By CARL T. HAYDEN
Chairman, SUNY Board of Trustees

New jobs are now the byproduct of great research.

In the last decade, China created 50 new universities in a single province. The Chinese understand that intellectual capital is the 21st century's currency - so they set about creating, nurturing and commercializing it.

In the last decade here in New York, by contrast, the state government raided the State University's budget to fund other priorities. In this year's budget bill, Albany leaders cut $38.8 million from SUNY and later ordered a cut of $109 million more.

Meanwhile, those same leaders have virtually ignored the Report of the Commission on Higher Education, a potentially powerful blueprint for elevating SUNY's stature and global reach.

Rightly seeing SUNY as the linchpin of New York's economic revitalization, the commission argued for significant new funds for the four research centers at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook, and for 2,000 new faculty hires, including 250 of international stature.

It called for a rational tuition policy allowing for small, predictable increases and for the governor and Legislature to discard the regulatory shackles that make SUNY one of the nation's least-nimble public higher-education systems.

A mature public university, overseen by an accountable board of trustees, shouldn't need to obtain approvals from the comptroller, attorney general, Division of Budget and/or State Education Department for many basic activities.

Governance is about choices. China has chosen to invest massively in higher education. New York has chosen the path of disinvestment and has elected, at least for now, to pass on the Commission on Higher Education's promise - a remarkable contrast with ominous implications. We must recognize that there's a tipping point, a place at which these trends become irreversible.

True, Gov. Paterson inherited an economy in recession. The Upstate economy has been in the doldrums for a generation. The state's finances clearly called for fiscal triage, and SUNY, as a member of the family, played its part.

Nevertheless, before it's too late, we must reassess New York's long-term commitment to public higher education. All governmental activities do not have an equivalent societal and economic value. Leaders must choose which to emphasize, especially in times of crisis.

As his company teetered on the cusp of bankruptcy, Jamie Houghton, former CEO of Corning, Inc., chose to expand Corning's investment in research and development - a decision that saved the company.

It's instructive for New York. What we choose to fund, in good times and bad, makes all the difference. For example, New York's investment in the College of Nanoscience and Engineering at Albany (SUNY) has created 3,000 jobs in just seven years.

And rescinding the rules that make SUNY beholden to multiple state agencies for every decision doesn't cost a dime. SUNY finds itself hamstrung just when it most needs to be agile.

New York can't cut its way out of recession; it must grow its way out. That means creating jobs. In this new century, new jobs are the byproduct of great research. SUNY, properly deployed and properly supported, is New York's competitive advantage. Shame on us if we squander it.

Reprinted on the Stony Brook University website with permission from The New York Post, July 12, 2008.