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Welcome to Support CUNY, which assists members and friends of The City University of New York community in communicating their views to city, state and federal legislators and officials. We invite participation by students, faculty, alumni, parents, civic and business leaders, and others who care about the quality and affordability of public higher education.
 CUNY is facing significant fiscal challenges as a result of the City's proposed FY 2009 budget. The University needs $28.3 million in restorations and $5.3 million in enhancements for operational support to the community colleges. This includes critically needed full-time faculty positions and student services such as counseling, advisement, child care and services to students with disabilities. In addition, CUNY needs $15.7 in City Aid to keep tuition affordable for thousands of students served by the Peter F. Vallone Scholarship Program and the Safety Net Scholarship Program. As the city budget is being negotiated, your e-mail messages will help impact their decision making process. Please act now to e-mail your city council members regarding the CUNY budget!
Thank you for your participation. We had a successful e-mail campaign that help produce a $1.829 billion capital plan for the campuses of The City University of New York over the next five years. For your information, attached below is a list of capital projects that have been funded by the Governor and New York State Legislature. Projects of note include a new Advance Science Research at City College, a new science facility at Brooklyn, Lehman and Hunter Colleges and renovation of the Gym Building at Queens College. Also, included in the overall capital plan were funds for replacement of Fiterman Hall at Borough of Manhattan Community College. State funds were also provided for CUNY's FIRST Project (ERP). This technology project will allow the entire University to implement state-of-the-art, internet based systems for student administration, finance and human resources.
Moreover, the 2008/09 budget included partial restorations to budget reductions to the Senior Colleges, full restoration to the community colleges and budget language leaving open the identification of future revenues to fund an higher education endowment for CUNY and SUNY.
On December 17, 2007, The New York State Commission on Higher Education released a Preliminary Report of Findings and Recommendations. The fundamental findings of the preliminary report are that New York State is "losing ground in an intensifying global competition for preeminence in the knowledge economy" and that "public institutions of higher education have had too little revenue, too little investment, and too much regulation."
One of the major suggestions of the Report is to establish a New York State Compact for Public Higher Education. The COMPACT idea was introduced by Chancellor Matthew Goldstein three years ago at CUNY and is now recommended to cover both CUNY and SUNY. This funding tool creates a partnership between New York State, the university systems, philanthropic donations, and students through modest predictable tuition increases. The COMPACT calls for shared responsibility for new investments responsive to educational needs by various partners: government(which pays for the mandatory costs plus 20 cents on the dollar to fund new priorities consistent with the multi-year master plans adopted by CUNY and SUNY);the philanthropic community, including alumni, foundations, corporate sources and other supporters; the universities through economies, productivity, efficiencies, redeployments; and the students through managed enrollment growth and modest, predictable tuition increases, averaging 2.5% to 4%, with no additional tuition expense for the tens of thousands of students eligible for the State's Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). The last component would establish a rational tuition policy, and be further reinforced by recent federal increases in the maximum PELL grant award to $4,800 effective fall, 2008, rising to $5,000 by fall 2010 and $5,400 by fall 2012--yielding an additional $500 annually in PELL grant support to CUNY students.
The Report also recommends hiring a minimum of 2,000 new full-time faculty at CUNY and SUNY over the next five years --key to quality of education and helping to assure students and parents get their money's worth from the new investments called for in the report. In 1975, over 11,000 full timers taught at CUNY. Today the number of full-time faculty is down to 6500--even after several years of redeploying resources to add to the ranks. At the same time, CUNY's degree credit student enrollment is over 230,000--the highest since 1975.
In addition, the Report calls for much needed critical maintenance at CUNY for our campus buildings. Much of the renovations and rehabilitations relate to safety and health considerations. Other recommendations focus on regulatory relief, educational partnership zones in high need districts to encourage collaborations at the lower and secondary education levels with colleges and universities to improve student outcomes (which CUNY has pioneered since the early 1970's with high schools on campus and through College Now and,more recently, through reforms of its teacher education programs). The report also focuses on strategies to improve college access, readiness and articulation.
The report asserts that in 1980, the State captured ten percent of the nation's academic research and development spending. Today, that number has been reduced to approximately eight percent. Thus the Commission recommends a new Empire State Innovation Fund to support meritorious research important to New York's public and private colleges.
The University is hopeful that many of the recommendations of this report will be enacted into law. Sustained investment in public higher education is long overdue. Implementation of the Report will allow CUNY and SUNY to move forward into the 21st Century armed with the funds, faculty research, and academic excellence to be globally competitive and provide students with a quality academic environment.
It is expected, there will be a final New York State Higher Education Commission Report issued in June. Both the Commission and the Legislature will be holding hearings over the next several months. A link to the New York State Higher Education Commission is listed below. A full copy of the report and executive summary can be viewed on the site. We urge you to read the report and Chancellor's statement and contact the Governor, Assembly Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, and New York State Legislature Higher Education Chairs to express your views on the report. In particular, your help is needed to advocate the inclusion of the New York State COMPACT for public higher education in the Executive budget.
Please join this historic effort!! Your participation matters!! Please ask 5 friends to join the campaign. An educated citizenry provides a strong tax base, a well-trained workforce, and creative human capital to enhance the quality of life in New York. That is why it is so important to invest in CUNY.
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