Letters to the Editor
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‘Stakeholders Approach to Ed.’
State University of New York trustee Candace de Russy’s November 30 letter about John P. Avlon’s insightful column on the new City University of New York budget investment plan [“Stakeholder’s Approach to Higher Ed.”] reveals a complete misunderstanding of the plan’s most basic elements. Far from being a onesided demand for increased taxpayer support, the plan proposes the opposite: a compact among all public higher education stakeholders – including the University itself – to invest in public higher education.
A brief review of the investment plan, as recommended by Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and unanimously approved by the CUNY Board of Trustees on November 28, might help to clarify her misconceptions. In order to properly finance CUNY’s state-approved, four-year Master Plan while avoiding excessive and sporadic tuition increases, the new CUNY plan calls for much-needed academic investment, with revenue to come from five sources: government (the State and the City); philanthropic funding; the University’s internal redeployment and efficiency measures; managed enrollment growth; and modest tuition increases, not to exceed the Higher Education Price Index over the life of the plan.
A key component of the plan is the internal budgetary evaluation Ms. de Russy supports. The University has already redirected more than $25 million toward academic programming through productivity and efficiency measures. The University also has in place a performance management system, highly acclaimed by the American Council on Education, that ensures accountability, in part by tying attainment of goals to compensation. Revenues generated by any modest tuition increases would go toward funding academic programming components of the CUNY Master Plan, with recommendations from students and faculty about how the money should be invested.
At the end of the day, our highest priority should be the provision of quality educational opportunity to ensure that our students can effectively compete in the marketplace of careers and ideas. Only through true investment by all partners can we continue to realize that promise.
JAY HERSHENSON
Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Vice Chancellor for University Relations
The City University of New York
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