More than 450 college students, faculty and staff were in Albany Thurs., Feb. 25 calling on the Legislature to champion investment in public higher education. Together, they urged Albany to increase funding CUNY and SUNY, enact a true Maintenance of Effort, and keep tuition affordable.
Student, Faculty, Staff Platform
With a healthy budget surplus, the groups urged legislators: Now is the time for Albany to invest in futures and start rebuilding New York’s public higher education system. Representatives from student groups (NYPIRG and CUNY USS) and academic unions (NYSUT, PSC/CUNY and UUP) led a rally in the Legislative Office Building before the crowd dispersed for meetings with close to 100 legislators.
Organizing for the action day, NYPIRG and USS collected 28,000 petition signatures from SUNY and CUNY students calling for a tuition freeze. They also mobilized student support for a stronger maintenance of effort provision of the state education law, so tuition dollars won’t have to go to cover basic inflationary costs for energy, rent and collective bargaining that should be funded by the state.
It was all part of a massive Higher Education Action Day calling for investment in New York’s future through its most powerful engines of opportunity and economic development, SUNY and CUNY.
