Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of CUNY staff & student activists joined elected officials outside the BMCC calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs & student services.
Dozens of City of University of New York (CUNY) staff and student activists joined elected officials from across New York City outside the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) calling for increased funding for the university and demanding restoration of cut jobs and student services. The call comes just days after Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul released their budget plans for the university, and as nine CUNY colleges are implementing a new round of disruptive mid-year cuts.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, Senators John Liu and Jessica Ramos, Assembly Members Harvey Epstein and Zohran Mamdani, joined members of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) to stand up for CUNY, along with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Council Members Gale Brewer and Christopher Marte, and a representative of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
“As a City and State we must not accept compromises that jeopardize the quality of public higher education in New York City and the opportunities for upward mobility that CUNY provides to tens of thousands of students. Cutting CUNY professors and classes will not bring students back from pandemic enrollment declines. We must prioritize academic excellence in supportive, robust learning environments for current and future students by continuing to invest in CUNY. Investments in CUNY are an investment in New York’s future,” said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander.
Mayor Adams’s repeated cuts to community colleges ($23 million this fiscal year) and years of underfunding from Albany combined with enrollment declines during COVID and failures of leadership at CUNY Central have left CUNY in a state of crisis. But CUNY wide enrollment is up 1% over last year, applications are up almost 400%, and the University has champions in the city government and the state legislature.
“We are here today to sound the alarm about CUNY’s mismanagement in the face of a real crisis, to call on the Mayor to rescind his cuts to community colleges, as he has for the NYPD, and to join CUNY allies in legislature and the City government in fighting for significant increases in state funding for our public university system,” said James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing 30,000 faculty and staff at CUNY.
Instead of fighting for the city and state funding CUNY needs to end its staffing crisis, retain students and continue its enrollment rebound, the CUNY central administration has ordered colleges to make mid-year cuts at nine colleges: BMCC, Brooklyn College, College of Staten Island, John Jay College, Kingsborough City College, New York City College of Technology, Queens College, School of Professional Studies and York College. Details of the mid-year cuts have been shared with faculty and staff at Brooklyn College ($3.5 million), College of Staten Island ($2.4 million), John Jay College ($4.5 million), Queens College ($4.3 million) and York College ($1.9 million). Leaders of the other “colleges of concern,” as CUNY Central calls them, have not been forthcoming. And the mid-year cuts are on top of $169 million in cuts to all CUNY colleges already demanded by the central administration over the last two years.
The mid-year cuts are resulting in the elimination of courses sections, increasing class sizes, hiring freezes, and layoffs of adjuncts and other contingent workers. York College will cut 150 course sections in the spring semester. John Jay plans to cut an estimated 200 course sections. Canceled course sections mean lost jobs, reduced income and sometimes lost insurance coverage for adjunct faculty. Queens College already terminated 26 full-time faculty in contingent appointments just days before the start of the spring semester, putting the schedules of more than 1600 students at risk.
“This is my third time being fired from a CUNY position in more than a decade working at CUNY. This kind of behavior and complete disregard for our faculty has me deeply concerned about the future of CUNY and its ability to retain the next generation of devoted teachers and leaders within our various departments,” said Malcolm McDougal III, former full-time substitute professor just laid off by Queens College. “The most aggravating thing about this is that glaringly shortsighted decisions are being made that don’t make sense for our students, faculty, institution, and city.”
CUNY has an exploitative labor system, which depends on part-time, adjunct faculty to teach the majority of its classes and other contingent, insecure workers in other areas. It’s an accommodation to years of underfunding from both City Hall and Albany.
Faculty and staff have organized in their union chapters and governance bodies, in academic departments and as department chairs to mitigate the harm caused by CUNY Central’s cuts since the pandemic and in the immediate mid-year crisis. They pushed alongside lawmakers and students to restore the worst of the Mayor’s cuts and increase state funding last spring, and are lobbying for more funding again this year. Even during the winter break, as the mid-year cuts came to light, union activists have talked to the media, met with legislators, organized with department chairs, and signed open letters pressuring college presidents to restore jobs and minimize the cuts. Picket lines are being planned for the first days of the spring semester.
Elected officials, union members and students at the BMCC action spoke up for CUNY workers and demanded big investments in the quality of a CUNY education.
“CUNY is the best place that we can invest and if we can invest billions in a stadium, if we can invest billions in multinational corporations, then we can certainly give a good share, a fair share to CUNY. The state has been disinvesting in CUNY for a couple decades now and more and more of the burden has been placed on our students. That is wrong,” said State Senator John Liu.
“CUNY punches far above its weight when it comes to giving New Yorkers opportunity and lifting them into the middle class, yet year after year, we’re forced to fight against layoffs and cuts,” said State Senator Andrew Gounardes. “An investment in CUNY is an investment in the future of New York. As a proud Hunter College graduate, I know first-hand how important this funding is. That’s why I stand against cuts and why I’m fighting for a New Deal for CUNY, which will ensure these schools have the faculty and staff they need to uplift students for generations to come.”
“It seems to me that there is a big war on children and a big war on education happening at City Hall and it really is to everybody’s detriment because we know that CUNY and union jobs are the best vehicles to bring people into the middle classes, in our state and our country with the biggest income inequality, but because we actually need good jobs,” said State Senator Jessica Ramos.
“Amid a chaotic budget dance, higher education should not be considered for cuts if we want to maintain premier educational opportunities in our city. Cuts continue to jeopardize course options, staffing, and institutional support for students in a university system that aims to uplift communities seeking better opportunities. Undercutting CUNY’s potential to compete within the national higher education system risks long-term damages to a unique and revered institution — we should be holding CUNY high, seeing it as one of our many opportunities to maintain a strong workforce and new generations of diversified academia,” said Council Member Carmen De La Rosa.
“I am gravely concerned about the future of York College and the City University of New York if these cuts go into effect,” said Council Member Nantasha Williams. “CUNY has been a tremendous pipeline into the middle class for this city & state, and we must make sure it receives the needed investments to remain that way.”
“York College is crumbling both physically and fiscally and cannot afford any more budget cuts. Every time it rains, the York College library floods. From time to time rotten tiles fall from the ceiling, which is dangerous for students and staff. We need York College students to be safe on campus. The CUNY administration knows this and yet they keep cutting the budget. It’s mind-boggling,” said York College Mathematics and Computer Science Professor Freya Pritchard.
“Mayor Adams’ indifference to CUNY is unacceptable. His cuts to BMCC and other community colleges and callous management from CUNY Central are making a bad situation much worse. We have shortages of faculty and staff, students having their classes canceled a week before school starts, cuts to departments and critical student services. It’s reckless when our applications are on the rise! We need increased funding from the Governor and the Legislature, and we need the City Council to reverse the Mayor’s cuts. Our students deserve better!” Remysell Salas, Adjunct Professor, Borough Manhattan Community College.
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Published: January 19, 2024
