Hundreds of Millions More in State Funding for CUNY, If We Keep Pushing
One-house budget resolutions released this week by the NYS Senate and the Assembly reject tuition hikes and propose increasing the operating funding for CUNY in the governor’s executive budget by hundreds of millions (Senate: +$148M, Assembly: +264M). The one-house budgets would also significantly increase CUNY Capital funding over the executive budget (Senate: +$425M, Assembly +$650M) . The Legislature would increase funding for CUNY senior and community colleges and provide resources for mental health counseling, the SEEK program, and other critical supports, without raising tuition. (See PSC President James Davis’s statement.)
The one-house budgets identify the Legislature’s priorities and set the table for the final state budget negotiations, but they are non-binding political documents. The governor’s budget increases CUNY funding, but not to the extent it did last year and not nearly enough to overcome years of disinvestment—and it would increase tuition. It’s up to us now to keep the spotlight on CUNY’s needs and the pressure on the governor and our state legislators.
All Out for the March in March for a New Deal for CUNY
CUNY students are organizing with the CUNY Rising Alliance, University Student Senate, NYPIRG, Young Invincibles and YDSA for this Sunday’s March in March across the Brooklyn Bridge for a New Deal for CUNY. PSC members are mobilizing, too! We need a big, joyful display of rising public support for CUNY—and we need it this weekend! Bring your friends, partners, neighbors—everyone—and meet us this Sunday, March 19, at noon at Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon St) to rally and march alongside students and community allies to demand a free and quality CUNY. Click here to let us know you’ll be there. Help spread the word with this flier.
RSVP: March 19 Brooklyn Bridge
Be Part of the Kids Contingent at the March in March
Some PSC members and students who are parents are organizing to meet up and march together this Sunday. If you have a budding activist or two that you were thinking about bringing to the March in March, sign up here and look for follow-up messages about where to meet up. We bet the kids’ contingent has the best signs!
Flood the Legislature with Letters!
The PSC – CUNY Rising Alliance ad campaign on TV and digital outlets is urging community supporters to send this letter calling for a New Deal for CUNY to their state legislators, and every PSC member should send it, too! Make no mistake: letters and calls from constituents are counted, and a rush of letters right after the one-house budgets will make a real difference. Send yours! Ask your colleagues to send theirs. And don’t forget family and friends.
Send Letter!
Push Back Against the Mayor’s NYC Budget Cuts for CUNY
Monday, March 20, NYC College of Technology
At the NYC Council’s Preliminary Budget Hearing on Higher Education held Tuesday, PSC President James Davis testified that “The combined effects of the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds and the cuts in the Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) will be excruciating” for CUNY. CUNY lost $39 million to PEG cuts this year, and additional cuts demanded by the mayor would, if implemented, amount to nearly $50 million in Fiscal Year 2024 and more in the following years. Two hundred eleven more faculty and staff positions would be left unfilled and eliminated! Management’s 5%-7% “savings target” cuts and hiring freeze would only make matters worse. NYC Council members have made restoring and enhancing CUNY funding a priority in their budget negotiations.
The Daily News quoted Davis as he called the cuts “pound foolish” and “an enormous deterrent to supporting those very students who we want to see come back to the classroom.” Read the full testimony.
Urge the City Council to Oppose the Mayor’s Budget Cuts
Send The People’s Plan Letter to Your Council Member
The PSC and CUNY Rising joined The People’s Plan, a coalition of groups defending public services and resources, at a press conference at the Tweed Courthouse last week.
Send this letter to your council member that demands a People’s Budget that has #CareNotCuts. The letter urges them to protect funding for 3k-12 education, CUNY, libraries and adult literacy, and social services. It calls for less spending on policing and incarceration and more funding to support healthy, safe communities.
New Video of the Contract for A People’s CUNY Monday Morning Rally
Get involved in your Campus Action Team.
Sign the Petition to Demand that CUNY Begin bargaining.
With our contract set to expire the next day, almost 500 PSC members and allies rallied outside CUNY’s Midtown headquarters the morning of February 27 to take our demands for a new contract straight to management’s front door. Check out the video if you missed the action or if you want to relive it. And don’t stop with that! Sign up to help build the power of the contract campaign with your Campus Action Team.
Campus Action Team | Petition
Published: March 17, 2023 | Last Modified: March 24, 2023
