The rally was timed to highlight $277 million added into the SUNY system in the new state budget, and demand that SUNY Fredonia get its fair share.

Clacking UUP-branded noisemakers, union members in red shirts joined SUNY Fredonia students and several local politicians.

=SUNY Chancellor John King was a target for much criticism, in contrast to the warm welcome he got last week in an official visit to campus.

UUP President Frederick Kowal said King “is trying to finish Andrew Cuomo’s dirty work.” Kowal said the former state governor “attacked SUNY campuses and slashed funding.”

While current Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has proven friendlier to funding state university systems, Kowal noted King is overseeing cuts at SUNY Potsdam and Buffalo State, as well as at SUNY Fredonia. Locally, Fredonia is proposing to cut 13 majors to help with an approximately $17 million deficit.

The union leader vowed, “We will not let John King destroy SUNY Fredonia or the SUNY system.”

Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel said changes to grow the campus in the future will be stifled if SUNY Fredonia’s funding is cut. The county “cannot afford to see dorms not occupied,” or lose the support SUNY Fredonia students and staff offer to local businesses, he said.

“As Fredonia State goes, so goes the village,” said Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson. “If they suffer, the whole area suffers. They come from all over for one of the best educations in the area, they come to Fredonia.”

He said to the students, “You consume here, you meet friends here. Some of you meet life partners here.” To workers, he said, “Everybody who works at Fredonia is a resident, a consumer, a taxpayer, a mom, dad, brother who want nothing more than THE best for SUNY Fredonia and its students.”

Ferguson promised he will press officials in Albany about fully funding SUNY Fredonia when he visits the state capital in a couple weeks.

Chautauqua County Legislator Susan Parker, University Senate President Bruce Simon, and several SUNY Fredonia students were among the other speakers at the rally.