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New Deal for CUNY

Where We’ve Been

  • COVID Disruptions in 2020
    • The pandemic forced classes online, enrollment dropped, and mid-year budget cuts led to mass layoffs of adjuncts. 
  • New Deal for CUNY Introduced in 2021
    • Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Karines Reyes introduced the New Deal for CUNY to expand the number of full-time faculty, academic advisors, and mental health counselors, fix broken campuses, and make CUNY tuition-free. Nearly 80 legislators have signed on. 
  • State Budget Gains for CUNY in FY 2023 – FY 2025
    • Governor Hochul pledged significant new investments in CUNY and delivered two strong executive budgets, including +$53 million to hire more than 500 new full-time faculty. The governor’s budgets added +$122M in FY2023 and +$100M in FY2024. Legislative champions added +40M in additional funds to an essentially flat executive budget for FY2025.
  • Deep College-Level Cuts in FY 2024
    • State investments were undermined by the end of federal stimulus, NYC budget cuts, and lagging tuition revenue. CUNY responded to a system-wide deficit of $128 million by canceling classes, reshuffling students, and eliminating contingent positions. Vacancies left by retiring and departing faculty and staff went largely unfilled. After more than 500 state-funded new faculty hires, CUNY netted an increase of only a few dozen faculty lines.
  • CUNY Enrollment Rebounds in Fall 2023 – Fall 2024
    • Targeted recruitment, waived fees, streamlined application processes and re-enrollment programs such as CUNY Reconnect are working. CUNY enrollment is up for the second straight year, with an increase of 3.1% full-time equivalent undergraduates from 2023-2024.

The Time is Now for a New Deal for CUNY!

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