The Daily Bulletin Archive

As announced in the Daily Bulletin on April 14, 2023, Buffalo State University’s Financial Sustainability Plan has been updated, and the Spending Constraints Oversight Committee (SCOC) has been disbanded, effective Tuesday, April 18.

The SCOC was established based on a SUNY and NYS Division of Budget mandate in response to the economic impact of the pandemic across the state. Following our campus budget rebalancing phase from 2017–2018 through 2019–2020, where we reduced the campus budget by $7 million, the campus managed to save an additional $4.7 million in personnel and $2.7 million of Other Than Personal Service (OTPS) expenditures as a result of pandemic spending constraints. The SCOC played an important and effective role in the campus’s reducing OTPS expenses.

SUNY lifted the mandate before the 2022–2023 academic year; however, the president stated that she would permanently reduce campus OTPS budgets by 5 percent, as well as maintain the spending constraint guidelines and the SCOC, until the campus budget reductions were established in spring 2023.

Again, the SCOC has played an important and effective role in the campus’s reducing expenditures by $2.7 million over the last three years.

Please note that the $30,000 review threshold has been eliminated, and such purchase requests can go directly to Procurement Services. Our individual commitment to exercising responsible care with all funds of Buffalo State University is captured in the Acknowledgement of Financial Resource Stewardship. Regarding contracts, however, please note that recent threshold changes that require state comptroller review and approval are in effect and will remain so until further notice.

I echo President Conway-Turner’s gratitude to the members of the SCOC, as well as the entire campus, for their tireless attention to campus expenditures for the past three years. This is most appreciated.