Vassar reacts to latest round of SUNY cuts

A total of $289 million has been cut from the State University of New York (SUNY) budget in the latest round of spending cuts from Albany. The significant reduction in government support for public universities sparked protests at the New York State Legislature that included Vassar students despite the fact that Vassar College had not been directly affected. This activism raises questions concerning the manner in which Vassar should interact with other, specifically public, institutions of higher learning.

The budget cuts have prompted public universities to discontinue entire degree programs, particularly those that do not immediately direct students along vocational paths.

In contemplating the ramifications of such bold curricular modifications, Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger writes in an emailed statement, "The loss of humanities and language programs [in many public universities] endangers the kind of breadth that is fundamental not only to liberal arts colleges but to any form of higher education." Kitzinger challenged the rationale for cutting funding to less "useful" programs at certain public universities. Further considering the far reaching and long term benefits of language proficiency Kitzinger continues, "As citizens of a country whose national interests are also global interests, we also must realize that the knowledge of languages other than one's native tongue is an essential pathway to engagement in and understanding of the larger world." She explains, "If creativity, imagination, understanding other people's worlds, the ability to pay attention and see clearly the variety of possibilities around you, all capabilities the arts and humanities foster, are not useful, what is?"

President of the College Catharine Bond Hill was also disappointed by cuts to the liberal arts, but she emphasized that the SUNY schools were facing a difficult decision. "I think that institutions facing budget cuts—both universities and K [through] 12—are having to make very tough choices, and I'm somewhat uncomfortable criticizing their choices," she said in an interview. "I don't know what alternatives these institutions faced." Hill focused more on the government's failure to commit sufficient resources to education. "Unfortunately," she said, "We as a country are cutting spending on education when we should be investing in it."

Matthew Hammel '13, who helped organize the recent protest in Albany, N.Y. against Governor Andrew Cuomo's budget plan (which included deep spending cuts to education and healthcare), focused more on the political ramifications of budget cuts to higher education. "It's not necessarily about SUNY Albany or SUNY New Paltz, but about the general state of education in this country," Hammel said in an interview. "[These cuts] are indicative of the continuing stratification of wealth in this country," he said. Income inequality has, in fact been increasing since the 1980s; the top 10 percent income share in America owns almost 50 percent of the nation's wealth, a rate comparable to pre-Depression America. "I think it's important to stress that education is one of the only ways to move forward economically in our country and that taking this opportunity away from the lower classes [by cutting funding for public education] is an attack on the agency of the working class."

Hill made it clear that not only working-class students relied on public universities. "Public higher education is where most people [who receive degrees] are going to get their [Bachelors of Arts Degrees]," she said. "The number is 65 percent of graduates." When seen in that context, poorly funded public universities affect Americans on a much wider scale.

Another of the Albany protest organizers, Nicholas Korody '13, claimed Vassar ought to support public universities. "At this school we are taught, and many of us espouse, a certain political viewpoint that requires concern for society at large," he said. "In this action, we need to radicalize, by which I mean start acting in whatever way is necessary to affect the change we perceive as necessary. Those ways may be subversive and may be illegal. But when you live in a society that is in itself oppressive…then you have to re-imagine legality in general."

Kitzinger suggested more traditional ways that Vassar's administration could help other universities, like "making public statements about the importance of education in all its forms, and higher education in particular, for young people and for the future of the country, and by joining with public universities in lobbying for the protection of state and federally funded financial aid for low-income students," she said. Hill was more cautious, and did not make a public statement on behal of Vassar. "That's for all the thousands of employees to state their views and for students to do the same," she said. Korody was doubtful of the Vassar administration's ability to support other institutions. "Regarding Vassar as an institution, it's rather difficult to imagine the administration actually helping out the SUNY or [City University of New York] schools," he claimed. "It does have to run itself, and they say that they were hit by the financial crisis rather hard. So it falls on students to act."

Korody and Hammel were cautiously optimistic about students' potential to enact change. "I think a lot of students here really do care and are very passionate about local and global issues," said Korody. "Unfortunately, we often tend to isolate them, instead of understanding how immensely inter-related all these things are. There is an immense need to politicize," he concluded. Hammel argued, "When students protest, they get attention that other groups don't from the media and the government,"making them more effective agents. He urgently added, "We need numbers. We need people to email me and [Korody] so they can get involved. We need to start organizing." Said Korody, "It's our future, and we have to take it and shape it, otherwise there is little hope for the world."