WPCNR HALLS OF ACADEMIA. From Media Relations Office of Assemblyman Adam Bradley. April 13, 2005 (EDITED):  After the State Legislature refused to hike SUNY Tuition as the SUNY Board of Trustees requested,  Assemblyman Adam Bradley (D-White Plains) today questioned the SUNY board of trustees’ decision to anoint Chancellor Robert King with the state’s highest academic rank of tenured university professor. SUNY trustees approved the Chancellor’s severance plan today, which includes a $206,000 a year salary for his professorship.

“One has to question if the motive to give Chancellor King this distinguished honor is based on his political connection to Governor Pataki,” Bradley stated. “Consider that he previously served as Pataki’s Budget Director and Director of the Governmental Office of Regulatory Reform where he demanded a streamlined government. Is this streamlining government and is it in the best interest of SUNY and its students or is this all about Chancellor King?”

The plan follows a cascading series of unfortunate events caused by King in recent months. The Chancellor had proposed to increase his salary to $420,000, to go on a six month paid sabbatical and to raise SUNY tuition by $600 annually. It was also revealed that the chancellor not only had a free apartment in Albany, he received a $90,000 a year housing allowance and a chauffeured SUV.

A recent report by the New York Public Interest Research Group, titled “Overburdened,” found that the combination of increases in tuition and decreases in state support will shift the burden to fund the state’s colleges and universities on to local taxpayers. In the last decade, state spending on higher education decreased by 3.2 percent and support for SUNY has decreased by 17.5 percent when adjusted for inflation, according to the report.

In the first on-time budget in 20 years the Legislature rejected the Chancellor’s and the governor’s proposed tuition increases. The Legislature’s bipartisan budget also provides $15 million for SUNY Purchase as a part of a larger SUNY capital plan. The Legislature’s capital improvement plan was vetoed by the governor last year.

“I am disappointed that the SUNY board rubber stamped Chancellor King’s golden parachute,” Bradley concluded. “This honor should be earned on the basis of a long standing academic track record and not political connections. Our SUNY system has tremendous financial needs and nobody should be more sensitive to this than the Chancellor.”