Associate Provost Named
Stephen G. Poskanzer, who has served in executive positions at the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, has been selected as Associate Provost, Office of Campus Liaison, by the SUNY Board of Trustees.
Poskanzer’s appointment occurred at a board meeting in New York City on Sept. 23 and it followed a nation-wide search which produced 76 applicants — six of whom were interviewed by a search committee.
Since 1993, Poskanzer has served as executive assistant to the president of the University of Chicago, developing strategy on academic and administrative issues and determining matters to be brought before that university’s board of trustees. He was associate general counsel at the University of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1993 and an American Council on Education Fellow at Princeton University’s provost office from 1991 to 1992. He was assistant general counsel at the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 to 1988 and in private law practice from 1983 to 1985.
“Steven Poskanzer brings a wealth of experience to the important job of working with the State’s University campuses,” said SUNY Provost Peter D. Salins. “He will be a source of new and innovative ideas and I’m confident the campuses will enjoy working with him.”
Poskanzer earned a J.D. from Harvard University in 1983 and an A.B. (cum laude) in 1980 from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
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Representatives in the UUP contract negotiations meet in the Executive Chamber of the State Capitol to mark the signing of a tentative labor agreement. The agreement was ratified by the UUP membership on Sept. 19. From left to right: UUP Chief Negotiator and Vice President for Professionals Thomas E. Matthews; SUNY Executive Vice Chancellor Donald G. Dunn; Governor George E. Pataki; SUNY Chancellor John W. Ryan; GOER Director Linda Angelo; and UUP President William E. Scheuerman. |
Trustees Decline to Raise Community College Tuition
SUNY’s Board of Trustees voted on Sept. 23 to not increase the system-wide cap on community college tuition rates.
The presidents of the SUNY’s 30 community colleges had requested that the Trustees increase the tuition cap to $2,800 from the existing $2,500 cap. The Trustees have the authority to impose such a cap on community college tuition rates. Currently, the annual tuition rate at State University community colleges averages $2,300.
Board Chairman Thomas F. Egan said, “While we recognize that the community college presidents, as a group, have asked us to increase the tuition cap by $300, we don’t think that such an action is prudent at this time. These schools received additional state funding this year. Raising the cap would send a false signal to many localities that share the sponsorship of these campuses that they can cut back on their own responsibility for the funding of the community colleges.”
Chancellor John W. Ryan said, “Raising the cap, and therefore making it easier to increase tuition, could also have an impact on access to the State University and its campuses. We do not want to suggest to some students of modest means that the State University system of community colleges is becoming less accessible.”
The Board did approve numerous small tuition increases for individual campuses, none of which resulted in bringing their tuition rates over the existing cap. But five other campuses submitted budgets with tuition increases above the existing $2,500 cap: Erie Community College; Genesee Community College; Jamestown Community College (which received a waiver from the Board last year); Mohawk Valley Community College; and Tompkins-Cortland Community College. The Board set aside the requests for waivers pending additional deliberation by its Finance Committee.