As we are sure you know, since we have talked about it many times during the past several years, New York State is legally mandated to contribute one third of Nassau Community College’s budget. As we are sure you also know, the funding Albany gives to NCC has never actually reached that level. What you may not know is that New York State currently contributes only 22% of our funding, forcing the college, through tuition increases, to ask our students to bear some of its own financial burdens.
The NCCFT and the AFA believe this needs to stop once and for all, which is why the two unions are joining forces to lobby statewide public officials to pass legislation that will increase New York State’s contribution. Donna Hope, NCCFT Vice-President/Classroom Faculty, and AFA President Stefan Krompier will be coordinating our collaboration on this most critical initiative.
Stay tuned for more information as this effort gets under way.
4 Responses
Yes getting Albany to put up its fair share is top priority. Dave Stern just left a meeting with officials from Albany. Although the budget Is alrady set for this year, Dave feels hopeful that he can make some progress for next year.
Lets hope that this happens as quickly as possible.
Yes, what a shame you were not able to do anything about the budget this year as this is the year our contract is up and you will be negotiating with the college who will claim they are in a deeper financial hole. Lobbying is a skill and Dave will be of enormous assistance as he knows Albany very well and has legislative experience.
What a shame? Whose shame? The NCCFT Political Action Committee has been actively and successfully lobbying both our state and county legislators. Three NCCFT PAC members lobbied in Albany last year and 5 NCCFT PAC members lobbied in Albany this year. This is not counting the lobbying done in Nassau County with both the county and the state legislators. What a shame, thanks to the hard lobbying work of the NCCFT PAC members, that state legislators worked hard to restore the budget cut made to on campus day care centers by our governor, both last year and this year. What a shame, thanks to the NCCFT PAC lobbying effort, that several of our state legislators have visited on 3 different occasions in the past year the NCC Children’s Greenhouse Day Care center and I do think that the fact that those legislators pressed hard to restore the cut made to the on campus day care centers had something to do with the lobbying of the NCCFT PAC members. Or maybe this was just accidental, that several Republican Nassau county legislators fought our Democrat governor’s budget cut to on campus daycare centers. In addition, the NCCFT PAC members have been tirelessly lobbying our state elected officials for an increase in base aid by at least $250 per FTE student. We found our state legislators to be very receptive to our lobbying effort and they have vowed to fight the governor for his proposal of flat funding for higher ed in his executive budget while promoting free tuition at SUNY and CUNY schools for NY state residents. United we are stronger when we lobby together. As the PAC Chair, I have invited both Dave Stern and Faren Siminoff to join their lobbying effort to the NCCFT PAC lobbying effort. So far, I am still awaiting for them to join the NCCFT PAC and I want them to know that they are welcome to join our committee, so they can put their lobbying skills to work together with ours, the NCCFT Political Action Committee. What a shame not to put your lobbying skills to work together for the good of all AFA and NCCFT members.
Christine,
I’d be more than happy to help. Please understand that I am currently very busy with helping to resolve Dr. Keen’s concerns regarding shared governance (section 20 NCCFT contract) while also serving on his Institutional Planning Committee as Co-Chair for the PIP rewrite.
All NCCFT members should appreciate the time and effort of the unpaid volunteers that make up the PAC committee
With regard to lobbying for the State budget, the NCCFT should coordinate with SUNY and the FCCC initiatives. This year, there was a change in tact. Instead of asking for an increase in FTE (which is linked to enrollments that are declining), the new direction was to request for “maintenance of effort”. In this approach, state funding in total dollars would not decline. I hope the NCCFT/AFA efforts are realigned to match SUNY and FCCC so all these efforts are coordinated.
As PAC chair you know that lobbying for this year’s state funding is all but over since the state budget process is now in the “three men in a room” stage. Based on my more than ½ dozen years working for the legislature, the final budget decisions are determined more by these three leaders than any other legislator.
I recommend that our focus should now be on the County especially since they have not increased our funding in a decade. The AFA bestowed many honors on county officials and hopefully that will help in the lobbying effort. In this regard, please share the NCCFT PAC lobbying plan for the County. We should be asking our members to contact their County Legislators with specific requests.
I hope we resolve Dr. Keen’s shared Governance concerns soon and it will give me a little time to help the PAC. Feel free to call me.