A rally spotlighting a $10 million budget deficit was held this week at SUNY New Paltz in this photo from the UUP New Paltz Twitter feed. Submitted photo

It appears official: Some State University at New York locations are being allowed to languish and teeter on insolvency while Albany barely notices. All one has to do is look no further than this campaign season.

Assembly and Senate contests rarely discuss the topic. On a higher level, the face-off between Kathy Hochul and challenger Lee Zeldin does not even begin to touch on the shortfalls facing the higher-education institutions. Instead, both candidates are more focused on the high-profile issues of abortion and crime.

Awareness regarding the struggles in recent weeks is at least becoming more apparent through union efforts. Earlier this month, the United University Professions — the nation’s largest higher education union — held a press conference to call for more state funding for three Capital Region SUNY campuses facing projected multimillion-dollar budget deficits: the University at Albany, Empire State College and SUNY Cobleskill.

Held at Albany, the speakers urged state lawmakers to allot more state aid to SUNY campuses to help them reverse major budget shortfalls. The University at Albany faces a projected $15 million deficit. Two other Capital Region SUNY institutions, Empire State College and SUNY Cobleskill, have projected deficits of $8 million and $4 million, respectively. That’s a total of $27 million for three sites.

“For too long, our campuses have been underfunded by the state, which has foisted the burden of funding our campuses onto the backs of students and parents through higher tuition and fees and other ever-increasing costs,” said Frederick E. Kowal, Ph.D., UUP president. “Last year, students paid $2 for every $1 of direct state operating support.

“The impact of this chronic underfunding has — and will continue to have — a negative effect on our communities, especially those that host SUNY campuses,” he continued. “SUNY is a powerful economic engine for these communities, providing good-paying jobs, millions in generated revenue and a well-educated workforce that helps create a stable tax base. We need to encourage this growth and one way to do that is to properly fund our campuses.”

SUNY Fredonia could certainly get behind this effort. It projects a deficit of nearly $17 million for the 2022-23 year as it copes with serious declines in enrollment. During the most recent College Council meeting, President Stephen Kolison stated the obvious in that the college needs more aid but that it is a “political process” to convince education leaders in Albany. He also said the college must improve its enrollment before it even attempts to run a surplus.

SUNY Jamestown Community College also is in jeopardy. As its enrollment numbers also decreased, the school is using $2.9 million of a fund balance to make ends meet.

Statewide, SUNY’s economic impact is about $30 billion annually. The union said every dollar invested in SUNY by the state yields a return of $8.17. SUNY is also one of the top 10 largest employers in every region in the state except New York City.

“After more than a decade of flat state funding, most of our campuses have long ago trimmed the fat out of their budgets and have been forced to make painful cost-cutting measures to make ends meet,” Kowal said. “Without more state funding, campuses are left to consider even more drastic measures, which could include cutting programs, overloading classes, leaving full-time vacancies unfilled and hiring more adjuncts to pick up the slack.”

Area school districts are highly subsidized at a higher level by Albany each year to continue operations throughout upstate. SUNY, however, has been left behind.

While the state has been more than generous when it comes to construction projects, the operating aid is not keeping pace with expenses as student numbers decline. That does not bode well for those shiny new buildings on campuses if they are not being adequately filled.

John D’Agostino is the editor of the OBSERVER, The Post-Journal and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-366-3000, ext. 253.