With less than a month before the New York state budget deadline, the time is now to urge your elected state representatives to support funding for SUNY and SUNY's public teaching hospitals.

The proposed 2022-2023 Executive Budget and subsequent one-house budget resolutions from the Senate and Assembly all share key areas of investment to assist students, support faculty and staff, and ensure the life-saving care offered at our SUNY teaching hospitals.

Colleagues, community partners, students and families are requesting that the governor and the Legislature provide $200 million in new operating funds to the four-year SUNY campuses, as proposed in the Assembly’s budget proposal.

Additionally, to support our students and strengthen our academic commitment, the final budget should include at least $88 million for hiring new faculty. Investing in more full-time faculty will increase academic advisement and mentorship, providing a well-supported student experience.

With 15 of SUNY’s state-operated campuses and two SUNY public teaching hospitals in counties with poverty rates higher than New York state’s overall poverty rate, our SUNY campuses are the most direct route to economic development so necessary for many communities across our state. The proposed closure of the TAP Gap and Excelsior Scholarship gap fix structural financial aid flaws, but they do little to reverse decades of underfunding. Without strong state support in the form of operating funds, our campuses and their communities will continue to deteriorate economically.

Now is the time to press our elected representatives in the Legislature to push to include crucial funding for SUNY campuses and our public teaching hospitals in the 2022-2023 state budget.