SUNY, CUNY advocates call for more funding
ALBANY — Hundreds of State University of New York and City University of New York students gathered at the state Capitol Wednesday to call on lawmakers to increase funding for New York’s public college systems.
“We fight for a new deal for public higher ed and quality education for all New Yorkers,” said Damien Andrade, a Brooklyn College student and chair of New York Public Interest Research Group’s board of directors.
The advocates, who also included staff and union representatives from campuses in the SUNY and CUNY systems, called for more than $600 million in the upcoming state budget for senior college campuses. The higher education activists also called for funding to prevent the potential closure of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, which is the only public teaching hospital in the state.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed executive budget includes an additional $100 million in new recurring operating funds for SUNY campuses and $107 million for CUNY campuses. Funding for community colleges would stay the same as last year under the proposed budget, with $416.7 million for SUNY campuses and $218 million for CUNY campuses.
The advocates also called for changes to budget proposals that decrease funding for education opportunity programs, which provide academic and financial support to disadvantaged students, at SUNY, CUNY and private campuses by $6 million from last year’s more than $190 million in funding.
The budget also proposes decreasing Bundy Aid — financial support for students attending independent colleges and universities — by $19 million by limiting its use to institutions with endowments less than $750 million.
United University Professions President Fred Kowal, whose union represents SUNY faculty, said that more money is necessary due to previous underfunding under former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration. SUNY estimates that it could face a $1 billion deficit in a decade without higher tuition or more aid.
“We cannot underestimate how badly campuses were hurt by Andrew Cuomo. The funding that was lost during the Cuomo years, if controlled for inflation, is $7 billion lost to the SUNY system,” Kowal said. “The last two budgets have been good and last year was very good. Finish the job that was started in years past and let’s give every campus and every student an opportunity.”
Assemblyman Khaleel Anderson, a Queens Democrat, told the crowd that funding SUNY and CUNY campuses would bring better educational opportunities to New York. Anderson said that well-funded public higher education could potentially slow outmigration of residents from the state.
The assemblyman also said he has proposed legislation to extend New York’s tuition assistance program from four years of financial support to students who qualify up to six years, highlighting that many students encounter obstacles to graduating within four years.
Advocates also highlighted hopes that CUNY return to a tuition-free models — students once received free higher education at campuses until 1976.
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, another Queens Democrat, highlighted his own proposed legislation that Columbia University and New York University, two prominent private universities in New York City, pay property taxes (they are currently exempt from paying due to their status as educational institutions). Mamdani contends the additional hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes could be spent on CUNY.