The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York has approved a budget request for CUNY for fiscal year 2009-10 totaling $2.59 billion, which includes additional funding of $165 million. The University will finance its ongoing obligations and investment program through continuing budget restructuring and efficiencies, philanthropy, and revenues from enrollment growth.
Additionally, the Board of Trustees has authorized the Chancellor, in consultation with the Chairman, to adopt a revised student tuition schedule. The new schedule includes tuition increases of up to $300 per semester for New York residents who are full-time undergraduate students attending CUNY’s senior colleges, and up to $200 per semester for full-time resident undergraduates attending the University’s community colleges, together with comparable increases for graduate and professional programs and nonresident students. The changes, which would be effective for the academic year beginning in September 2009, would set the full-time annual rate for residents at up to $4,600 at CUNY’s four-year institutions, and at up to $3,200 at the two-year institutions.
To help students better prepare for the financial challenges ahead, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein has announced a multifaceted effort combining assistance and information on financial aid, scholarships and career counseling with opportunities for full-time and part-time employment. The University plans to set aside $10 million to establish an Institutional Financial Aid Initiative to assist those students who will be placed at risk of continuing their matriculation due to higher tuition rates, as well as to drive down the cost of textbooks for CUNY students.
This Initiative also includes the implementation of a CUNY Work-Study Program, akin to the Federal Work-Study Program, that will make jobs on CUNY campuses available to students in need of financial assistance. In addition, the University has created a website called Jobs for Students (www.cuny.edu/studentjobs) as part of a new CUNY Jobs Initiative to help students obtain full-time and part-time work and internships and cope with increased expenses. Through special arrangements with the U.S. Census Bureau, the New York State Civil Service Commission, the Unified Court System, New York City’s 311 Customer Service Call Center, and many other organizations and agencies, students can apply for jobs to help them meet the costs of attending college while also gaining invaluable professional experience.
Chancellor Goldstein stated: “This effort is designed to help students defray the proposed tuition increases and underscores our commitment that no student in need of financial assistance will be denied access to the City University. We are making every effort to protect our most vulnerable students at a time of severe fiscal crisis in the city, state and nation. The University will continue to be guided by the principles of its CUNY Compact, a shared model of financing that advocates a focus on public investment, private philanthropy, institutional efficiency, and a rational tuition policy.”
The Board actions come at a time when more high academic achievers with top-tier grades and competitive
SAT scores are choosing the University. In fall 2008, CUNY colleges attracted 166 percent more first-time freshmen with combined math-verbal SAT scores of 1200 or higher — 1,487 such students compared to 559 in 1999. And since 1999, the colleges have more than doubled their enrollment of first-time freshmen with high-school averages of 85 or better, according to University data on the new freshman classes.
The resounding vote of confidence from high academic achievers is even outpacing the University’s record enrollment growth on a percentage basis. CUNY’s fall 2008 enrollment is at 242,898, up 4.3 percent from fall 2007, when 232,960 students matriculated. This is the ninth consecutive year of enrollment gains. More students are seeking degrees and studying at campuses across the five boroughs than at any time since the mid 1970s.
CUNY remains an extraordinary value with tuition that is highly competitive with other public institutions and only a fraction of the cost of attending private colleges and universities. (A complete schedule of tuition changes for comparable public and private colleges and universities is attached.)
The University’s number one priority continues to be the hiring of more full-time faculty and providing support for research, academic enhancements, and student services. The Investment Plan includes the following initiatives:
• Full-time Faculty
The University plans to hire 250 new full-time faculty. These new hires will move the University closer to its goal of having 70 percent of instruction provided by full-time faculty. Implicit in the University’s faculty hiring goal is the continuing commitment to workforce diversity and development.
• The Decade of Science
In addition to hiring full-time faculty, the University will use new funding to provide start-up packages to new faculty in order to ensure that it can attract internationally respected scientists, or senior scientists with the potential to reach national prominence. New funding also will be used to provide fellowships for doctoral students, provide access to electronic scientific journals, and purchase high-end instrumentation and equipment.
• Student Services
CUNY’s goal is to improve student retention and graduation rates. Towards these ends, the University needs additional funding to hire additional counselors and advisers and provide staff training and development. The University will also hire additional financial aid advisers to assist students in identifying all resources available to them to finance the cost of their education. The University also needs additional funding to expand and enhance campus career development centers. This will be accomplished through the hiring of additional staff for the centers and providing staff training and development.
• CUNYFirst
Additional funding is required to support the University’s effort to replace all of its financial, human resources, and student information management legacy systems with PeopleSoft and Oracle software, as well as to invest in smart classrooms and computer labs, including a nursing simulation lab.
• Workforce Development
CUNY has become the preeminent workforce and economic development institution in New York City, serving City workers and employers in traditional degree programs and a wide variety of non-credit offerings. Additional funding would enable the University to expand its worker development and training programs, to support Advanced Technology Centers to serve business and industry across the spectrum, and to continue to contribute seed funding for new, innovative workforce initiatives that create opportunities for workers and employers alike.
• Upgrading CUNY’s Infrastructure
The University has had to defer maintenance for years because of fiscal pressures. The result of the lack of funding to support maintenance programs has led to facility degradation in the near term and significantly increased facility operating and routine maintenance expenses. The University requires additional operating funds to maintain the various infrastructures of the campuses, not only utilities, but information technology networks, roads, walks, landscaping, and instructional and research equipment. The University also plans investments in the area of environmental sustainability and is partnering in New York City’s “30 in 10” Challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent over the next 10 years.
Among the employment opportunities available to students via the new CUNY Jobs Initiative are the following:
• The City University and the New York Regional Office of the U.S. Census Bureau have formed a partnership which includes on-campus recruiting, testing and training of CUNY students for Census job opportunities as well as promoting awareness and participation in the decennial census. CUNY has been the leading City organization in providing testing/training sites and candidates for the region-wide hiring pool. As a microcosm of New York City, CUNY’s diverse student body can play a major role in reaching out to traditionally under-counted communities, thereby helping to secure critical federal funding for the city. Recruitment is ongoing for thousands of clerical, technical and managerial positions with competitive salaries and flexible schedules. While preference is given to U.S. citizens, all students and their family members are strongly encouraged to apply.
• A new Professional Careers Test (PCT) will be offered early in 2009 by the New York State Department of Civil Service geared towards filling 1,500 full-time jobs encompassing 55 different professional positions in government statewide. Applicants are required to have a bachelor’s degree. Among positions for which vacancies exist are Health Program Administrator, Child Support Specialist, Budget Examiner, Management Specialist and Criminal Justice Program Representative. Salaries are approximately $38,000 for a 1st Year Traineeship, $42,000 for a 2nd Year Traineeship and $51,000 for a 3rd Year Journey Level employee. Although Governor David A. Paterson recently announced a statewide hiring freeze, CUNY students should take the new PCT in anticipation of the positions being filled on an emergency basis or the lifting of the freeze. CUNY is exploring partnering arrangements with labor unions in order to offer students and graduates test-preparation opportunities.
• CUNY is collaborating with the New York State Unified Court System to recruit students for positions as court interpreters. Currently, courts throughout the state have a crucial need for part-time, full-time and freelance interpreters in South Asian/Far East languages (including Burmese, Thai and Vietnamese); India-based languages (such as Hindi and Punjabi); African languages (including Somali and Tigrinya); and American Sign Language.
• CUNY has also worked with the New York City Board of Elections on a poll-worker initiative for its students.
The CUNY Jobs Initiative supplements the work of career development centers located on the University’s campuses that provide a host of services including career counseling and planning, vocational testing, job fairs, career days, internship fairs and networking opportunities.
CUNY continues to experience unprecedented student demand, with a record enrollment of 244,000 students. A Nov. 11, 2008 article in The New York Times detailed the surge in applications to CUNY’s six community colleges, which now serve almost 82,000 students. Linking a 15 percent increase in applications in September and October to the current economic crisis, the article describes how the community colleges are truly an engine for workforce development in New York City.
CUNY remains an extraordinary value with tuition that is highly competitive with other public institutions and only a fraction of the costs at private colleges and universities. A complete schedule of tuition changes for comparable public and private colleges and universities is attached.
The Board of Trustees, in fall 2003, set tuition at the current levels of $4,000 per year for full-time New York residents at the senior colleges and $2,800 at the community colleges.
The City University of New York is the nation’s leading urban public university. Founded in New York City in 1847 as the Free Academy, the University’s 23 institutions include 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. The University serves 243,000 degree-credit students and more than 240,000 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program for 32,500 high school students, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and an individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree.
CUNY Undergraduate Tuition (Senior Colleges)
Timeline: 2003-present
Year Tuition
2003 $3,200
2004 $4,000
2005 $4,000
2006 $4,000
2007 $4,000
2008 $4,000
Fall 2008 Tuition Comparisons
NYC Area
Four-Year Institutions Tuition
Columbia $37,470
NYU $37,372
Fordham University $34,200
Pratt Institute $31,700
Pace University $30,632
St. John’s University $28,100
College of New Rochelle $25,342
Marymount Manhattan College $20,748
Metropolitan College $15,060
St. Francis College $15,200
St. Joseph’s College (Brooklyn) $15,400
Monroe College $10,512
Boricua College $9,000
The State University of New York* $4,350
The City University of New York $4,000
*Maritime
Northeast Region
Four-Year Institutions Tuition
Harvard University $43,311
Dartmouth University $36,915
Boston University $36,540
University of Pennsylvania $35,916
Brown University $35,584
Villanova University $34,320
Princeton University $34,290
Northeastern University $31,500
Providence College $28,920
Hofstra University $25,700
Duquesne University $22,054
Pennsylvania State University*$12,284
University of Vermont $10,422
Miami University – Ohio $9,721
Rutgers University $9,268
University of Connecticut $7,200
University of Maryland $6,566
Indiana University of Pennsylvania $5,178
The State University of New York $4,350
The City University of New York $4,000
Central Connecticut State University $3,346
*University Park campus
National
Four Year Institutions Tuition
Oberlin College $36,064
Stanford University $34,800
University of Notre Dame $34,680
Rice University $25,606
Michigan State University $10,264
Seton Hall University $10,264
Ohio State University $8,678
UC Berkeley $7,124
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor $5,424
University of Oregon $4,494
University of Texas $4,045
Colorado State University $4,040
The City University of New York $4,000
University of Alabama at Birmingham $3,384
National
Two Year Institutions Tuition
Sierra College, CA $4,950
Westchester Community College, NY $3,550
Nassau County Community College, N.Y. $3,434
Suffolk County Community College, N.Y. $3,376
Houston Community College System, TX $2,902
CUNY Community Colleges, N.Y. $2,800
North Seattle Community College, WA $2,768
Community College of Philadelphia, PA $2,760
Elgin Community College, IL $2,730
Allegheny Community College, PA $2,678
Broward Community College, FL $2,675
