By Vanessa Langdon
News Editor
Students were shoulder-to-shoulder with faculty and staff last Friday, protesting the academic program prioritization happening at The College of Saint Rose. The rally included some 120 people lining Madison Avenue in front of the administration building, chanting their displeasure while holding signs. The chants included “education not corporation,” “liberal arts makes you smart,” and “don’t be nuts, stop the cuts.”
The rally went on for about an hour in front of the hallowed, and empty, halls of college president Stefanco’s office. The participants set up a “graveyard” for the programs that are on the chopping block- in danger of downsizing or elimination altogether. The ralliers were upset with Stefanco’s practices and what they viewed as a lack of transparency and inclusion in the discussions about the future of the academic programs.
These discussions were taking place at the very moment as the rally chanted and garnered honks of support from passing cars. The members of the board of trustees met at 9 a.m. to discuss the next course of action for the financially-struggling College. Stefanco sent an update to the students via email on Friday afternoon. In the email, she wrote, “the Board carefully reviewed changes to our academic program offerings to increase enrollment, expand academic opportunities and reduce the College’s $9 million deficit. The Board and I will continue our analysis of the recommendations over the next several weeks.”
This year, the College had the largest incoming class in its history, which supports Stefanco’s claim that the administration is doing its best to reach out to people from across the nation and the world to bring more students, and thus more money, into the school.
“We are a tuition-dependent institution, which is not unusual for a small private College. Our endowment is only 39 million dollars,” Stefanco said. “If we had a huge endowment and no deficit, we wouldn’t be doing this.”
Currently, the College is dipping into the endowment, which is not a sustainable practice as up to half of it is restricted for specific projects. Essentially, student tuition is what is keeping the school financially afloat.
The recommendation concerning what should be done to work towards fiscal stability was brought to the board on Friday by Stefanco, but there will be no changes until December of 2017. The administration wants to have a balanced budget by 2019.
“I have spent a very significant amount of my time since announcing in August speaking with faculty, because I feel they need to be involved,” Stefanco said.
After these meetings, and studying other data, Stefanco will make a recommendation and the Board will make a decision when they feel best informed and ready to be successful. There is no firm deadline for the board to make their ruling, but Stefanco wants the campus community to be assured that they know they have to move quickly but “higher education does not move on a dime.” The proper time will be taken, but finances must be made sound.
“A lot has gone into it,” said Stefanco of her preparation. “While we all might wish we can take more time, I think this needs to be a data-driven recommendation to the board of trustees.”
While Stefanco has not spoken with the people involved in Friday’s rally directly, she does recognize that it is their right to peacefully demonstrate.
“Higher education is a place where we support diversity of opinion,” she said. “We encourage people to be empowered but to ask questions.”
Angela Ledford, a political science professor at the College, doesn’t think that enough of an effort has been made to hear and understand what the campus community wants.
“We’re joining together as faculty, staff, students, alumni, community members and area labor to demand that the college leadership halt these cuts that will surely diminish the broad-base strong liberal arts education at the college,” Ledford said.
She was not surprised that the administration building lay dormant during their rally.
“We didn’t make it any secret that this would be happening. They don’t want to be seen having to step across students and faculty,” she said.
The students and faculty showed up in earnest to protect what they hold dear.
“Education, in my family, is so important since both of my parents are educators. I’m one of eight children in our family, and we are very low-income, so I’m extremely lucky to be able to go to college at all,” said Sarita Farnelli, a sociology major at the College. “Seeing the quality of my education, and now even the existence of my program, on the chopping block is absolutely devastating to me, especially since the sociology department at Saint Rose is so extraordinary and I love the faculty here so much.”
After transferring to the College last fall, Farnelli was surprised by the lack of involvement on the part of the students in the issues facing the College.
“Most students didn’t see how it was their problem,” said Farnelli. “Now I’m finally seeing students with energy and passion for protecting our educations and getting what we are paying for.”
She was an avid poster on the “Save Our Saint Rose” Facebook page, and created a graphic for those involved to share and spread the word about Friday’s rally.
“The rally was so much bigger than anything we have had on campus facing these issues before,” she said. “I saw so many more students getting involved, probably because it has become much more clear to them how they are directly impacted by program and faculty cuts. To me, this was such an encouraging sign.”
She doesn’t plan on stopping her fight against an administration she feels is not listening to the students it claims to be looking out for.
“How can you think that eliminating programs and qualified, beloved faculty will lead to better enrollment and lower debt? How do you think this looks to potential incoming students, parents, and the general public?” said Farnelli.
Alumni of the College were on hand Friday to show their displeasure about what is happening to the place they once called home.
“I will continue to be involved. This is just the start of it,” said Stacey Orsini, a 1986 graduate of the graphic design program. “The board of trustees made decisions that got the College of Saint Rose into the financial straits that we’re in. The same board is making decisions again to slash programs and faculty. Can we trust them?”
Orsini now lives in Niskayuna, 25 minutes from Albany, and feels that the board installed a new president and is “getting her to toe the line.”
This downsizing and breaking up the community is unfortunately not a new phenomenon for some students at Saint Rose. Kylie Powers, a freshman communications major at the College, is all too familiar with changes happening to academic institutions.
While attending George F. Baker High School in Tuxedo, New York, she experienced the merging of two school districts and students being separated from faculty whom they had grown to love and trust.
“I was a senior, but I saw the hurt and anger on their faces, and I see the same on the faces here,” Powers said.
She thought she had found a family atmosphere at Saint Rose.
“If you’re going to lose more and more people, you’re breaking up that family,” she said.
Powers’s father worked at George F. Baker but retired when she graduated; she got visibly upset, eyes welling with tears, as she remembered the hurt that such cuts can cause.
“Coming to this school, I thought I was getting security and that’s not what I got,” Powers said. “I’m looking to transfer because I don’t want to be a part of another sinking ship.”
In addition to the alumni and current students holding up signs, there were also representatives from other capital district colleges showing their support. A Sage College representative, Andor Skotnes, was there to deliver a message of solidarity endorsed by 87 Sage faculty members.
Skotnes, a history professor at Sage and the chair of the Sage Colleges faculty, handed out copies of the letter to those at the rally. In the letter, the Sage faculty specifically endorses a statement made in a previous letter written by the New York State Conference of the American Association of University Professors to the Saint Rose community.
It states that the “faculty members at The Sage Colleges in Albany and Troy, NY, view with alarm reports of the crisis at the College of Saint Rose, and its administration’s response which appears to violate the principles of shared faculty governance, to threaten the academic integrity of the institution, and to target the faculty with sanctions and layoffs.”
The faculty is standing with the Saint Rose community to protect the sanctity of higher education.
“The fear is if they succeed here, they will try it at Sage,” Skotnes said while speaking at the rally.
Kathleen Crowley also spoke at the rally about what the community can do to make their wishes known to the administration. She was also very pleased with the turnout that morning.
“It was extremely well-attended and they are all enthusiastic and dedicated to the cause,” Crowley said.
The professors present were well aware of the students who were rallying right along with them to stop the impending cuts.
“Students are here and this is what they learn from a liberal arts education, that the individual can affect change,” said Ryane Straus, associate professor of political science at Saint Rose.
The rally was held in the hopes that the feelings of the members of the Saint Rose community will not be ignored, and with members of the local media present to hear the ralliers telling their stories, the rally is putting a face to the data that is informing the board of trustees’ decision.
Stefanco will be holding office hours on Monday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the administration center at 1000 Madison Ave, giving students and faculty another chance to speak with her about any issues.
“They’re going to hear from us,” said Kate Moss, associate professor and library faculty member at the College. “We’re not just going to roll over and take it.”
