The following is part on an editorial from Pressconnects.com.

“Entangled in the final budget negotiations now under way in Albany is a proposed change that can make a good SUNY system even better.

The proposal, part of Gov. David Paterson’s spending plan, would give SUNY university centers and colleges more autonomy over purchases, lease agreements and — most importantly — the tuitions they charge at campuses, such as Binghamton, Cortland and Oneonta.

As it stands now, tuition at SUNY colleges and universities is tethered to the governor’s budget and state Legislature, both of which have the power to control tuition hikes and the amount of tuition money going back to SUNY campuses once it has been filtered through the state’s general coffers.

The Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act takes a bold step toward severing that dependence and allowing SUNY campuses, with oversight of SUNY’s Board of Trustees, to set tuition rates and even vary them between undergraduate and post-graduate programs. So instead of going years without a tuition hike and then walloping students with double-digit increases, SUNY campuses could build in gradual increases based on the Higher Education Price Index, according to Paterson’s proposal.”

To read more click here.