The union is encouraging members to push state lawmakers for an enhanced maintenance-of-effort (MOE) bill for CUNY and SUNY that would increase funding to the state’s public university systems, which would include funding for collective bargaining increases in the future.
“The enhanced MOE would provide CUNY with an additional $157 million for academic and student support services,” PSC First Vice President Michael Fabricant said in a dispatch to members.
Fabricant encouraged members to call to support S.1596 in the Senate, sponsored by Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Kenneth LaValle and A.934-A in the Assembly, sponsored by Assembly Higher Education Chair Deborah Glick.
He noted the current language is inadequate. “The current MOE assures the steady creep of disinvestment in CUNY. It provides essentially flat funding, requiring that CUNY’s funding be no less than it was in the prior year,” he said.
FUNDING MANDATORY COSTS
Education activists have noted that the current situation forces cash-strapped campuses to divert tuition money from academics to basic needs like heat and lighting.
Fabricant told members, “The bill would provide reimbursement for a portion of the gap between the current maximum Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) award and the actual cost of tuition. CUNY now has to absorb that gap at a cost of more than $50 million a year.”
