LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY — SUNY Sullivan’s new president is confident the college will both maintain its accreditation and balance its budget, even as it faces a minor decline in enrollment.

“I am very confident about the college’s work,” David Potash told legislators at the August 1 Government Services Committee meeting.

Accreditors from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) will visit “sometime in the latter half of September,” Potash said.

MSCHE offers accreditation to colleges that meet its standards. Following up on a team visit to the campus over two days last August, MSCHE in November sent SUNY Sullivan a notice of noncompliance warning its accreditation “may be in jeopardy because of insufficient evidence that the institution is currently in compliance with” its standards regarding “educational effectiveness,” its system for evaluating students’ work, and its planning and budgeting processes.

“I’m very much looking forward to the visit and an opportunity for SUNY Sullivan to work with our accreditors and showcase the outstanding work that’s taking place at the college and move forward,” Potash told the legislature last week.

Saying he’s worked with accreditors before, Potash laid out the next steps: A person or team will spend the day at the college, looking at the college’s learning outcomes. The visitors will then write up their findings and submit their report to the full MSCHE commission. The commission will meet in November and expects to make a decision around Thanksgiving.

Potash said the college will be ending the year with a balanced budget, which he will present to legislators at 10:20 a.m. on Thursday, August 15.

In 2022, the college had a $6 million backlog in health insurance premiums through the NYS Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP). Then-president Jay Quaintance said expenses rose, revenues stayed flat, and enrollment declined as NYSHIP raised its premiums 12 percent.

Fewer students

Potash says enrollment is slightly behind for the fall semester, year over year.

He attributes the dip to changes in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application.

Congress passed the 2020 FAFSA Simplification Act to make filling out the complicated form easier. According to the Brookings Institute, the new law reduced questions from 108 to about 36, automated tax data transfer from the IRS, and adjusted aid calculations to increase Pell Grant eligibility. However, the 2024-25 FAFSA rollout has faced delays, prompting congressional hearings and further review by the Government Accountability Office. Brookings says only 36 percent of seniors in the class of 2024 have completed a FAFSA, down 24 percent from last year.

“It slows everything down,” Potash said of the FAFSA delays.

SUNY offered its colleges a short-term grant to help students get through their FAFSA applications. SUNY Sullivan received $10,000, which will be used to call people who started the FAFSA but didn’t finish, and provide Spanish-language assistance to people experiencing language barriers.  The college is holding free FAFSA workshops on August 7 and 20 (see related story).

Also affecting enrollment is the imminent closure of Sullivan Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Fallsburg that the state will shut down on November 6. Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, a program at Sullivan Correctional that provides college educations and other services to currently and formerly incarcerated people, will also close, taking the 20 students that would otherwise be attending this fall, Potash said.

The partnership between SUNY Sullivan and Hudson Link sponsors associate degrees in the arts and sciences, enabling students to transfer to four-year colleges.

“I’d love to be able to say we’re going to be bigger, but I can’t,” Potash said. “But we’re working very, very hard.”