For CUNY, New State Budget Is Not Austerity, But Not “Transformative” Either
Words by Luca GoldMansour
Photo courtesy of Youtube
Pressure from organized students, faculty, staff, and allies of CUNY has resulted in a NYS budget deal which Barbara Bowen, President of PSC CUNY, the faculty and staff union, declared a “victory” for “all of us who support a New Deal for CUNY.” The budget agreement includes a restoration of the 20% of state funding which Governor Cuomo withheld in the past year, a cancellation of any and all proposed future cuts, a three year tuition freeze, and $26 million allocated to close the “TAP Gap.” The agreement increases the maximum TAP award by $500 per student, with a pledge for further TAP funding in coming years. For those organizing to increase funding for CUNY, this change represents a much needed respite from years of cuts, but fails to meet the needs of the moment. Bowen explains, “But in a year that cried out for bold investment in public higher education and an end to racist austerity for the black and brown communities CUNY serves, Albany missed the opportunity to pass a transformative budget for CUNY. Rejecting a tuition increase without adding the funds to replace the lost revenue will ultimately undermine the quality of education CUNY can offer. CUNY needs investment on a larger scale if it is to recover from decades of underfunding and realize its potential for the people of New York. A fully funded CUNY would be a linchpin of a recovery that not only rebuilds New York, but reimagines it.”
This increase in state funding for CUNY comes amid heightened conflict between administration officials like Chancellor Matos Rodriguez and the Board of Trustees, and students, faculty, and staff. The CUNY administration has blamed its laying off of thousands of adjunct faculty, and reneging on a contractually required 2% faculty pay raise on the Governor’s withholding of funds in the last fiscal year. At the time, this excuse did not suffice for PSC and numerous elected officials who claimed that, “preemptive and disproportionate” budget reductions ignored unused federal aid granted in the CARES Act, which included specific provisions for keeping staff on payroll. Now that this money has been restored in the new budget deal, PSC is demanding CUNY, “Immediately announce that it will implement our 2% raise and pay all retroactive amounts; re-hire all adjunct faculty, adjunct CLTs and non-teaching adjuncts who were laid off in June 2020; restore assignment hours to adjuncts whose hours were cut; resume regularly granting assignment differentials and reclassification to HEOs; and reopen searches for full-time positions that were put on hold because of fears of future budget deficits.”
Luz Cespedes, President of the City College Young Democratic Socialists of America (City YDSA) agrees that the current deal is not enough to meet CUNY’s fiscal issues. “These increases aren’t enough, especially when they include the 20% of state funds being withheld from the budget in the first place. Cuomo and the New York State legislature have to understand that in order to truly address the CUNY crisis they need to fully fund higher education.” She continued, “Although it sounds like a lot of money, this is yet another Band-Aid on a gushing wound. It means that by 2022 we will be at the place we should’ve been, keeping progress stagnant. New York State needs new and bold reform. We need a New Deal for CUNY. One that eliminates the accessibility gap for all New Yorkers aspiring to receive a quality education, while also providing justice and relief to adjuncts.”
The CUNY Rising Alliance, an organization consisting of students, faculty, staff, and NYC communities released details for its New Deal for CUNY policy proposal in February of this year. The proposal would immediately make CUNY tuition free for in-state undergraduates. Over five years it would invest $40 million to hire more mental health counselors and academic advisors, $636.5 million to increase the ratio of full time faculty to students and increase adjunct pay to that of full time faculty, as well as increase the capital budget by $5.2 billion. When CUNY Rising Alliance held a press conference to unveil their New Deal for CUNY proposal, New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes, the prime sponsor of the legislation in the New York Senate said, “Every dollar we invest in our education system pays enormous dividends on the outside. The more that we invest in our city university system, the more economic value we are creating. It's a ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ type argument. In a time of deep economic challenges, we should be looking to invest more in the programs and initiatives and the services that we know will produce greater economic output for the entire city, the entire state and for each of the individual members who are a part of this community.”
