CUNY Faculty & Students Call on Chancellor to Use New Federal Stimulus Funds to Keep Classes Open, Demand Moratorium on Bursar’s Holds for Student Debt

More than 550 faculty, staff, students and union leaders were joined on Tuesday by NYC Council Higher Education Chair Inez Barron at an online press conference to demand that CUNY use the $455 million in new federal relief funds allocated to CUNY colleges to keep class sections open and allow students to enroll. CUNY colleges will receive more than $455 million under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA), up to $337 million of which can be spent on institutional needs arising from the pandemic.

PSC-CUNY President Barbara Bowen said that CUNY must provide complete transparency about its spending of federal funds, use federal funds to maintain classes for students, relax course enrollment minimums, and immediately institute a moratorium on Bursar’s holds, temporary holds on re-enrollment caused by debt of as little as $100. Read more here!