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SUNY chancellor: Trump budget would be 'devastating'

WXXI's Karen DeWitt interviews outgoing SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher.
SUNY
WXXI's Karen DeWitt interviews outgoing SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher.

The outgoing chancellor of New York’s state university system said President Donald Trump’s budget, if enacted, would seriously hamper the chances for many of New York’s young people to attend college.

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said cuts to programs that help disadvantaged high school students gain the opportunity to attend college, as well as reductions to federal college aid and cuts to medical research, including cancer research, would have a huge negative impact on New York’s colleges.

“It would have a devastating effect on access,” Zimpher said.

Zimpher spoke to public radio and television as she ends an eight-year term as the head of one the nation’s largest university systems next month. 

Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau chief for the New York Public News Network, composed of a dozen newsrooms across the state. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.