NY Boricua Resistance stands in solidarity with the Brooklyn College community, and the Greater CUNY community overall, against unnecessary austerity measures being forced on both students and staff. We oppose the consistent cuts to education and services while the funding for terrorist organizations, like the NYPD, continue to remain inflated.
On April 3rd 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the FY 2021 enacted State budget. For the first time in seven years, CUNY, the public university of New York City and the largest urban university in the United States, did not receive an increase in funding. Rather, operating costs for senior and community colleges remain flat. The City already notified CUNY of an estimated $31.6 million in cuts for the upcoming fiscal year. As a result, on April 20th, 2020, the Brooklyn College administration demanded that department chairs and program directors cut their Fall '20 course offerings by 25% by May 15th. The College of Staten Island has requested chairs to cut 35% of its adjunct budget. There is no legitimate budgetary reason for management to insist on these cuts. These are massive, preemptive program cuts, without any concrete data on CUNY’s real budget situation, and would undermine the entire University system.
While these cuts convey the message that huge cuts to CUNY are both inevitable and acceptable, they are neither. Governor Cuomo and his administration point to the pandemic’s impact on state revenue to justify cuts to the university system, endowing Gov. Cuomo with a one-year window to unilaterally cut spending as the state faces a shortfall of at least $13.3 billion in tax revenue. However, the budget does not include a tax for the wealthiest New Yorkers which could offset the budget shortfall.
The lack of increasing CUNY funding signals disinvestment in public colleges, a push to migrate courses and degrees online and rapidly increases the growing gap between the haves and have nots of higher education. An issue that predates the SARS-CoV 2 pandemic. This is not about economic necessity but rather demonstrates a lack of political will.
Cutting courses by 25% in the fall will result in increased class sizes, 10-15 students, due to decreased course offerings. This raises questions regarding student retention, quality of education, and student well-being which combined with a $200 proposed tuition increase, hurts students already struggling through job loss and food insecurity.
CUNY’s student body is over 65 % nonwhite, with about half from low-income families. Over 61% of enrolled undergraduate students receive financial aid. The student body is also made up of first generation college students and immigrants, as well as international students.
The closure of campuses due to COVID-19 and the shift to online learning revealed and worsened inequalities in higher education. Students struggled to access WiFi, technology and in some cases a quiet place to work. The majority of students are employed in industries now considered “essential”, care for younger siblings or sick relatives all while attending Brooklyn College full time. While the demographic data is incomplete, (many states, including New York , have not released demographic data highlighting the virus’ toll on different racial groups), early evidence demonstrates that CUNY students who occupy various intersecting positions – essential workers, people of color, immigrants – are disproportionately vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. CUNY students will need the support of faculty, resources and the enriching social environment offered through in-class learning now more than ever.
This is an attack not only CUNY students but also on adjuncts - considered part-time faculty. Adjuncts make up about 60 percent of CUNY’s instructional staff and are most at-risk of losing their jobs if these cuts are not rescinded. These are long-standing problems, as CUNY tends to rely on adjuncts from their Graduate School. Many are in the process of completing PhD programs with a funding deadline of five-years and a poverty wage of $3,500 per class plus health insurance. As a result of this labor exploitation adjuncts are forced to take on heavy course loads. Without guaranteed employment, adjuncts and their families will be stripped of economic security including the loss of health insurance, food , and housing. In addition, this will delay the completion of their PhD’s , resulting in the loss of late stage tuition remission. This would be especially detrimental to international graduate students. International students enrolled at CUNY’s Graduate Center are not allowed to accept teaching positions outside of the CUNY system. If these students lose their CUNY jobs, they would subsequently lose their primary source of income, which they are required to report on their student visas. This in turn may force students to return to their home countries before completing their PhD program.
We know that this assault on public education is not limited to the CUNY system, as indicated by the most recent announcement of Governor Cuomo to partner with the Gates Foundation to “reimagine” schools and to push further remote learning. These austerity measures and public-private partnerships are part of the classic playbook of neoliberal offensives of the government to further impoverish the working class and line the pockets of the rich.
We only have to look no further than our beloved Puerto Rico, to see what neoliberal measures like these achieve. With the closures of hundreds of public schools and the attacks on the University of Puerto Rico, education becomes less and less accessible to people and enables vultures to gobble up profits in the name of “solutions”.
But just as the Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico has not given up and continues to fight on behalf of their students and communities, we must also stand with the fight of the students and adjuncts of the CUNY system to not allow cuts to public education and to not allow it to fall in the hands of private funds. Public education is the lifeblood of our communities, and we must stand with those who are the foundation.
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