CUNY Graduate Center (copyright David Shankbone) |
Even before the economy began its downward spiral, students were struggling to come up with tuition. Mike Arena of CUNY’s media relations said, “Right now, tuition for students at the City University of New York is at $4,000 a year for senior colleges and $2,800 at community colleges.” But, he adds, the situation could be worse.
“We’ve had the same tuition level for five to six years. If you look around the country, at public and private institutions, we’re less than SUNY by several hundred dollars, and other publics around the country are higher,” said Arena.
CUNY, he said, has historically been “sensitive to the issue of tuition. The chancellor has argued that we’d do better with annual small increases rather than large increases after a long period of no increase – 2004 was the last year we had an increase.”
The state 2009-10 budget, adopted in early April, includes restoration of lump sum cuts to the senior colleges of $18 million and full restoration of community college aid, and restoration of most of the cuts to TAP, the state’s tuition-assistance program. It also includes approval of government capital recommendations and a resolution regarding the Medgar Evers College, now a full senior college with respect to capital spending, thereby eliminating the required 50 percent match by the city for any action taken by the state. “The adopted budget utilized about $18 million in federal stimulus funds to restore the proposed 10 percent reduction in college-based aid,” said Goldstein at a special board meeting at the end of April.
Goldstein summed up his feelings by saying that “Overall, the adopted budget provides for short-term stability at best. ... We’ll need to be constantly vigilant in the next year to year and a half.”
Recapping, Goldstein said that for the city budget for FY 2010 to 2020, Bloomberg recommended city support for the community colleges in the amount of $212 million. “This represents $30 million less than what was recommended in the 2009 budget.” In addition, the 2010 preliminary budget eliminated funding for several initiatives, including scholarships. On April 8, Goldstein said, Bloomberg announced a new reduction exercise for 2010. Agencies were asked to submit additional reduction proposals totaling 4 percent of their city-supported budget. This 4 percent reduction target for CUNY totaled a little more than $7 million, increasing the year-to-year gap from $30 million to $37.5 million.
The 2010 state-adopted budget agreed to by the governor in New York state legislation calls for an increase of $71 million over the current year for CUNY. State aid is decreased by a little over $44 million, offset by $115 million from additional tuition, based on a rate of 15 percent for resident full-time students. In December 2008, the CUNY Board of Trustees had authorized an increase in tuition of up to $300 a semester for senior college resident students and up to $200 a semester for community college resident students. “We will be implementing a $300/semester increase for senior undergraduate students, but we will come in below this to $175/semester for community colleges,” said Goldstein.
“The move to reduce the burden on community colleges is the right thing to do,” he said, “because these represent the students whose financial profile is the most tenuous.” Upon his recommendation, and “in order to mitigate the efforts of this tuition increase and assist those students who will be at risk of continuing their matriculation due to higher tuition costs,” the board approved funding a $10 million fund to provide students with financial assistance.
The plan “is without precedent,” said Goldstein.
The initiative, he added, is not designed for students receiving full tuition assistance under the financial aid program and Pell awards “since their existing financial aid support will not be jeopardized by the tuition increase.”
Currently, about 90,000 CUNY students receive federal Pell Grants and about 75,000 students are granted TAP awards by New York state. The federal government increased Pell awards in the current year by $421, to $4,731 per year. This amount will rise by $619, to $5,350, for fall 2009 and by $150, to $5,500/year, for fall 2010. Overall, the changes in awards from fall 2007 to fall 2010 are $1,190, for a little more than 27 percent of the base. CUNY’s homegrown financial aid program will encompass several measures aimed at benefiting as many students as possible.
CUNY’s Financial Plan
“We’re allocating $4,750,000 to the colleges so they can provide
assistance to students in meeting increasing tuition rates. Up to 25,000 students
will benefit from these partial tuition waivers,” said Goldstein. He thinks
this will reduce the effective rate of the tuition increase for these students
by about a third.
A tuition payment plan will require about $1 million to finance. The university
currently contracts with Sallie Mae, a financial-services corporation, for a
tuition payment plan that allows students to defer tuition by five payments
over a period of five months. All students are eligible to participate. Approximately
30,000 students are enrolled per semester. Currently, Sallie Mae requires an
$18 fee for each semester to participate in this program.
Under the new financial plan, CUNY will cover the full-year $36 fee, support
participation in the program and “modify the payment plan by a combination
of reducing the percent of payment required in the first month and spreading
payments over other months in order to ease the burden of the tuition increase
for students,” said Goldstein.
As purchasing textbooks is a serious burden and issue for many students, CUNY
plans to “allocate $2 million to this fund” to help students with
the cost of buying books for college. In addition, CUNY will “significantly
promote” the purchasing of textbooks online. Goldstein said the state
comptroller recently issued a report stating that undergraduate students can
be expected to pay up to $800/semester on textbooks. By exploring “other
avenues of textbook purchases, students can save as much as $2,000 over a four-year
period.” The university will encourage colleges to rely on used textbooks
more often.
To further this goal, the CUNY system plans to follow a model developed by other
colleges. “Colleges will be encouraged to develop student co-op programs
to seek or donate used textbooks so that they can be provided to fellow students
at a reduced cost. The university will encourage college bookstore discounts
by supporting the reduction of the college commissions.”
CUNY will fund additional library purchases of electronic books. And allocate
funds to college libraries so that “the very costly textbooks” can
be made available to students via direct loan.
Goldstein also said that CUNY will develop a philanthropic matching program
“so that private donors can help college students cover their textbook
obligations.”
Finally, CUNY will be allocating about $2 million to a student employment program.
“In fiscal 2010, additional student funds are available for this program.
The university will therefore increase its match in order to provide employment
opportunities to students.” Currently, about 7,300 CUNY students participate
in the federal work-study program. The increased match will provide another
700 students with employment “bringing the total participation universitywide
to slightly over 8,000. This will allow more students to participate in the
program and/or increase the hourly rate that students receive.”
CUNY aims to use the federal work-study program as a model to develop its own
student employment program. Students will be hired as student aides to work
as tutors, help on computers, work at help desks, in tech labs, libraries and
for registration offices.
Goldstein noted that at a recent president’s council meeting, “some
presidents indicated to me and other members of the chancellery that they are
having more and more students appear on their campuses hungry.” The realization
that low-income students are being hit hardest and some are attending college
without meals or hungry prompted Goldstein to ask Vice Chancellor Garrie Moore
and the Office of Student Affairs “to develop a program that will focus
on the issues of hunger, nutrition and homelessness, where appropriate.”
He said the initiative would initially be funded by approximately a quarter
of a million dollars.
A coordinating council will be created, co-chaired by Nicholas Freudenberg,
distinguished professor of public health at Hunter College, in the Graduate
School, and Chris Rosa, dean of public affairs. The council will be comprised
of members of student affairs, professionals from campuses and faculty with
expertise in public health, government benefits, nutrition and other areas,
he said.
