets a certain precondition, that is.
Mixed views about Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget cuts were expressed at the meeting, as the resolution, written by Student Association President Matt Landau and Assembly Chair Josh Berk, passed only after a long period of debate.
“What this resolution will do is say that BU students would hope that there are no additional cuts after the cuts that Gov. Paterson made last year and the ones he proposed on Wednesday,” Landau said. “We must get a significant overwhelming majority back of the investment, that the 10 percent is not good enough. We should not have to pay 300 additional dollars only for $30 of that to go to the University.”
Gov. Paterson’s proposed tuition increase called for a $300 increase next semester and $600 for the full academic year. Under the plan, BU would be able to keep just 10 percent of the increased revenue. The other 90 percent would be returned to the state.
The vote came one day before the New York Assembly and State Senate were scheduled to meet and discuss the state’s budget crisis.
Berk emphasized the idea that the money students pay for their education will be used to pave highways and pay police salaries.
“We, in our resolution … are going to support Gov. Paterson’s tuition increase … with the stipulation that an overwhelming majority, 99.9 percent of that money at least, comes back to the campus directly,” Berk said. “If we are paying $300 more per semester, that money better come back to this campus or there is absolutely no way that we will stand for it.”
However, a clause within the resolution had to be removed in order to gain a majority of the Assembly representatives’ support.
The controversial clause stated that a tuition plan be correlated with inflation.
Assembly representative Rod Alzman of Mountainview College opposed the clause because it wouldn’t increase tuition, since inflation, in real dollar costs, would remain at a flat rate.
“We need this to be pegged to something more than just inflation,” Alzman said. “We need to show that as students we are willing to spend a little bit more money to enhance the value or our education, to enhance the value of what our education brings to the state of New York, to the people of Binghamton, to our families and to ourselves.”
Both Student Association Treasurer Carlos Ali and Vice President of Multicultural Affairs Maryam Belly, supported Alzman’s opposition.
Alzman first proposed last night that an amendment be made to the clause, adding an additional 2 percent annual increase that would go directly to BU. The increase would result in a roughly $750 increase per student over the course of eight semesters.
Alzman later adjusted the phrasing of the amendment to state that, “no more than 2 percent” be added to the predictable and annual tuition increase plan.
To support his original resolution, Berk addressed the Assembly reps, explaining why it would be wrong for them to amend the resolution.
“You have an obligation to represent your constituents,” Berk said. “You haven’t gone back for the consent for an additional increase, you have gone back and you’ve asked them for a rational tuition plan. It is disingenuous and insincere for you, as elected representatives, who are supposed to articulate the demands of your community to tell them what they want.”
The vote to amend the resolution came to a tie at 14 and ended with Rules Committee Chair Mary Leonardo abstaining to vote, causing the amendment to fail.
In the final vote, the resolution was passed without the clause referring to the rational tuition plan.
“The meeting was productive because it exposed repressed emotions that otherwise would not have been dealt with,” Jared Kirschenbaum, Assembly representative for Newing College, said. “The Assembly will be more productive in representing its constituents by the effects of this meeting.”