BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — SUNY Potsdam employees represented by the United University Professions union will hold a rally and march to protest what they predict will eventually be massive cuts to staff and programs at the college.

The rally is slated for Thursday, Nov. 9 at 3 p.m. starting at the Minerva statue just inside SUNY Potsdam’s academic quad.

According to Mike Lisi, UUP communications director, the rally portion will begin at 3:20 p.m. Several speakers are slated to attend, including UUP President Fred Kowal and Potsdam UUP Chapter President Kevin Smith.

The speakers are expected to call for what they believe is fair funding for SUNY Potsdam to stop cuts to programs, faculty and staff.

The college is staring down a $9 million deficit that school and SUNY officials believe is driven by a 43 percent decrease in enrollment in recent years.

A plan offered by SUNY administration and the college a few weeks ago originally called for 14 programs to get the axe over the next few years in a phase-out strategy. However, four of those — biochemistry (bachelor of science), chemistry (bachelor of arts), public health (bachelor of science) and public health (master of science) — will now be retained.

Those left to be dissolved include art history (bachelor of arts), chemistry (bachelor of science), dance (bachelor of arts), French (bachelor of arts), music performance (master of music), philosophy (bachelor of arts), physics (bachelor of arts), Spanish (bachelor of arts), and theatre (bachelor of arts).

College officials had said the programs represented a small percentage (3.9 percent) of its overall enrollment and that students so enrolled would be able to finish their degree programs prior to those majors being dissolved.

Local UUP faculty members presented the union’s stance on the situation to Potsdam Chamber of Commerce members on Nov. 6. That stance is fairly critical of SUNY administration’s role in the lead up to the deficit and shows a darker view of what’s coming for the college.

The UUP believes that the deficit is a “manufactured crisis,” according to UUP President Frederick E. Kowal in a press release from the organization in September. The organization believes that the SUNY system should have applied $163 million in new state funding to college deficits around the state including Potsdam to prevent the current situation.

The UUP, which is the nation's largest higher education union, with more than 42,000 academic and professional faculty and retirees, maintains that Cuomo-era cuts to SUNY totaling $7.8 billion since 2008 forced students to shoulder the cost leading to lower enrollment.

The union believes that further cuts to college programs will only lower enrollment further and that the college needs to “grow” its way out of the program, not cut academic positions and majors.