University Professors Protest Budget Cuts - Karen DeWitt, WXXI

Around 300 professors, teachers, and other faculty employed at New York's public colleges and universities chanted and marched at the State Capitol against the governor's proposed budget cuts. United University Professions President Phillip Smith says while public colleges represent just 2% of the total state budget, they've been cut by 25% in recent years, for a total of $528 million dollars. And he says a new plan by Paterson to deregulate SUNY and make campuses more autonomous will lead to steeply higher tuition rates, and more secrecy. "We'll have a Darwinian system gone ape, " Smith predicted. "Campuses are going to compete with one another, and we're going to find that affordability and access is just going to go out the window".