Syracuse University spent $90,000 on lobbying federal officials in the first quarter of 2013 — more than any other quarter on record dating back to 1999.
The $90,000 total for the first three months of this year was $20,000 more than SU spent in each quarter of 2012, according to a lobbying report filed by the university.
The increase was due in part to the expansion of programs such as the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, said Eric Persons, SU associate vice president for government and community relations, in an email interview. He oversees the university’s lobbying.
In 2012, Syracuse spent $280,000 on lobbying, reporting expenditures of $70,000 each quarter. The university has been trending up as far as how much it spends on lobbying, after spending $240,000 in 2011.
The $90,000 reported is mostly made up of a proportion of the salaries of staff, faculty and consultants who engaged in meeting with public officials for the university, said SU lobbyist Persons.
“For example, we report a percentage of my salary proportional to how much time I spent advocating the university’s interests on federal issues,” Persons said. Miscellaneous costs such as travel fees also contributed to the total.
According to the lobbying report, in the first three months of 2013 the university met with politicians about:
- The Syracuse Center of Excellence and its environmental and energy systems.
- Potential cuts to the National Science Foundation’s grants to political science. The grants go toward research to help increase understanding of politics, government and citizenship.
- The Near West Side Initiative. The initiative is meant to revitalize Syracuse’s Near West Side neighborhood by turning it into the city’s epicenter for the arts. It is listed as one of the initiatives SU is searching for funding for on its website.
- The charitable deduction for higher education. The federal government’s mandatory budget cuts called “sequestration” and other proposed policy changes have threatened charitable giving and support for education and students, Persons said.
- The Institute for Veterans and Military Families. The institute, created in 2011, helps veterans and families with their education after returning from service.
The money spent lobbying was all spent for meeting with Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Reps. Dan Maffei of DeWitt, Bill Owens of Plattsburgh and Louise Slaughter of Rochester – all Democrats from New York.
SU lobbist Persons also expressed concerns for potential cuts nationally that may have effects back in Syracuse. “The higher education community in general still has a lot of work ahead because of the cuts that were made once sequestration took effect,” Persons said.
As universities look for research grants to look for large projects, they now often turn to government for assistance. By informing politicians about initiatives and projects, Persons said, SU is set up “so that when funding and grants become available, we can best be positioned to compete for that support.”
The increase in expenditures on lobbying government is not surprising, said Robert McClure, a professor of citizenship and democracy in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. McClure, who has taught at the university for more than four decades, sees a trend for universities to spend more and to try to get more from federal and state governments to help support the spending.
“Universities are big industry,” he said.
McClure compared universities today to the auto industry 30-plus years ago. Back then, he said, the auto industry was highly successful and began to charge more for its cars. But when the auto industry eventually got in trouble, he said, it turned to the government for help.
Decisions that government makes about student loans affects SU’s revenue and students’ ability to attend the school. In order to protect its revenue stream and future, the university turns to the federal and state governments, McClure said.
“Nearly everybody in America wants the government to do more,” McClure said. “They want more of this, more of that, more of something else. Governments, when they begin to do that, create rules and regulations and the people who are subject to those rules and regulations and who get money from those sources are obviously going to try and protect them and enlarge them. And that’s lobbying.”
(Mark Cooper is a senior majoring in newspaper journalism.)
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