MONTICELLO — Representatives from SUNY Sullivan presented its fiscal year 2025-2026 operating budget to the Legislature on Thursday, August 21, after which the board voted unanimously in favor of approving the budget. The total budget is $15,521,498, with Sullivan County covering $4,300,000 of the funding, while the state is projected to pay $3,124,223. 

To present their budget, SUNY Sullivan President David Potash was joined by Judge Anthony King, representing the board of trustees, and Vice President for Finance Administration Sean Walsh. Potash started with a “big picture” assessment of where the college is in 2025: “It’s been a really productive year, but a year of transition.” 

Potash said he joined the college just over a year ago in a climate of turmoil; “the dorm was closing, there had been trauma at the college in terms of personnel changes, pretty dramatic changes, and my charge from the board of trustees was really to bring stability to the college, and then from that stability, assure accreditation, set the stage for financial stability, and enrollment growth.” 

Potash said the college’s status with the Middle States Association, the accreditation gold standard for colleges in the area, is “solid.” He said enrollment was trending 82 students ahead of last year. He acknowledged that their larger dorm is closed, but that they have townhouses for 45 students, which are filled for the fall semester. 

Speaking on fiscal health, Potash said, “We are not asking for any more support from the county. What you already provide is deeply appreciated and absolutely essential to the college’s growth. Because of the enrollment challenges we faced last year, we were pretty tight on hiring; about 86% of our budget is people and benefits, so we have been pretty much trimming as we go to stay and live within our budget.” 

Before handing the presentation off to Sean Walsh, Potash concluded, “We feel really good about the college right now. Thanks to SUNY Reconnect, we’re seeing an increase in adult learners, we are seeing lots of growth in health care programs, business and criminal justice are also trending up. In other areas we have lots of work to do, but we’re feeling really positive about the coming fall semester.”

Walsh provided a detailed breakdown of the budget and said, “The college’s revenue comes primarily from just two sources: tuition and fees charged to students makes up a bulk of our support, either to those students directly or from external sources, from state, federal, local, or inside the institution itself.” Walsh said remaining funds come from their sponsor, Sullivan County, at $4.3[million], which represents 29% of the budget, and the State of New York, at $3.2 million, which is 21.6% of the overall revenue.  Echoing Potash’s earlier comments, he said, “Most of our expenses are people based: 86% of our budget is personnel use. The day-to-day operational expenses make up the rest.” Walsh listed $7.9 million for direct salaries, $4.7 million for employee benefits, and $3.6 million in college infrastructure.