More than 14,000 students signed petitions opposing further cuts to the State University of New York system proposed in the state budget, student organizers said.
In the statewide campaign, "Many Voices, One SUNY," the Student Assembly of the State University delivered the petitions to the office of Gov. David A. Paterson this week, according to a media release.
The 14,000 signatures were collected through student-led rallies at 17 SUNY campuses within the past two weeks, the Student Assembly release said. Students also made on-the-spot calls to their state lawmakers, urging them to support state funding to the SUNY system.
Students at campuses in Oneonta, Binghamton, Cobleskill and Albany were among the participants.
"The governor must recognize the importance of public higher education to the future of New York state,'' Cariann Quick, director of government relations for the Student Assembly, said in the release. ``If he cuts SUNY, he may as well cut any chance this state has to see success.''
SUNY funding previously was cut by $90 million in state aid, and the governor proposed additional multimillion dollar cuts in a proposed deficit reduction plan that students said will negatively affect the Tuition Assistance Program and other programs.
____
Hartwick College's three-year program to earn a bachelor's degree has gained attention in the national media.
In a Newsweek magazine article last month, Lamar Alexander, U.S. senator from Tennessee, described the program as a ``forward-looking'' measure to help families and students cut costs.
While many colleges have turned to significant cuts and struggled with financial aid, Hartwick is "rethinking the old way of doing things and questioning decades-old assumptions about what a college degree means," wrote Alexander, a former president of the University of Tennessee and U.S. Secretary of Education.
A media release from Hartwick said 20 students are in the program, which features a 25 percent reduction in tuition costs.
Announced in spring, the program is designed to help qualified students save on the cost of a traditional four-year degree while maintaining Hartwick's liberal arts education melded with experiential learning. Hartwick has an enrollment of about 1,480 students.
____
Farmers apparently face challenges with egg production in addition to swings in the market for milk.
Egg production on New York farms totaled 95 million eggs in September, down 3 percent from last year, according to Stephen Ropel, director of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Hens and pullets of laying age numbered 4 million in New York state, a media release from his office said.
Eggs brought New York poultry farmers an average of 57 cents per dozen for eggs sold in September, down 0.5 cents from August and down 31.2 cents from September 2008.
Nationally, egg production totaled 7.37 billion during September, up slightly from last year. The total number of layers during September averaged 334 million, down slightly from last year, the release said.
I'll be checking the cost of a dozen eggs on my next trip to the grocery store.
___
Staff writer Denise Richardson covers health, business and colleges.
