Statement from PEF President Wayne Spence on the SUNY Downstate Medical Center Score

ALBANY, NY (10/09/2015)(readMedia)-- Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education released a new College Scorecard showing that SUNY Downstate Medical Center scores highest in the country for undergraduate career earnings. Students from SUNY Downstate's undergraduate degree programs earned the highest income of any school in the country with a median annual income of $121,500.

The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) commends the hardworking state employees of SUNY Downstate Medical Center for their role in Downstate's impressive score, but we must point out that these earnings were measured over a period of 10 years. Since that time, the SUNY Board of Trustees has decimated SUNY Downstate Medical Center, to the point where it is a shell of what it had once been. After the disastrous takeover, and eventual closing of Long Island College Hospital, Downstate has been hit by rounds of layoffs, hiring freezes, and departmental closings. Despite being profitable, Downstate's University Hospital had seen a decrease of more than 20 percent in the number of staff nurses and the closings of needed clinical services.

PEF calls on the SUNY Board of Trustees to provide the funding necessary to allow Downstate to fulfill its mission to continue to provide top quality education to its students, and the best possible medical care to the more than two million people living in Brooklyn.