New Yorkers Show United Front for Increased CUNY/SUNY Funding

On Sunday, more than a thousand New Yorkers including City and State University of New York students, faculty, staff and supporters marched from Brooklyn Borough Hall to Foley Square in support of increased funding for the public universities.

The marchers called on the NYS Legislature and Governor to provide an additional $500 million – $250 million each for CUNY and SUNY – in operating funding in the final budget to hire more full-time faculty, advisors and mental health counselors, rebuild academic departments and student services, stabilize community college budgets and restore critical mission funding for the hospitals. Governor Hochul has proposed state aid increases for the university systems. But after decades of state disinvestment in NY’s public universities, SUNY and CUNY need more.

“We’re calling on the Senate and the Assembly to make reinvestment in public higher education their priority in the budget negotiations,” said Professional Staff Congress President James Davis, Ph.D. “This wealthy state can afford to end the shortages of full-time faculty and staff, the dependence on low-paid adjuncts and the degradation of our CUNY buildings and facilities. New York needs a New Deal for CUNY and a budget that goes all in for our public university systems.” Read more here.