From left, state Assemblyman Billy Jones, Paul Smith’s College President Cathy Dove, North Country Community College President Steve Tyrell and Michelle Snyder of Clinton Community College talk Tuesday at an education roundtable held at CCC in Plattsburgh. (Enterprise photo — Glynis Hart)

PLATTSBURGH — Higher education leaders from northeastern New York gathered Tuesday to brainstorm strategies for increasing enrollment.

State Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay, and Clinton Community College sponsored the roundtable, which included administrators of North Country Community College, Paul Smith’s College and SUNY Plattsburgh as well as CCC, which hosted the event.

Jones said he is focused on making higher education affordable for families and is sponsoring a bill, A7491, that would create a tax credit for employers who help their employees pay back student loans. According to the bill’s text, not only would it create a way to help people pay back loans, but employers could use it as a recruitment and retention tool.

“Sustaining our campuses in the northeast is critical,” Jones said. Looking around the table, he observed that it would be a huge blow to the region if any of the colleges represented were to fold. “Education is a huge economic driver, no matter what you’re talking about.”

The meeting was held in a new board room at the newly built Advanced Institute of Manufacturing on the CCC campus.

“We have cutting-edge technology here,” Jones said. “It’s just what we need for this manufacturing cluster here.”

“The biggest challenge for our workforce is how they adapt to changing job opportunities,” he said. “Now we’ve got to get employers involved as well.”

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The Excelsior effect

Several of the college presidents spoke about how the state’s new Excelsior scholarship, which promises free tuition at state universities to New York state residents who qualify, is affecting their bottom lines. Cathy Dove, president of Paul Smith’s College, said Excelsior hit the private college hard.

“We have a good idea where people went instead of going to Paul Smith’s,” she said. “Our primary competitors are all state colleges.”

Dove said students are sometimes accepted into Paul Smith’s but can’t afford to go.

“We have endowments, but at the end we have a funding gap,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking because we have students who want to come, but they can’t afford it.”

Steve Tyrell, president of NCCC, noted that many students had tuition-free college already. With Pell grants and the Tuition Assistance Program already in place, the Excelsior scholarship stacks on top of other options.

“We have to be clear about what we’re reading,” he said. “Around 200,000 students are going to public colleges without paying tuition.

“Excelsior is a gap program,” he added. “We had 60 applicants for it, but they already had federal financial aid that covered their tuition.”

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Regulations in the way

Tyrell mentioned a few issues with state bureaucracy and regulations that hamper colleges’ efforts. For instance, capital projects for NCCC — which has long been trying for an overhaul of its campus buildings — require matching funds up front before state aid kicks in.

“If a county puts up a dollar, the state matches it,” Tyrell said. “That makes it almost impossible for us to do capital projects because the counties don’t have the money to do it.”

State regulations also slow down reimbursement when colleges do qualify for grants.

“We appreciate state grants,” Dove said. “But there’s a huge issue with DASNY and cash flow.” DASNY, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, provides financing for building projects. The bureaucratic process for qualifying for the aid, then receiving it after a project is done, is multi-layered and slow.

Jones said that he’s aware of the problem and “our leadership is working on it.”

Jones asked the attendees if there is legislation they want to see.

“We don’t need any more mandates,” said CCC President Ray DiPasquale, evoking rueful laughter around the table.

A bill that would require the state to cover the cost of mandated services, the Glick Bill, passed both houses in the last legislative session, Jones said. That bill is awaiting the governor’s signature.

Another bill, known as the comptroller’s bill, would restore the state comptroller’s oversight of public college finances.

“One of the bad things about the process now is the process itself,” Jones said. “That comes from a couple of bad apples taking public money and doing nefarious things with it. I don’t want to see [this legislation] gum up the process even more.”

Dove asked Jones to try to increase TAP aid.

“We’re pushing for that,” Jones said. “It fell off the table at the last minute.”

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Border state tuition

Ken Knelly, executive director of communications and public affairs at SUNY Plattsburgh, said the recruiting base for that college and others at the table is regionally restricted.

“Our recruiting base has followed that I-87 corridor,” he said. “We can’t expand east or west.”

Knelly suggested implementing a border state tuition. Rather than all out-of-state applicants being equal, a border state tuition would create different tiers, said Knelly. That would make his college more appealing to students from Vermont, which is just a ferry ride across Lake Champlain from Plattsburgh.

Several groups of states already offer border state tuition, such as the New England Regional Student Program, which offers discounts to students in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.