SUNY Upstate Medical University’s upgrade has faced financial obstacles due to large budget cuts.

In 2007, the medical school drew up blueprints for its largest expansion since becoming associated with the State University of New York system in 1950. The expansion includes a cancer research center, institutional buildings for medical research and renovations to student housing, according to a SUNY Upstate news release from Sept. 19, 2007.

As one of the least-funded SUNY schools in the system, SUNY Upstate was forced to scale back several of the projections made in 2007 after years of budget cuts, SUNY Upstate President David Smith said. With SUNY subsidies only making up about eight percent of the school’s entire budget, the university operates more like a private university than a public one, he said.

“We have a $1.4 billion budget. $700 million of that comes from patient revenue from our hospital,” Smith said. He added that clinical additions are paid for by the university, not state funding, which only makes up three percent of the hospital’s budget.

A few of these planned projects are nearing completion, such as the cancer research center and the $5 million child care center, but the school’s growth during the last six years has not gone completely as planned, Smith said.

“We built new infrastructure because we needed to respond to needs of the entire region from Canada to Pennsylvania,” Smith said. “To be able to launch this broader, regional vision, we had to increase the footprint here in Syracuse.”

Already the largest employer in Central New York, the expansion was estimated to spur about $1.67 billion in regional economic growth when the expansion was announced in 2007, according to the release.

But with the lack of state funding, the school’s employment rate appears to be declining, Smith said.

“I’m deeply concerned that we’re seeing a reversal of the progress of the last four to five years because of a lack of support from the state of New York, while costs continue to grow,” Smith said. “You add that to the reduction in Medicaid and Medicare funding, and we’re seeing a slight decrease in the amount of employees at SUNY Upstate.”

While the $74.3 million dorm renovations planned to accommodate about a 40 percent student enrollment increase were completed, Smith said SUNY Upstate’s budget restricts them from increasing the amount of student acceptances.

“We had a good run and expansion, but we’re worried. The executive branch budget decreased, and everyone’s anxious with the reduction of the hospital,” Smith said. “We haven’t been able to add faculties and we’re not willing to compromise the quality of education, so we won’t be increasing enrollment.”

Published on February 14, 2013 at 12:07 am

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