As a University at Albany alumnus, member of the board of directors of the University at Albany Foundation and a donor, I am stunned by the prospect of SUNY taking the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering from UAlbany. Such a power grab sets a dangerous precedent and will cripple needed private philanthropy.
The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is a direct outgrowth of private philanthropy at the University at Albany. In 1997, $1.4 million was raised from businesses and individuals by UAlbany for what was then known as CESTM, creating two laboratories for Alain Kaloyeros' Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology. That futuristic building is the cornerstone of CNSE on Fuller Road.
CNSE sits on real estate managed by The Fuller Road Management Corp., a nonprofit real estate holding corporation created to plan, design, develop, construct, own, operate and lease facilities at CNSE. The UAlbany Foundation and the Research Foundation of the State University of New York are the equal founding members. According to the state comptroller's office, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011, the FRMC reported $350 million of assets, about $14 billion of public and private investment in facilities and programs of the CNSE and the creation of about 3,100 jobs.
UAlbany sacrificed much for the success of CNSE. A lion's share of tuition dollars and the limited taxpayer and SUNY dollars available to UAlbany has been diverted from mainstream university programs and poured into CNSE. Of the tuition and state dollars made available to UAlbany each year, $20 million is lopped off and directed to CNSE. As a result, rankings suffered, particularly from the axing of programs and a debilitating student-to-faculty ratio.
Private donors like me gave money to the university to help fill the void and shoulder the burden. We did so knowing that the growing stature of CNSE would attract students across academic disciplines and contribute more to the value of a UAlbany degree.
UAlbany employs 5,532 taxpaying residents and attracts 17,000 tuition paying students. If UAlbany was a private employer, it would be the fourth-largest in Albany. Contrary to popular belief, only 12 percent of UAlbany's operating budget comes from the state. UAlbany in many ways is a private university with some public funding. Private philanthropy is vital to its success.
Taking away from UAlbany a crown jewel like CNSE will stifle the private philanthropy UAlbany and the rest of SUNY so desperately need. For those original donors to CESTM, this amounts to a bait-and-switch.
For me, it makes me want to demand my money back. What donor will open a pocketbook for an institution knowing that she or he is powerless to protect the institution from a power grab? What goes next, the Rockefeller School or the School of Business?
It is redundant to have two separate schools. Yet SUNY schools are now experimenting with collaborating on administration, including shared presidents, human resources, and information technology. Separating CNSE from UAlbany is contradictory at best and a weakly disguised political move at worst.
The prospect of the CNSE separating from UAlbany also sets a dangerous precedent for the universities at Stony Brook, Buffalo and Binghamton as well.
If SUNY wants to attract more tuition dollars and ease the taxpayer's burden with more private philanthropy, it needs to consider the perspective of prospective students, tax-paying alumni and the private donors UAlbany has attracted in the past and looks to attract in the future.
UAlbany is the jewel we have been investing in. UAlbany is worth protecting.
Ted Anderson has been a director of the University of Albany Foundation since 2000. He is a lawyer and the managing director of Kilgore + Kilgore PLLC in Dallas.