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At its November
meeting, the City University Board of Trustees approved a Budget
Request for 2001-2002 that totaled $1.473 billion. This represented
a 7.2% or $99.2 million increase over the previous year. A Capital
Budget Request was approved at the same time. Covering the fourth
year of a five-year, $1 billion Capital Building Program, this request
totaled $322 million for bonded projects (senior colleges, $232
million; community colleges $90 million) and $7 million in minor
rehabilitation projects. Following here, in adapted form, are highlights
from the document, which can be accessed in full at the CUNY Web
Home Page (www.cuny.edu) by going to "About CUNY," then
"CUNY Finances," then "2001-2002 Budget Request."
From the Introduction:
 reshman enrollment
at the senior and community colleges rose in Fall 2000 for the first
time in five years. Preparation of new students improved significantly,
a result of the University's expansion of outreach to the high schools
through "College Now" and record participation in summer
immersion programs. . .The University has opened or is currently
constructing new, technologically sophisticated facilities on nearly
half of its campuses. The University has managed its expenses and
has raised considerable funds for targeted programs. Yet no amount
of fiscal restraint or flow of money to restricted projects will
fully compensate for our budgetary deficiencies as we strive to
raise the visibility of the University. This is CUNY's dilemma.
It is this year, however, when students increasingly clamor for
exposure to our faculty, facilities, and coursework, that the disjunction
is most apparent between success and the underlying need for new
resources to continue that success.
Creating
a Flagship Environment
The University is establishing a "flagship
environment" that will foster national prominence in targeted undergraduate
liberal arts and science programs and professional and graduate programs. Six
fundamental components of the "flagship" initiative have been identified:
significant increases in full-time faculty; concentrated or "cluster"
hiring of faculty in selected disciplines; establishment of an Honors College;
comprehensive academic and student support systems; a digital core and research
library; and state-of-the-art management information systems. Cluster hiring has
already been initiated in four areas: photonics, teacher education, new media
and computer sciences, and Foreign Languages. This year two new areas were added
to the flagship hire initiative: biological sciences and art history/visual arts. Full-time
Faculty
The central component of the flagship initiative, the one that
will allow CUNY to build disciplinary strength, is replenishment of full-time
faculty and the improvement of the ratio of full-time to part-time faculty. The
excessive reliance on adjunct teaching is counter to exemplary academic practice
and was identified by the N.Y. State Board of Regents' Commission on Higher Education
as one of the greatest threats to program quality in higher education. Our goal
is to provide 70% of instruction by full-time faculty. CUNY plans to hire 750
new faculty through fiscal year 2004. In the current year the University is hiring
150 new faculty. Supporting
Student Success
and Academic Achievement
Over the next four years,
the University will focus intellectual and financial resources on a number of
initiatives designed to improve preparation and support of its students as they
move from high school to college and beyond. Among these are the following: expansion
of existing advising and counseling services; improvement of tutoring and supplemental
instruction strategies; strengthening of the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum program
(with a doubling to 200 the number of fellows in the associated Writing Fellows
program); expansion of the Coordinated Freshman Year Program; refinement of articulation
and transfer policies for the 24,000 students who transfer to a CUNY college with
advanced standing every year (notably through the CUNY Transfer Information and
Program Planning System, or CUNY TIPPS); major expansion of the College Now program
in city high schools to reach, by 2002-2003, 45,000 enrollments in the 9th through
12th grades; and improvement and expansion of programs for students with disabilities
and students with child care needs. Centers
and Institutes
The University is planning two major new technology initiatives.
The CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development will help the state's software/internet
industry compete more effectively with other regions in the country. A technology
center focusing on applied research in photonics will expand upon the existing
staff and facilities of the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers at
City College and the CUNY-wide New York State Center for Advanced Technology.
This is an area in which CUNY has a competitive edge and is positioned to make
major advances on behalf of industry in the state. The
Digital Core
and Research Library
The University is requesting an
annual allocation of $5 million to strengthen, expand, and maintain up-to-date
digital library collections, support research-level work in the sciences, and
restore the libraries' ability to collect print materials after years of eroding
library budgets. CUNY lags far behind its peer institutions in acquiring licensed
electronic resources. The University of Texas at El Paso, for example, currently
holds 250 licensed electronic resources, compared to 22 at CUNY. Funds will be
used to expand the CUNY Digital Core, a growing collection of licensed digital
reference works, abstracts, indexes, and electronic journals and monographs. Capital
Projects
The four major senior college construction sites are John Jay
College's Phase II, west of Haaren Hall ($113 million), Brooklyn College's West
Quad Building ($52 million), Academic Building I at Medgar Evers College ($32.5
million), and Lehman College's Consolidated Computer Center ($10 million). The
breakdown of CUNY-wide projects at senior colleges is as follows: health and safety/preservation
($33 million), network infrastructure/telecommunications ($9.5 million), educational
technology ($3 million), energy conservation ($4.8 million), and science and technology
equipment ($3.8 million).
The four largest community college projects are Borough of Manhattan's
Chambers Street renovation ($11 million), LaGuardia's Center 3 design
($11 million), Hostos' Clinical Science Facility ($7.3 million),
and Bronx's North Instructional Building ($6 million). Expenditures
for all CUNY community colleges (funded 50-50 by state and city)
are: health and safety/preservation ($9 million), network infrastructure/telecommunications
($6.5 million), educational technology ($3.3 million), and energy
conservation ($2 million).
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