- 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.
