n October, NYSUT President Melinda Person and United University Professions President Fred Kowal visited the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry to hear from faculty, staff and students about SUNY’s proposed “Fiscal Stability Plan” for the campus.

The proposal would eliminate staff positions and graduate student support while increasing enrollment and expanding programming, inherently conflicting goals that ESF community members say are not feasible for a campus where space and resources are already limited. Funding for the college’s athletics program and its research properties around the state — which are huge draws for prospective students — may also be at risk.

El-Wise Noisette

Abie Maier, a junior studying environmental biology at ESF, points out a tropical plant in the school’s teaching and research greenhouse complex.

Matthew Smith, director of the college’s libraries, and UUP chapter president, noted that the proposed cuts would bring ESF staffing down to levels below what the campus had almost five decades ago. “We have a lot more students now than we did in 1977, and the world has changed,” said Smith.

ESF has been educating students for more than 100 years and the college pre-dates the formation of the SUNY system. Despite the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to higher education institutions in New York and around the country, ESF has seen increases in enrollment and research funding in recent years, and it continues to achieve high rankings nationally for its specialized environmental science training programs, and for its sustainability and affordability.

“Typically, the campuses that are targeted for cuts are where enrollment is dropping. That is not the case here,” said Kowal.

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NYSUT President Melinda Person and UUP President Fred Kowal meet with students at SUNY ESF.

During the discussion, professors and students alike emphasized the school’s uniquely collaborative environment and its service mission. “Everyone that goes here is so passionate, and there’s so much drive for wanting to make the world a better place,” said Morgan Fatowe, a Ph.D. student studying environmental chemistry.

SUNY ESF students are working on high-level, cutting-edge research that benefits people and communities around the state and the country. “It is the air that we breathe here, this interdisciplinary, mission-focused work,” said Colin Beier, professor of ecology.

Over the coming months, NYSUT and UUP will work together to make the case that, as the realities of climate change affect more New Yorkers and as the federal government slashes research funding, the moment calls not for cuts, but for increased state support for this one-of-a-kind institution.

Said Person, “We want to bring SUNY ESF’s stories to a wider audience and protect this amazing institution and all the people who teach and learn here.”