Statement from James Davis, President of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, on Mayor Adams’ Executive Budget
April 27, 2023
“As a double graduate who has marched with students and staff to oppose past budget cuts to our university, Mayor Adams knows the life-changing, economy-boosting power of the City University of New York. CUNY graduates strengthen the City’s workforce and contribute $4.2 billion annually to the state economy, most of it here in our city. No university system lifts more students and families out of poverty and into the middle class than CUNY. Yet the mayor has proposed repeated rounds of unsustainable cuts to CUNY, eliminating hundreds of unfilled–but critically needed–faculty and staff lines, and undermining students’ academic and career success. His Executive Budget does include funding to expand CUNY Reconnect, a program that has helped 16,000 students to re-enroll in CUNY–for that we are grateful. But $5.8 million for CUNY Reconnect does not make up for the tens of millions in dollars in cuts to CUNY community colleges and programs that the Mayor has called for and implemented. The students who do reconnect with CUNY will need academic advisors and faculty! Cutting CUNY undermines New York’s communities, workforce, and economy.
The City Council wants exactly what CUNY needs: restoration of the Mayor’s draconian cuts, funding for desperately needed academic advisors, resources to increase enrollment, and more. We urge the mayor to collaborate with the Council to utilize the expected additional resources from Albany to reverse his cuts to CUNY and the other public services and institutions on which New Yorkers depend.”
The Professional Staff Congress (NYSUT, AFT Local 2334), represents 30,000 faculty and professional staff at the City University of New York.
Published: April 27, 2023
