1)Briefly describe the structure of higher education – focusing mostly on the public sector – in the state of New York.

(You should be able to find all or most of this information online – just visit the state education department (NYSED)

website, or the Regents website, or Wikipedia or do a simple search. ) I do not want a comprehensive description – just

mention the public flagship institution, total enrollment in the public flagship institution compared to other 4-year

and 2-year public colleges (which would indicate importance of the flagship institution within the state), etc.

Note that New York might consider more than one of the SUNY’s as flagships. For example, the Rizzo and Ehrenberg paper

considers both SUNY-Albany and SUNY-Buffalo as flagships, but the two Education Trust reports (Engines of Inequality and

Opportunity Adrift) consider SUNY-Buffalo as the flagship. (Other reports sometimes include SUNY-Binghamton as the

flagship).
For purposes of this assignment, consider SUNY-Albany as the flagship.

2)Describe what has been happening to state appropriations, tuition (both in-state and out-of-state) and student aid at

SUNY-Albany. Begin with the mid-1990s or late 1990s, and go on to as far in the recent past – say 2009, 2010 or 2011 –

as you get data on.

3)Describe what has been happening to student enrollment at SUNY-Albany. Disaggregate student enrollment in terms of

in-state students and out-of-students, and in terms of demographic characteristics like race/ethnicity, income and

parental education (depending on data availability).

4)What do you think will happen to student enrollment, and to student composition, now that SUNY has increased its

tuition? See the two references listed at the end of the assignment.
5)Discuss your findings in view of the analyses in the papers listed below – the Rizzo and Ehrenberg paper, the two

Education Trust publications, and the McDuff paper (skip the technical details, particularly in the Rizzo-Ehrenberg and

McDuff papers). Feel free to use any other paper you think is relevant – the above-mentioned papers also have some

references.

6) Suppose you are the “enrollment manager” at SUNY-Albany. What would you do? (Hint: For what enrollment managers do,

read the Fallows commentary in The Atlantic, as well as the articles I have pasted at the end of this assignment.

http://www.schev.edu/Students/PublicCollegeList.asp.

http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx.

http://febp.newamerica.net/

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=workingpapers

http://www.edtrust.org/dc/publication/engines-of-inequality-diminishing-equity-in-the-nation%E2%80%99s-premier-public-un

iversities

http://www.edtrust.org/dc/publication/opportunity-adrift-our-flagship-universities-are-straying-from-their-public-missio

n

http://www.suny.edu/Board_of_Trustees/webcastdocs/TuitionProposal.pdf