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HERE
for more information on budget and tuition issues and organizing
initiatives.
1,500 students, faculty and
trade unionists rallied at City Hall on Wednesday, February 26 to build to
build a movement against tuition hikes and budget cuts. Click image for more
photos.
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TESTIMONY
AGAINST TUITION HIKES:
The City Council Committee on Higher Education passed a resolution
and held a hearing on Friday, January 31 in response to
threatened tuition increases. Both the resolution and the
testimony spoke powerfully and eloquently against tuition
hikes. What follows are links to the resolution and to
testimony by students, faculty, PSC leaders and others.
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THE
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION:
"Resolution
urging the city and state to continue funding the City University of
New York at current levels so as to avoid tuition increases, cuts to
important financial aid programs such as the TAP, SEEK and College
Discovery Programs, and the Peter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship
program, and thus avoid unjustly balancing the city and state
budgets on the backs of college students and their
families."
-- Full Resolution |
TESTIMONY:
ANNE FRIEDMAN, VP FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES:
"I have recited a litany of
statistics, but I know, we all know, as we gather together in this
historic chamber, that statistics have faces and voices and stories.
After only a week working with my new students I am humbled by the
aspirations and determination reflected in a rich and vibrant
spectrum of complexions and panoply of voices. Community
college students are deserving and tenacious. They ARE our
city and they are our future." --
Full
Testimony
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TESTIMONY:
ALLISON McDONALD, BMCC STUDENT:
"....For BMCC students these figures [by the Governor
calling for tuition increases] are frightening. Simply put, we
cannot afford a tuition hike. An increase in our tuition means
that thousands of us will never be able to achieve a college
education. It is hard enough for us as it is. We have to
balance jobs and families while we struggle to achieve that college
degree that will ultimately make our lives better." --
Full
Testimony |
TESTIMONY:
DENNIS SINNED, BMCC STUDENT:
"Isn't it interesting that only the students seem to have
the faculty to see through this transparent duplicity? This
"tuition hike/TAP cut" is nothing more than a political
anagram for "tax hike." But the education that the
governor attempts to
stifle is the one that we will spill out onto the streets, and our
slogan will be 'Pataki is a liar,' and we will chant it like
mantra." --
Full
Testimony |
TESTIMONY:
JAY APPLEMAN, PSC CHAPTER CHAIR, QCC:
"Our
graduates stay and work in their communities. They are nurses.
They are teachers. They start small businesses. They
become productive members of their communities, lifting themselves
up and lifting up those around them. They become part of the
tax base. This tuition increase doesn't just hurt the dreams
and aspirations of individual students. It destroys the dreams
and aspirations of our students' families and the communities they
live in! " --
Full
Testimony |
TESTIMONY:
LENORE BEAKY, LAGUARDIA CC:
"We are being told that there is no money, the
same song that was
sung during the 1990's, the years of great surpluses and rolling
wealth.
But that wealth stayed in the private sector and was augmented by tax
cuts, more tax cuts, and still more tax cuts. Now, when the surpluses
have run out, we have-more tax cuts! Yet, according to the
Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in a 2002 report, New
York State received a big fat F for "affordability" of higher
education." --
Full
Testimony
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NOTE: As a service to the
CUNY communitry, the PSC presents resolutions and testimony from the
January 31 hearing of the City Council Committee on Higher
Education. The PSC opposes a tuition hike. The full
positions and arguments presented on these web pages are those of the
individuals who testified and not necessarily those of the PSC unless
identified as such.
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