FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 13, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 19
Queens advocates and lawmakers push for increased CUNY funding
BY JULIA MORO
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Following Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of
the State address on Wednesday, Jan. 5,
City University of New York (CUNY) students
commended the governor for her
commitment to public higher education.
CUNY leaders and advocates from
Queens have been pushing for the state
Legislature to fully fund its recent budget
request, which asks for an increase of $313
million. Th e budget increase would hire
1,075 additional full-time faculty; add
new mental health counselors and advisers;
and freeze tuition for CUNY students.
According to Professional Staff
Congress (PSC), the labor union representing
CUNY teachers, funding for
CUNY schools has dropped by 38% since
1990 and 18% since 2008. Th e dip in
funding has resulted in tuition hikes,
reduced services and a large reliance on
adjunct professors.
Hochul announced during her State of
the State address that she plans to restore
the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP)
and support internships for SUNY and
CUNY students.
“We applaud Gov. Hochul for championing
public higher education as an
engine of economic mobility, and for
identifying key investments in areas like
child care and TAP reform,” said James
Davis, president of the Professional Staff
Congress/CUNY. “We look forward to
working with the governor to ensure that
the executive budget meets the needs
of CUNY communities by investing in
new full-time faculty, academic advisers,
mental health counselors and infrastructure,
setting the stage for a New Deal for
CUNY.”
Last month, nearly a thousand
advocates marched from LaGuardia
Community College to Court Square
Park. Students and faculty were joined
by Queens lawmakers, as well as New
York State Attorney General Letitia James,
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and other
city offi cials.
“As a proud CUNY graduate, I know
fi rsthand the power of a CUNY education
and the opportunity it provides to
so many New Yorkers who might otherwise
not have access to higher education,”
James said. “But there would be no CUNY
without the dedicated professors and faculty
behind it, and we must give them
and our students the support they need to
keep this system running.”
James said that CUNY’s request should
be met to ensure adequate education for
its students and that these investments are
crucial to the continued success of New
York City and the entire state.
Th e funding request, known as the New
Deal for CUNY, was introduced in the
state Legislature this past spring. Th e bill
would make CUNY free for all students,
eliminating tuition which is $6,930 for instate
students attending a four-year college,
according to the CUNY website.
LaGuardia Community College
President Kenneth Adams said that new
investments would allow them to bring on
more full-time staff , expand mental health
services and freeze tuition costs.
“New investments would allow us to do
an even better job serving Queens residents
— especially those upended by the
COVID-19 pandemic — seeking to earn
a professional certifi cate or college degree
so they may pursue a career with family
sustaining wages,” Adams said. “More
resources will enable us to make better
tomorrows for our students, Queens and
beyond.”
Assembly member Jessica González-
Rojas said that as a former faculty member
at City College, she knows fi rst-hand
how uplift ing CUNY education can be for
students in deep poverty.
“With new leadership in New York, it
is time to end the austerity that has limited
the potential of our great state, to
end the tuition hikes and the disinvestment
and exploitation of faculty and staff ,”
González-Rojas said. “We must pass a
New Deal for CUNY, which prioritizes
our students and their wellbeing and provides
true worker and economic justice.
Let’s make CUNY free again.”
State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, chair of
the Senate Higher Education Committee,
said that CUNY has been a “vital force” in
New York for nearly 175 years and it must
be adequately funded.
“Funding has declined nearly 20% since
the Great Recession, and double that since
the early 1990s,” Stavisky said. “Students
suff er as a result, with less opportunities
to connect with faculty, fewer classes
and longer wait times for counseling and
advisement services. We need a New Deal
for CUNY to remedy this decline in funding,
and make this great institution all that
it can be. We made great strides in this
year’s budget by closing the TAP/GAP. Let
us continue to close the gap.”
Applications for Queens community boards now open
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards is currently accepting online
applications from qualifi ed and civicminded
individuals who are interested in
serving on their local community board.
Th e community board plays an important
advisory role in considering land use
and zoning matters in their respective districts
under the city’s Uniform Land Use
Review Procedure.
Th e 2022 community board application,
like the previous year’s groundbreaking
iteration, can be fi lled out online, ensuring
prospective applicants can complete
the process quickly and easily, and again
allowing for a more diverse applicant pool
and safer application process in light of
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Th is year’s online application again
requires neither notarization nor in-person
delivery to the Queens borough president’s
offi ce.
“Government is more accountable
when it works in close collaboration
with the communities it is sworn to
serve, and it is most eff ective when the
full demographic spectrum of each and
every neighborhood is justly represented,”
Richards said. “I look forward to continuing
the great strides we made last year
in ensuring our 14 Queens community
boards truly look and feel like the neighborhoods
they represent, and I encourage
anyone with an interest in community
service to apply.”
Th e community board application is
available online at queensbp.org/community
boards. Th e deadline to submit the
electronic application is Wednesday, Feb.
16.
Th is deadline applies to both new applicants
and existing community board
members seeking an additional term. For
the upcoming round of appointments,
the two-year term of service will begin on
Friday, April 1, 2022.
Prior to Richards assuming offi ce in
December 2020, signifi cant demographic
inequalities existed within each of the
14 community boards in Queens. Th e
borough president worked to correct that
underrepresentation, beginning with the
2021 application process.
Of his 110 fi rst-time appointees, 62.4%
were women — a 19.1-point increase from
the prior rate of female community board
membership — while 74.3% of fi rst-time
appointees were 45 years old or younger and
43.1% were no older than 35. Compared to
2020 board membership, the 2021 appointee
class also had greater percentages of
those who self-identify as Latinx/Hispanic
(24.8%), African American/Black (24.8%),
immigrant (17.4%), South Asian (14.7%),
East Asian/Pacifi c Islander (11%) and
LGBTQIA+ (8.3%).
In total, the revamped application process
led to a diverse pool of over 900 applicants,
including more than 700 people who
were not existing members of a community
board, a near-threefold increase from 2020.
Th ere are 59 community boards citywide,
including 14 in Queens, and each
hold monthly full membership meetings.
Th e boards also hold hearings and issue
recommendations about the city budget,
municipal service delivery and numerous
other matters that impact their communities.
All Queens community board members
are appointed by the Queens borough president,
pursuant to the City Charter, with
half of the appointments nominated by
the City Council members representing
their respective community districts. Each
board has up to 50 unsalaried members,
with each member serving a two-year term.
All community board members who
wish to continue serving on a board are
required to reapply at the conclusion of
their two-year term and are subject to
review and reconsideration.
Photo provided by the Professional Staff Congress
Advocates marched through Queens, fi ghting
for increased funding for CUNY schools in
December.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
