CUNY, elected officials rally against budget cuts

Dozens of students, professors and staff, and elected officials rallied Thursday over budget cuts to the the City University of New York system that they say will make it harder for many students to earn college diplomas.

Advocates charge that cuts in the city budget, coupled with lost tuition revenue as enrollment declines and rising costs from inflation, have pushed CUNY to the brink as federal pandemic aid expires. Community colleges, in particular, are expected to scale back popular programs, or reduce faculty positions and course offerings.

“That means classes that aren’t available, that students can’t get in the programs that they need,” said City Comptroller Brad Lander. “That means a CUNY that cannot show up for its students.”

A new analysis from the comptroller found the city cut $155 million from CUNY over a series of budget cuts this year, resulting in the loss of 235 faculty and staff positions. If approved, the executive budget proposal by Mayor Adams would cut another $41.3 million, mostly through fewer staff positions and fringe benefits, Lander said.

“As a former CUNY student, Mayor Adams understands that CUNY is the jewel of our city’s higher educational system,” said Jonah Allon, a spokesman for the mayor, “and the administration has partnered with CUNY to uplift students and give them pathways to good-paying jobs.”

“While every agency was asked to achieve savings in response to fiscal and economic conditions — including more than $4 billion in asylum seeker costs by next year, funding labor settlements with our workforce, and slowing growth in tax revenue — we provided a lower [savings] target for CUNY to avoid disruptions to classrooms,” he added.

But several popular programs are also on the chopping block or have been scaled back, including an initiative that encourages tens of thousands of students annually to earn associate degrees — helping cover tuition, subway fares and textbooks.

Called Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, or “ASAP,” officials testified at a budget hearing earlier this week that CUNY had to cut its budget by $13 million, shrinking the number of students served by 20 percent.

“That’s a tragedy for those students and a huge loss of talent for the city and state,” CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said Tuesday.

Students, faculty and staff have already started to feel the budgetary crunch.

David Santana, a student at CUNY’s Bronx Community College and the New York City College of Technology, paused his college plans to work in construction. When he tried to reenroll, he said he no longer qualified for ASAP, so he took classes while working and walked 30 minutes to and from school to avoid train fares.

“I’ve had to argue with professors for flexibility and options when it came to scheduling because of the limited class options due to lack of professors,” said Santana. “I’ve had an advisor tell me that higher education wasn’t for me. It’s baffling that I sacrificed so much to get this quality of education and lack of support.”

The Professional Staff Congress, which represents CUNY faculty, pointed to historically lean budgets across the system’s 25 campuses — before recent financial pressures made the situation even worse.

Some of those budget gaps have been filled in by $186 million in federal pandemic aid that will run out by the end of this year, according to the comptroller analysis. The final $78 million is expected to be depleted by the end of the school year.

“We always have to recognize that any cuts to CUNY come in the context of decades of disinvestment and underfunding,” said Sharon Utakis, vice president of community colleges at the union.

“These are the students coming out of the pandemic — it’s harder for them,” added Utakis, also an English professor at Bronx Community College. “Because of the pandemic, students have been traumatized by the loss of family members and by economic struggle. Their education has been disrupted, as I’ve seen in my own classes. It’s harder to keep students from dropping out.”