‘We need transformative investment’
Hundreds stop traffi c on BK Bridge to demand funding for SUNY, CUNY
BY DEAN MOSES
Students, faculty, and supporters
made an emotional
push for funding March 6 by
stopping traffi c and marching
over the Brooklyn Bridge.
The participants called
upon the Senate and Assembly
to invest in their future.
Hundreds upon hundreds demanded
on March 6 that City
University of New York and
State University of New York
receive critical funding in the
state budget.
With the fi nal budget being
put into place in three weeks,
education advocates are not
leaving the future of students
up to chance or to those with
deep pockets. They are not
only making their voices
heard loud and clear, but they
are also making their numbers
seen as well.
“We don’t need a strong
budget this year, we need a
transformative investment
in public higher education.
When you march across the
Brooklyn Bridge, you march
for a university that is as historic
COURIER L 14 IFE, MARCH 11-17, 2022
as that bridge, and as
iconic as that bridge. The vision
for CUNY was a people’s
university, a university for the
whole people of New York not
just for the elite,” said James
Davis, president of the Professional
Staff Congress, a union
representing 30,000 CUNY faculty
and professional staff.
As FY23 budget negotiations
are underway, a studentlabor
community coalition
gathered on March 6 at Brooklyn
Borough Hall demanding
a new deal, one that includes
an additional $500 million–allotting
$250 million for each
CUNY and SUNY–to be prioritized
to help create more
full-time faculty positions and
mental health counselors, rebuild
the academic department,
and restore funding for
SUNY’s three public teaching
hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony
Brook, and Syracuse.
Attendees shared that this
march underscores educational
equity for all, and for
access to free, quality public
higher education but in order
to do this more money has
to be invested in CUNY and
SUNY schools. It is through
$500 million that advocates believe
will make a signifi cant
change in students’ lives, helping
them fulfi ll their dreams.
“When we say we need a
new deal for CUNY, we are
saying that our students deserve
the best,” Davis said. “
To symbolize the bridge
that CUNY and SUNY are for
the future of thousands of students,
hundreds of supporters
marched across the Brooklyn
Bridge chanting: “Tax the
rich not the poor,” and “We
are CUNY.”
Protesters gathered on the
Brooklyn Bridge roadway,
blocking traffi c to Manhattan
with their fi sts raised high
and waving banners reading,
“CUNY is for the people!”
The march concluded at
Foley Square.
Supporters of SUNY and CUNY called for the state legislature to invest in students. Photo by Dean Moses
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