HIGHER ED TODAY
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20 TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JULY 30–AUGUST 5, 2021 BT
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The COVID-19 pandemic took a great
toll on the New York City communities
that are home to many CUNY students,
many of whom faced the loss of employment
and other economic setbacks while
struggling to pay the rent and feed themselves
and their families. They persevered
and, through it all, did their best
to maintain their academic progress.
One measure of the economic strain
faced by our students can be seen in the
increasing amount of unpaid tuition
and fees, which nearly doubled at CUNY
during the 16 months since the pandemic’s
onset.
In response, CUNY joined Governor
Andrew M. Cuomo this week in announcing
a groundbreaking initiative
to eliminate up to $125 million in unpaid
institutional debt for at least 50,000
CUNY students who experienced pandemic
related economic loss.
The CUNY Comeback Program will
use federal Higher Education Emergency
Relief Funds to clear students’
outstanding tuition and fee balances.
It will provide needed relief to our students,
their families and their communities,
and its impacts will bolster New
York’s overall economic recovery. It will
enable our students and recent graduates
to push forward in pursuit of their
educational and career objectives, and
it is one of the country’s largest student
debt forgiveness programs of its kind.
The program will help students like
Ifeoma Okeke, the daughter of immigrants
and a political science major at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
who recently learned that she would be
unable to begin her senior year because
of an outstanding tuition balance to the
college of just over $2,000.
“We’re all struggling,” said Okeke,
21, whose two siblings also attend CUNY
colleges. Their dad died of prostate cancer
in 2015, and their mom is a nurse.
“I’m financially responsible for myself,”
she added, “so I didn’t have the money to
pay back the expenses.”
During the pandemic last year,
Okeke temporarily lost her job at a grocery
store and that’s when she fell behind.
The CUNY Comeback Program
will eliminate Okeke’s balance to the
University and allow her to continue her
education this fall, staying on track to
fulfill the hopes her parents had for her
to graduate. I’m proud that we can help
them realize their dream.
I view the CUNY Comeback Program
as more than just good policy; it also affirms
the recognition that challenges
still exist for many New Yorkers, and it
helps to fulfill the moral imperative that
is implicit in CUNY’s historic mandate
to provide access to a quality education
for all New Yorkers, regardless of background
or means.
Tens of thousands of students determined
to have hardship and recent
graduates who were enrolled at the
University from Spring 2020 through
Spring 2021 and accrued tuition and fee
balances during that time, will have
those unpaid debts to the University
wiped clean. In most cases, outstanding
student balances will be cleared without
an application process in early August,
allowing students to register for Fall
semester classes, obtain their official
transcripts and continue their educational
and career pursuits.
Thousands of other students who accrued
debt during the same period, but
were not eligible for financial aid, may
have their unpaid debt forgiven by applying
based on financial hardship.
And in order to assist students who
paid tuition and fee charges out of pocket
since the Spring 2020 semester and do
not owe any amount to CUNY for that
period, such students may receive a $200
enhanced emergency grant through the
American Rescue Plan Act, on top of any
other federal Student Emergency Grant
allocation that the student will be entitled
to in Fall 2021.
While the CUNY Comeback Program
is focused on unlocking the future
potential of our University, it’s also an
acknowledgement of the way in which
our community performed during the
pandemic. I remain inspired by the determination
and resilience of our students,
faculty and staff.
CUNY’s program isn’t a panacea for
all the stresses our students continue to
endure, but I’m confident it will provide
them with a needed measure of relief
and another reminder that CUNY will
always have their backs, even in the
toughest of times.
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