HIGHER ED TODAY
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The opening of the spring semester
for CUNY comes with great news for students
and faculty on all our campuses,
and for public higher education in New
York State. In January, Governor Kathy
Hochul announced a budget plan that
will allow CUNY to hire more than 500
new full-time faculty members, an investment
that is so pivotal to our longterm
strategies that we made it the top
priority in the University’s proposed
budget request for the next fiscal year.
The funding for new faculty hires
— part of the governor’s proposal to
increase state support for CUNY and
SUNY by more than $1.5 billion over the
next five years — marks a seminal advancement
of our historical mission to
provide high-quality education to New
Yorkers of all backgrounds and means.
Increasing the number and proportion
of full-time faculty has direct bearing on
student success and retention, and the
benefits are also substantial for faculty.
The state’s investment will bring
more stability to many of the courses
we offer, especially introductory classes
that many times prove the hardest to engage
students. Because some of the new
full-time hires will likely come from the
ranks of current CUNY faculty adjuncts,
the new state funding will also create a
critical career pathway for some of our
dedicated and talented part-time faculty.
And it will help us in our ongoing efforts
to increase the diversity of our faculty.
An added benefit of the increase in
full-time faculty is that it will bolster
our academic departments throughout
the University, whose faculty have made
numerous and important contributions
in their respective fields. It will reduce
the amount of time department chairs
need to spend on hiring, evaluations and
related administrative tasks, freeing
them to focus more broadly on creating a
more collegial departmental life, building
curricula and improving courses
and advising to better serve their students’
needs.
An Unprecedented Approach
One of the reasons I am so excited
is that many of the new full-time faculty
will be assigned to entry-level and
gateway courses with high numbers of
students who struggle. These courses
are often taught by part-time faculty
who often don’t get the chance to teach
a particular class over successive semesters.
Full-time faculty have the benefit
of more time to work with students
and to develop advisory and mentoring
relationships that can make the difference
between a student who perseveres
to overcome obstacles and one who gives
up and drops out. Full-time faculty also
have time to revise and improve their
courses, refine their teaching methods
over time and develop new offerings to
serve our students.
We also won’t simply be hiring people
and sending them into classrooms.
Instead, from the moment the first group
of new faculty join us they will be invited
to participate in CUNY’s Innovative
Teaching Academy, which we began
in 2020 to improve teaching and encourage
faculty throughout the University
to adopt proven pedagogy and high-impact
best practices. It’s the kind of professional
development for faculty that I
have long believed is sorely lacking in
higher education. This onboarding of
such a large group of new faculty is unprecedented
at CUNY, and very rare in
general.
Moving forward, continued investments
will further solidify the University’s
research programs, scholarship and
creative work, and targeted hires in the
sciences will grow and support the University’s
research pipeline and support
for STEM students.
Universities across the country, especially
public ones, have been contending
with their over-reliance on parttime
teachers for many years. It’s been
a particularly important issue for us at
CUNY, and for me personally since I assumed
leadership of the University in
2019. Governor Hochul’s budget marks a
turning point in our efforts, a major vote
of confidence for public higher education
in New York and an investment in
the success of our students that will pay
dividends for years to come.
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JAN. 28 - FEB. 3, 2022 25
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