The New York State Senate and Assembly’s higher education budget agreement, which rejected Gov. George E. Pataki’s assistance-cutting proposal, is a success in the eyes of many Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry administrators and students.

However, Pataki has yet to sign the bill, and there is still a chance he could veto it.

The New York State Senate and Assembly’s Conference Committee on Higher Education released a budget agreement Monday that rejected Pataki’s proposals for higher education, which would have made it harder for low-income students to attend college, according to many officials.

‘Many college students were in diapers last time we saw a higher education budget this good,’ said Miriam Kramer, the New York Public Interest Research Group’s government policy analyst. ‘This is the best (higher education) budget we have seen in a generation.’

Students shouldn’t celebrate just yet, however, Kramer said.

The Senate and Assembly will presumably vote today on the education/labor/family assistance bill, which was printed Tuesday night, in order to comply with the April 1 budget deadline. Once the bill is passed, Pataki has 10 days to sign the bill. Pataki also has the authority to use the line item veto on parts of the bill he disagrees with.

While the Senate and Assembly will most likely pass the bill, vetoes by Pataki are a possibility, Kramer said. The bill differs greatly from Pataki’s proposal.

‘His rhetoric on everything has been this legislature is spending too much,’ Kramer said. ‘He also has some pretty significant philosophical differences.’

Pataki’s budget proposal, released Jan. 17, would have made completing higher education even more difficult, Kramer said. The Senate and Assembly did the right thing by rejecting it, she said.

Pataki’s proposal included a $500 tuition increase for all SUNY schools.

Tom Hackman, NYPIRG’s government/voter rights project leader at SU and a member of the statewide executive board, said Pataki’s proposed guaranteed tuition increase for SUNY schools could cause public education to be more expensive. It would make it more like a private institution such as SU, which already has automatic tuition increases, he said.

Pataki’s proposal also included a restructuring of the Tuition Assistance Program.

T.A.P. is a form of financial aid assistance specifically for New York state residents attending private or public colleges and universities in New York, said Christopher Walsh, dean of financial aid at SU. Beyond that, T.A.P. awards are based solely on family income: the lower the income, the larger the aid.

A spokeswoman for the executive office defended the reforms, insisting they were necessary.

‘Proposed reforms in T.A.P. are intended to ensure that taxpayer funds are invested wisely and to protect students from exhausting their T.A.P. eligibility prior to degree completion,’ said Tiffany Galvin, spokeswoman for the New York state division of the budget. ‘These proposed reforms will result in anticipated savings of approximately $125.8 million from 2005 to 2006.’

More than 2,500 SU students receive tuition assistance from New York state, Walsh said. This assistance totals nearly $7 million in aid.

Eighty-eight percent of SUNY-ESF students receive a T.A.P. award of some kind, said John View, director of financial aid at SUNY-ESF.

‘I think the governor has a history of making proposals of reducing T.A.P. awards or changing eligibility,’ Walsh said. ‘Any approach that takes aid away from students is just shortsighted.’

Pataki’s proposed restructuring of T.A.P. involves raising the full-time study requirement from 12 credits to 15 credits. Those taking less than 15 credits would receive a 20 percent reduction in financial assistance.

Walsh said there are a lot of reasons why students do not or cannot take 15 credit hours.

‘At the university, we recognize 12 credit hours as a full-time student,’ he said. ‘I think it is important for the state to recognize that.’

Students working in order to help pay for school may not have the time to take 15 credits of classes, said Jessica Crawford, the associate director of government and community relations at SU. Other factors, such as the difficulty of a student’s major, extracurricular activities or scheduling conflicts, also influence the number of credits a student takes, she said.

‘(Proposed) T.A.P. changes are kind of really insulting to students,’ Hackman said. ‘Does the governor really think students who are taking 14 credits are lazy?’

The Assembly and Senate did recognize 12 credit hours as a full-time student in their budget agreement. They also rejected the $500 SUNY tuition increase and enhanced T.A.P. by adding financial aid for part-time students.

Another success of the agreement was the allowance of a midyear adjustment for T.A.P., Kramer said. Midyear adjustments will allow students to gain more financial aid in the middle of the year if their families have had extenuating financial circumstances.

The budget agreement increases funding for SUNY schools.

‘The overall good news about this is that the state is going to fund SUNY out-of-state appropriated dollars as opposed to making the university operate solely on tuition,’ View said. ‘By the state stepping in and giving a larger share of state-appropriated funds, the tuition doesn’t have to go up.’

The budget agreement also increases funding for opportunity programs, such as the Higher Education Opportunity Program, by 10 percent. HEOP provides students who are residents of New York state with additional financial assistance and academic opportunities, Kramer said.

Members of both the Senate and Assembly said Pataki’s proposal could harm higher education within New York state, said Mark Hansen, spokesman for New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

‘We want to insure that higher education remains affordable in New York state,’ he said. ‘Pataki’s proposals don’t move us closer to that goal.’

Kramer said Monday’s joint agreement showed great initiative on the part of both the Assembly and the Senate.

‘The trend in the past has been to put back the harms the governor did but now we are actually building on that in a positive way,’ she said. ‘It is not only restoration for what the governor did. It is moving forward.’

Kramer cited student activism as a major influence on the budget decision.

SU and SUNY-ESF students have been contacting their representatives, asking them to remember higher education in the budget, Crawford said. SU also employs an e-advocacy program, where students can contact their representatives through the Internet.

Many students attended Student Lobby Day on Feb. 14 in Albany, where they spoke about what the cuts would mean to them and their education, Crawford said.

‘I think students tell their own stories best,’ Crawford said. ‘Every student has their own situation to tell, the various challenges that they had to combat just to get into school.’

Due to financial constraints, students create clever, low-cost ways to lobby, said Ryan Suser, NYPIRG consumer action project co-leader at SU and a statewide executive board representative.

‘We are trying to get people to listen to us, but we don’t have the money to throw at the issue,’ he said. ‘We are letting our voices be heard, but in a nontraditional way.’

Kramer said students have been incredibly active in the budget process.

‘Students have been a critical part in making this great budget happen,’ she said. ‘Students should feel good about the fact that as a result of their efforts, Albany has listened, at least for now.’

Published on March 30, 2006 at 12:00 pm