1 1 BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE FINANCE AND ASSEMBLY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEES 2 ---------------------------------------------------- 3 JOINT LEGISLATIVE HEARING 4 In the Matter of the 2020-2021 EXECUTIVE BUDGET ON 5 HIGHER EDUCATION 6 ---------------------------------------------------- 7 Hearing Room B Legislative Office Building 8 Albany, New York 9 February 2, 2020 9:35 a.m. 10 11 PRESIDING: 12 Senator Liz Krueger Chair, Senate Finance Committee 13 Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein 14 Chair, Assembly Ways & Means Committee 15 PRESENT: 16 Senator James L. Seward Senate Finance Committee (RM) 17 Assemblyman Edward P. Ra 18 Assembly Ways & Means Committee (RM) 19 Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick Chair, Assembly Higher Education Committee 20 Senator Toby Stavisky 21 Chair, Senate Higher Education Committee 22 Senator John C. Liu 23 Assemblywoman Barbara S. Lifton 24 Assemblywoman Karen McMahon 2 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Higher Education 2 2-4-20 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon 5 Senator Kenneth P. LaValle 6 Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy 7 Assemblywoman Rebecca A. Seawright 8 Senator Anna Kaplan 9 Assemblyman Al Stirpe 10 Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman 11 Senator Rachel May 12 Assemblyman Harvey Epstein 13 Assemblyman Doug Smith 14 Senator Andrew Gounardes 15 Assemblyman Charles D. Fall 16 Senator James Gaughran 17 Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte 18 Assemblyman John T. McDonald III 19 Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon 20 Senator Brad Hoylman 21 Assemblyman Jake Ashby 22 Assemblywoman Judy Griffin 23 Assemblyman Victor M. Pichardo 24 Senator Robert Jackson 3 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Higher Education 2 2-4-20 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Assemblyman William Colton 5 6 7 LIST OF SPEAKERS 8 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 9 Kristina M. Johnson Chancellor 9 20 10 Félix V. Matos Rodríguez 11 Chancellor City University of New York 155 165 12 Shannon Tahoe 13 Interim Commissioner NYS Education Department 252 262 14 Dr. Guillermo Linares 15 President Elsa Magee 16 Executive Vice President NYS Higher Education 17 Services Corporation 312 316 18 Andrew Pallotta President 19 New York State United Teachers -and- 20 Frederick Kowal President 21 United University Professions -and- 22 Barbara Bowen President 23 Professional Staff Congress 357 372 24 4 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Higher Education 2 2-4-20 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Cont. 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Santana Alvarado Chairperson, Student 6 Board of Directors Wali Ullah 7 Policy Associate Blair Horner 8 Executive Director NYPIRG 396 402 9 Juvanie Piquant 10 Vice Chair, Legislative Affairs Nicole Agu 11 Vice Chair, International Student Affairs 12 Timothy Hunter Chairperson 13 CUNY University Student Senate 410 417 14 Austin Ostro President 15 Brad Hershenson Director, Legislative Affairs 16 Bryce Mac Treasurer 17 SUNY Student Assembly -and- 18 Takeena Strachan Student Association President 19 SUNY Oswego 437 449 20 Mary Beth Labate President 21 Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities 22 (CICU) 451 458 23 24 5 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Higher Education 2 2-4-20 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Cont. 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Donna Stelling-Gurnett President 6 Association of Proprietary Colleges (APC) 7 -and- Christopher Barto 8 VP, Government Relations LIM College 465 471 9 Samuel Rowser 10 Executive Director Kevin Marken 11 Utica Director On Point for College 473 12 Ivelisse Gilestra 13 Community Organizer College & Community 14 Fellowship 479 15 Diana E. Cruz Director of Education 16 Policy Hispanic Federation 484 17 Ryan Law 18 University Police Officers Director 19 PBA President Police Benevolent Association 20 of New York State 490 497 21 Mac-Olivier Lalanne Student 22 SUNY Plattsburgh 500 505 23 24 6 1 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: If people could 2 take their seats. 3 Good morning. I am Helene Weinstein, 4 chair of the New York State Assembly Ways and 5 Means Committee and cochair of today's 6 hearing. 7 Today we begin the sixth in a series 8 of hearings conducted by the joint fiscal 9 committees of the Legislature regarding the 10 Governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 11 2020-2021. The hearings are conducted 12 pursuant to the New York State 13 Constitution and the Legislative Law. 14 Today the Assembly Ways and Means 15 Committee and the Senate Finance Committee 16 will hear testimony concerning the Governor's 17 budget proposal for higher education. 18 I'll introduce members of the Assembly 19 majority, and Senator Krueger, chair of 20 Senate Finance, will introduce members from 21 the Senate. 22 So we have with us our chair of the 23 Higher Education Committee, Deborah Glick; 24 Assemblyman Pichardo, Assemblyman Epstein, 7 1 Assemblyman Stirpe, and Assemblywoman Fahy. 2 Senator Krueger? 3 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Good morning. 4 Thank you, everyone. 5 I'm joined by the chair of Higher Ed, 6 Toby Stavisky; the ranker on Higher Ed, 7 John {sic} LaValle; the ranker on Finance, 8 Jim Seward; Senator Andrew Gounardes; and 9 Senator Anna Kaplan. And I know I saw 10 Senator Liu, but I think he's disappeared and 11 will come back. 12 Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, Ken 13 LaValle, how -- excuse me, Ken. 14 SENATOR LaVALLE: That's all right. 15 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: Nobody will 16 forget, Senator. 17 So before introducing the first 18 witness, a couple of ground rules for all of 19 the hearings that we've gone through at the 20 beginning. We have these countdown clocks, 21 both for the witnesses and for the members to 22 pay attention to. There will be a green 23 light when your time starts. When there's 24 one minute left, the light turns -- as the 8 1 clock goes down to one minute, the light 2 turns yellow. And when it's red, it means 3 thank you and goodbye. 4 (Laughter.) 5 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: No. But you 6 can always finish your last sentence, please. 7 And witnesses, particularly those 8 nongovernmental witnesses, are reminded that 9 we do have your testimony, which was 10 submitted electronically in advance, it's 11 been circulated to all the members. So we 12 encourage you to not read your testimony, but 13 summarize. 14 A lot of people think they can get 15 through several pages in five minutes. We're 16 here to tell you you can't. And if you have 17 your important point at the end of your 18 testimony, you'll never get to it. So make 19 sure to highlight your important parts. 20 And to the members, just timing, 21 chairs of the relevant committee have 22 10 minutes. They are the only ones allowed a 23 follow-up of five minutes after everyone has 24 gone. All other members have five minutes. 9 1 And when we get to the nongovernmental 2 witnesses, the members have three minutes. 3 And the time is for both questions and 4 answers. 5 So now I'll introduce our ranker, 6 Assemblyman Ra, to introduce his Republican 7 colleagues. 8 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Thank you. 9 We're joined this morning by 10 Assemblyman Doug Smith, our ranking member on 11 the Higher Education Committee, and 12 Assemblyman Jake Ashby. 13 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: So with that, 14 we are anxious to begin our hearing. And our 15 first witness, Kristina Johnson, chancellor, 16 State University of New York. Please. 17 CHANCELLOR JOHNSON: Thank you. 18 Good morning. It's a pleasure to be 19 here. And I'd like to start off by saying 20 that I will keep to the time. 21 And I'd also like to thank you for all 22 your support that you've provided, both the 23 Governor and the Legislature. I really feel 24 SUNY has tremendous momentum. And so what 10 1 I'd like to do today is, for the record, I am 2 Kristina Johnson, the 13th chancellor of the 3 State University of New York. And I'd like 4 to personally thank Chairpersons Krueger, 5 Weinstein, Stavisky and Glick, members of the 6 Senate and Assembly and legislative staff, 7 for the opportunity to share with you our 8 perspective on Governor Cuomo's proposed 9 Executive Budget, the progress we've made 10 since last year's hearing, and our plans for 11 the future. 12 I'd also like to acknowledge and thank 13 Chairman of the Board Dr. Meryl Tisch and our 14 entire Board of Trustees for their leadership 15 and support, and particularly our student 16 trustee -- who's president of the Student 17 Assembly of the 1.4 million students in the 18 State University of New York -- and that is 19 Austin Ostro, who is here today as well; my 20 leadership team, who is seated behind me; and 21 of course all of the people that keep our 22 system moving forward -- the students, the 23 faculty, staff and our leadership teams 24 across the system. 11 1 Last fall I had the pleasure of 2 finalizing visits to every single one of the 3 SUNY institutions, all 64, and really got a 4 chance to see the size, the scope, the 5 breadth and the diversity of the quality that 6 goes into the 30 community colleges, the 7 29 state-operated colleges, the five 8 statutory, the law school, the medical 9 schools, the hospitals -- even the national 10 laboratory. 11 We are involved in all kinds of 12 activities, ranging from scholarship research 13 to workforce development, carrying out the 14 Governor's robust initiative. We deliver 15 320,000 non-credit-bearing courses to our 16 community college students. That's in 17 addition to the couple of hundred thousand 18 community college students that are enrolled, 19 and the couple of hundred thousand enrolled 20 in our four-year institutions as well.