BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM -- A longtime SUNY Potsdam professor is highly critical of the college's move to cut seven positions in an effort to address a $9 million deficit.

"Seven of my colleagues, all tenured faculty, some with more than 30 years of service to SUNY Potsdam, were recently summoned to HR and unceremoniously informed that they will be terminated in a year. At least now, after years of vague threats, they know they are getting fired," wrote David C.K. Curry, SUNY Potsdam philosophy professor, in a letter to the editor of North Country This Week.

Curry said that the United University Professions (UUP) union which represents the college staff will not be fighting the cuts.

"Apparently, even they agree that being tenured in the SUNY System signifies nothing," he said.

"Dr. Suzanne Smith, President of SUNY Potsdam, tried to control the message by sending a campus wide email. It speaks of “difficult decisions” and of “continuing to adjust our workforce to serve our existing enrollment,” wrote Curry. "Such appeals are empty."

"One might think that Dr. Smith is professionally, and morally, obligated to attempt to show that the destruction of people’s careers will address rather than exacerbate the college’s financial difficulties. But astonishingly, to date, SUNY Potsdam has given no justification for discontinuing nine programs, which, in turn ‘justified’ destruction of an unknown number of careers. Those terminated, those to be terminated, those to be retained, indeed, the entire community need to hear more than platitudes. Merely crying out ‘fiscal crisis’ is simply unacceptable," the professor said.

Curry writes that the personnel cuts and the program phase outs are not going to move the needle much on SUNY Potsdam's deficit. "The college is already a shell of what it was. What it will become bodes ill for the educational, cultural, and economic health of the North Country," Curry said.

Read his letter to North Country This week online at http://tinyurl.com/42835rdf, or in the Feb. 9 print edition of North Country This Week.

SUNY officials have stated that the $9 million deficit has been driven by a 43 percent decrease in enrollment in recent years. The college is cutting 10 programs, which represent about 3.9 percent of its overall enrollment, to bring the finances back into the black. Programs to be cut 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).

Meanwhile, the UUP has called the deficit a "manufactured crisis" caused by Cuomo-era funding cuts to the SUNY system.

Interim Provost Dr. Alan Hersker did confirm the recent seven personnel cuts to North Country This Week.

"SUNY Potsdam did issue seven retrenchment notices on January 26, as a part of our ongoing $9 million deficit reduction process. The impacted individuals include five teaching faculty and two professional staff members, all of whom had permanent appointment (often known as tenure when referring to instructional employees)," Hersker said. "We cannot provide further details about specific individual personnel actions, as they are confidential. Furthermore, our ability to consult and collaborate in such sensitive decisions is limited by our obligations under the collective bargaining agreements in place with the unions representing our faculty and staff," the interim provost said.

"From day one, I have been transparent about the depth of our challenge. There are no perfect decisions when closing a budget gap of this size. It was, and continues to be, a very painful and difficult process," SUNY Potsdam President Suzanne Smith said in an official statement to North Country This Week.

"I cannot underscore this enough: The reductions we have undertaken are not based on the rigor of impacted programs, the quality of the faculty or staff, or the experiences had by our alumni. We have simply had more programs and positions than are supported by student enrollment, which then impacts our current revenue," Smith said.

Smith said the college will assist and support staff through the process as best it can, and ensure those let go have access to the benefits to which they are entitled.  

"In the meantime, we will continue to do all in our power to limit cuts in personnel wherever possible," the president said.

"In the big picture, though, we are doing the right thing by putting our campus on a path back to fiscal health. My job is to make sure that we are here for the next 207 years, and that is what I am doing," said Smith.