Budget Proposal - Management Operational Reforms and Efficiencies
“MORE means LESS” state regulations and administrative burdens placed upon the State University. The purpose of the Management and Operational Reforms and Efficiencies (MORE) legislation is to improve the ability of the State University to effect its mission.
The 1985 Independent Commission on the Future of the State University of New York identified over-regulation as an impediment to the State University’s effectiveness in fulfilling its mission. The Commission concluded as follows:
What we criticize is a tradition of over-regulation that has its roots in the legal conception of SUNY as a state agency, a tradition that dates from 1948 but which, the Commission is convinced, SUNY has now outgrown . . . . Over-regulation pervades every aspect of SUNY’s operation, in ways large and small. (The Challenge & The Choice, pp. 32-33 (1985)).
The observations of the Commission are as apt today as in 1985, despite the enactment of flexibility provisions in 1985. Many government agencies have approval authority over the State University’s day-to-day operations, principally because State University continues to be treated as a State agency. The State University’s interests as an academic institution are not given priority over general State process issues by control agencies in New York State government and the Legislature.
Moreover, the 2008 report of the New York State Commission on Higher Education re-examined higher education in the state and opined that “statutory change should be sought to lessen regulation in three areas. SUNY’s Board of Trustees should have authority to lease SUNY property for purposes that support SUNY’s mission without prior legislative approval, the SUNY Construction Fund should be granted necessary operational flexibility and the procurement process for SUNY and CUNY should be streamlined”.
SUNY fully accepts the public accountability, through our internal processes and a post- audit review by the University and State Comptroller that comes with the increased administrative flexibility the University seeks.
SUNY is one of only four states in the nation that is required to pre-audit of university expenditures; the others are Kansas, Mississippi, and South Dakota.
In no other state must a university system seek legislative approval in order to conduct normal course of business. The nation’s leading state university systems, such as Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are functioning as Public Benefit Corporations, and with great success. Even with this freedom, these universities receive state support, and have greater operating autonomy and flexibility, as well as the freedom to innovate, economize and initiate entrepreneurial enterprises. This is the basis for their strength and national leadership. SUNY needs to be treated the same.
