Fight for Full State Funding of CUNY FY 2024

Enacted NYS Budget

Throughout the state budget effort, PSC members joined forces with students and the CUNY Rising Alliance. We made hundreds of calls and lobby visits to legislators and the Governor, rallied with our SUNY and NYSUT counterparts in the state Capitol, spoke out on our campuses, marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, publicized the New Deal for CUNY, and demonstrated at the Governor’s NYC office as the budget went down to the wire. Building on many years of PSC activism, our members expressed the urgency of this moment, when so much is at stake for our students, our colleagues, and the quality of the education we provide. Together, our efforts helped to make possible:

• More than $100 million in new operating aid to CUNY this year – considerably more than the Governor initially proposed.
• A defeat of the Governor’s proposed tuition hike for NY state residents. 
• A commitment from NY state to increase CUNY operating aid not only this year but also for the next two years, at minimum.
• A capital budget for CUNY of $1.1 billion for the coming year, nearly double what the Governor proposed.
• Restorations and investments in critical areas, including $1 million to expand nursing programs, $0.5 million for the CUNY Black Male Initiative, over $1 million in new funding for SEEK, and $1 million for environmental and energy job training at Medgar Evers College.

While we did not win approval for the New Deal for CUNY in this legislative session, the depth of support for CUNY among legislators and the initiative from NYSUT, our statewide affiliate, for a New Deal for Higher Education demonstrate the positive difference that PSC members and our allies in the CUNY Rising Alliance continue to make. For a university that has withstood racialized disinvestment over decades, it will take more than a couple of sound budget cycles to become the university we want to see. But PSC members should be encouraged by these developments in Albany and the strength of our union. 

Resources

State Budget

• PSC State Budget Testimony, FY 2024
• PSC State Budget Platform, FY 2024
• University Budget Request for FY 2024

New Deal for CUNY:

• NY State Senate Bill S2146
• NY State Assembly Bill A4425
• Summary

Timeline

• 5/9/2023: March and Rally at CSI for a fully funded CUNY
• 5/8/2023: Testimony from Board of Trustees Queens Borough Hearing
• 5/3/2023: PSC Statement on Final Executive Budget
• 4/13/2023: Late Budget Rally outside the Governor’s midtown office
• 3/20/2023: PSC Members Testify at the Board of Trustees Brooklyn Borough Hearing
• 3/9/2023: NYSUT activists rally in Albany for New Deal for Higher Education
• 2/7/2023: NYSUT, Higher Ed advocates call for more funding, stronger support of public higher education
• 2/1/2023: Statement on Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget
• 1/13/2023: Statement on Governor Hochul’s State of the State
• 12/8/22: Union Rallies With Student Leaders to Oppose Mayor’s Budget Cuts and Urge the Governor to Increase State Funding for CUNY
• 12/5/22: PSC Members Testify at CUNY BOT Budget Request Hearing
• NYS Budget Campaign 2022 (FY2023)

Published: October 19, 2021 | Last Modified: April 13, 2022