by Jackson Mushnick
All views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board, the Macaulay Messenger, or CUNY Macaulay Honors College.
Incoming Macaulay students understand the impact of budget shortfalls. They do not have access to a laptop or MetroCards like their peers did before them. However, Macaulay cuts are unfortunately a manifestation of the funding issues plaguing the entire CUNY system. Due to New York City’s Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) budgetary savings initiative, CUNY has faced $95 million in cuts per fiscal year since January 2022. This austerity is atrocious and in desperate need of fixing.
Like many government programs, cutting spending on education inhibits its efficacy. CUNY’s lack of funding has severely limited its resources. 300 unfilled faculty and staff positions have been eliminated due to the recent cutbacks, and only 8% of CUNY buildings are in good repair. In addition to a hiring freeze and dilapidated facilities, cuts thwart potential expansion to programs like CUNY ASAP, which provides financial assistance, tutoring, and support services to help students complete their degrees. More funding, not less, is necessary so that CUNY can simply provide adequate services to its students.
Beyond losing the bare minimum provisions, it is criminal that CUNY is now first on the chopping block. If we take into account its social value, it should be the number one funding priority. This is because CUNY provides a unique socioeconomic benefit: it closes the economic gap between the wealthiest and poorest among us. Those with a CUNY associate degree earn on average 67% more than prime-age New Yorkers (30-54) with only a high school degree. That number climbs to 106% for those with a CUNY bachelor’s degree.
Additionally, the boost from CUNY degree earnings is different from any other university because many of these gains go towards relieving economic inequality. A greater proportion of CUNY students than the national average come from lower-class backgrounds. The combination of low-income students and high earning potential is why six of the top ten colleges nationwide for bottom-to-top economic mobility are CUNY colleges. Even more shocking, a study from the Equal Opportunity of Opportunity Project found that CUNY propels nearly six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. Austerity for CUNY rips up the one ticket to the middle class that low-income New Yorkers have.
To reverse this troubling downsizing of education, the City Council should cease its budget cuts and the New York State Legislature needs to pass the “New Deal for CUNY,” (S2146A/A4425). This bill would establish new requirements for robust full-time faculty, advisor, and mental health-to-student ratios and allocate capital to investment in CUNY’s infrastructure. It would solve the budgeting issues that have limited the quality and quantity of CUNY resources. CUNY would finally have the funds necessary to make the student experience the best it can be. Imagine how much more successful CUNY graduates could be with sufficient full-time staff for their educational, mental health, and career needs.
On top of that, the New Deal for CUNY sets up a New York State tuition reimbursement fund which would make CUNY tuition free. One reason that half of CUNY students have to work while in college is to pay the cost of tuition and fees. Working more than twenty hours per week during college is associated with lower grades and retention rates. With the removal of the tuition burden, many students would no longer have to work part-time, quickening their graduation time and enhancing their focus on their studies. This will ensure that finances never get in the way of education for those who need it the most.
Free tuition is no pie-in-the-sky proposal. From its establishment in 1847 until a city-wide financial crisis in 1976, the CUNY system was free. This policy successfully met CUNY’s original goal to make college education available to “the children of the whole people” and not only a “privileged few.” Despite introducing tuition and continuous funding cuts, CUNY has managed to keep fulfilling that mission. It has been the enduring mechanism by which poorer New Yorkers have lifted themselves by their bootstraps. Regrettably, austerity now threatens to rob these students of opportunity.
With a New Deal for CUNY, not only will student achievement be fortified by revitalized infrastructure and an increased number of advisory, mental health, and academic professionals. With its free tuition, low-income students will no longer need to choose between studying for physics and keeping their jobs. College ought to be a sanctuary, where students can be free of economic pressures and have the support they need to learn whatever is required in order for them to do great things. With the support of those in power, CUNY students can have unlimited potential.
