'No Time to Cut'
Council Members and PSC Seek More Aid for CUNY

By MICHELLE FRIEDMAN

Fourteen City Council Members joined Professional Staff Congress President Barbara Bowen last week in calling on Mayor Bloomberg and the Council to rescind City University of New York budget cuts proposed in the Mayor's Executive Budget, and instead provide additional funds for CUNY.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang 'A TERRIBLE IDEA TO CUT CUNY': Professional Staff Congress President Barbara Bowen calls on Mayor Bloomberg to reconsider his plan to reduce city funding for the City University of New York.

The proposed cuts total $44 million: $28.3 million in operating funds, and $15.7 million in student support. "Enrollment at CUNY is higher than it has been in 35 years, and students are streaming into the colleges to prepare for difficult economic conditions," Ms. Bowen said. "This is no time to cut the City University."

Call for More Counselors

The PSC is also asking for $7.8 million in additional funding, $2.5 million of which would be directed towards increasing the number of faculty counselors at CUNY schools. "CUNY is five times below the standard amount for faculty counselors," according to Ms. Bowen. "We are asking them to go beyond the endless cycle of cuts and restorations and make a real change by finding additional funds for CUNY."

"Students need services to make it through college successfully and to manage the stresses they face, and at CUNY there are far too few resources for that," said the PSC in a recent statement.

Students, faculty and staff delivered 25,000 postcards to City Hall urging Council Members to restore the funds.

Kathleen Jordan, a student representative from the New York Public Interest Research Group, presented the City Council with a petition against implementing CUNY budget cuts signed by 2,000 students.

"I hope the City Council and the Mayor feel how passionate the people of New York are about CUNY," Ms. Bowen said. "Students and Professors made the trip from Brooklyn and The Bronx to City Hall to make a point. I hope the strong demonstration of support persuades the city that it is a terrible idea to cut CUNY."

"What are we doing by shutting the doors to CUNY?" asked Councilman Miguel Martinez. "We are shutting the path to higher education and employment."

"The members of the PSC have sacrificed their entire careers to be with CUNY, an institution that has made New York what it is, when they could have easily gone to work at private schools," added Councilman John C. Liu. "The city budget should not make them sacrifice even more. We need to [rescind] these ill-advised cuts."

Voicing the support of the 1.3 million-member AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council was its executive director, Ed Ott. "This university is the university of the working class and the working middle class," he said. "We will stand with students to defend the working class of this city." Referring to the others who invest and sacrifice so that students can attend CUNY, he added, "Individuals do not go to college, families go to college."

A Professor's View

Benjamin Shepard, an Assistant Professor of Human Services at New York City College of Technology, brought his students with him to City Hall. "There is a real civic-minded energy among the students," he said. "Talk about people being resourceful and resilient, these students wait in line to use a computer at the computer lab because they don't own a computer to do their work. These students are full-time students, they work full-time, and they are parents. If these students lose their funding aid, they simply can't go to school next semester."

Donna Gill, who has worked in the Financial Aid office at Hunter College for 20 years, testified about the impact of the budget cuts. "I work with students every day, and I work with them in a pretty intimate way - I see their taxes, I see their income, I have a window into their daily struggles to make ends meet," he said. "And here's what I can tell you: Hunter students, CUNY students, are hard-working people of very modest means. Many of them are poor. They are in college to make a better future for themselves and their families. They work incredibly hard to juggle school and work and family obligations. Here's what else I can tell you: The financial aid and scholarships I and my co-workers are able to help them secure are a lifeline. Without them, they could not go to college."

Personal for Councilman

One of the largest CUNY endowments, the Vallone Scholarship - which awards $11 million dollars in aid each year to 40,000studentswithaBaverageorhigher - will be eliminated if the Mayor's new Executive Budget goes through.

Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., whose father while Council Speaker established the scholarship, said that it simply "has got to come back to the budget."

"CUNY has given me a second chance at achieving my goals and living out my dreams" said Mark Bradshaw, a student at Hostos Community College.

The PSC also stressed the millions of dollars in education funding from the state that are not being matched by the city. The PSC has received Federal funding to rebuild Fiterman Hall, part of the Borough of Manhattan Community College destroyed on 9/11, but the city has failed to match that aid. "The city needs to say yes to funding Fiterman Hall and not say no," Ms. Bowen said.

Robert Jackson, the City Council Education Chair, said that he has received a tremendous number of phone calls, letters and e-mails voicing concern over CUNY budget cuts. "We didn't propose the cut, the Mayor did," Mr. Jackson said. "People should be calling him, writing him, e-mailing him and Speaker Quinn. They should also communicate directly with their local Council Member."