OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford SUNY Fredonia President Stephen Kolison, center, looks at a document Friday before a College Council meeting. At right is David Starrett, executive vice president and provost of the school.

SUNY Fredonia officials say the school is making headway against its dire financial and enrollment problems.

A recent College Council meeting was dominated by talk about the topics. President Stephen Kolison started his latest presentation about the university’s duo of despair with a few minutes on how schools across the nation are also facing money and head count woes. He later stated SUNY Fredonia’s applications and acceptances are up for the fall 2024 semester.

“Let’s scan the education environment across the country,” Kolison opened. “You think you are alone until you look around and see what’s happening.”

Slides were shown of quotes from news articles about schools in places such as West Virginia and Arizona, that are also facing severe financial and enrollment difficulties.

Then came a slide titled “SUNY: Some Realities.” It showed quotes stating enrollment has dropped 19.7% across all SUNY schools in the last decade, and the system could face a $1.1 billion annual shortfall in a decade.

“What is necessary is to change, to adapt,” said Kolison.

He noted that General Motors once had seven divisions but is now down to four.

Quotes from Charles Darwin and William Arthur Ward appeared on the meeting room screen. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change,” was the Darwin quote.

All of this was prelude to Kolison’s defense of the SUNY Fredonia “road map” for the next few years, a sweeping plan that includes elimination of certain programs.

The plan “is suggesting change — the need for our institution to change and meet the challenges of the future,” he said.

Acknowledging the “chagrin” of faculty and students over proposed program cuts, he said the plan will reduce $10 million of the school’s deficit in the next five years.

Kolison added that it was something the SUNY system is demanding. “SUNY is saying, if you have a deficit, you must correct it. There is no more kicking the can down the road.”

He said of the cuts, “No one in this administration is enjoying any of these things… There is nothing malicious about this. This is a very difficult environment today in higher education.”

College Council President Frank Pagano said that once faculty and students see the benefits of the road map, “I think they’ll come around.”

Kolison said applications are up 7% for the fall 2024 semester and acceptance numbers are up 6%. “We haven’t seen those kind of numbers since 2010,” he said.

“Every now and then we have a chance to talk about these things, maybe we should more,” Kolison added.

“We are getting attention. People are looking at us,” chimed in Executive Vice President and Provost David Starrett.

This line of discussion led several in the meeting to direct frustration toward the media, stating that it is not reporting enough on all the wonderful things happening at SUNY Fredonia.

College Council member Cynthia Ahlstrom said “it is extremely important” that the community knows the fall 2024 figures, to show the school is on the way up after it “hit a low” in enrollment.

“SUNY Fredonia is doing everything they can to turn the ship around,” said Richard Morrisroe, another College Council member.

The road map process “is stressful to all of us. This is a hard decision, we’ve put a lot of thought into this process,” said Starrett. Though certain degree programs are set to be eliminated, overall, “we’ll still have philosophy. We’ll still have art.”

Michael Kelly, the school’s top financial official, stated that revenues are up $1.6 million so far this semester over what was budgeted. However, that’s because SUNY Fredonia budgeted for just 2,730 spring 2024 students. The actual head count is 2,994.

“We are making progress in curtailing the growth of the structural deficit,” Kelly said. “We’re going to keep plugging away being fiscally conservative.”

It was Kelly’s last meeting, as he is taking a position with the Williamsville school district. “This was the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role,” he said to applause.

Pagano praised Kelly and commented that hiring decent chief financial officers at schools these days is tough, because “they are being asked to make miracles when there are none.”

As the meeting ended, Pagano stated, “This meeting has had a very positive outlook.” He said the school’s admissions rate and deficit are “a little better.”