So How Do We Get to Berkeley? Spend Big on SUNY, Panel Says

Karen W. Arenson, writing in The New York Times about an early copy of a report of the New York State Commission on Higher Education, says that the report calls for an additional 2,000 faculty in the SUNY System, as well as a $3B "innovation fund for research grants in fields that can fuel economic development." May require registration and log-in for access. This report, which we will link to in the SCUP Links Blog as soon as it is public, may be the biggest statement yet of a future that relies on universities and colleges as major economic forces. Here is a link to the commission's website, where PDFs of much of the public testimony are available.

Robert G. Shibley, a Buffalo architecture and planning professor who is advising the president, described the Amherst campus as “a monument to blank walls” and said, “Building soul back into the campus is a major mission of mine.”

All this takes money. Dr. Simpson’s plan for growth does not carry dollar amounts. But a memorandum for the governor’s office said that implementing the blueprint over 13 years would require a one-time investment of $1.6 billion for new faculty members, new residence halls and other capital improvements, and infusions of $226 million a year for additional faculty members.

Mr. Constantine said that the numbers may seem large if seen as only for higher education, but that they are “more realistic” if also viewed as investments in economic development, work force development, urban revitalization and the future of western New York.