With the historic enactment of a predictable tuition policy for CUNY and SUNY last year, coupled with a maintenance-of-effort provision and an assurance that tuition revenues will be retained by the universities, the executive budget maintains operating support for both systems at prior-year levels.  This offers the University a critically needed measure of stability.  All of us at CUNY deeply appreciate the support of the governor, the State Senate, and the State Assembly for a tuition policy that enables New York’s families to better plan for the costs of college, encourages students to advance their education, and enhances the University’s ability to plan for the future.  In the last few years, CUNY has helped to organize two national summits on public higher education, working closely with the leaders of large public university systems, and I can tell you that this forward-thinking policy has made New York State the envy of the other systems.  We look forward to building on our work to prepare New York’s students for the very competitive global marketplace they will enter.

At CUNY, record numbers of students are seeking that preparation.  As of fall 2011 we are serving more than 270,000 degree-seeking students and 223,000 adult and continuing education students.  We are also delighted to be the point of connection for the 1 million CUNY graduates currently living and working and paying taxes in New York State.  Our efforts to meet growing student demand continue to be very well received.  For example, enrollment in our winter session—the short period between the fall and spring semesters—set another record this year, with nearly 15,000 students, an 8.5 percent increase over last year’s enrollment.  Winter session enrollments have more than quadrupled since the initial session in 2006.

Just as student demand has increased, so has student achievement.  In fall 2011, the University accepted more than 20,000 applicants with a high school average of 85 or above.  This is a 7.8 percent increase in top applicants from fall 2010.  In 2011, we were also pleased to see CUNY students distinguish themselves nationally, with two winning Truman scholarships, four garnering Goldwater scholarships, three receiving National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships, and two winning $100,000 Math for America fellowships.  They are only the latest in a succession of CUNY award winners, joining several previous CUNY Truman, Goldwater, and NSF recipients over the last decade.  Our students are also fulfilling their promise when they graduate.  We were pleased to learn just last week that nearly every December graduate of Baruch’s financial engineering master’s program has already received an offer of employment.

However, this is only part of the story of CUNY’s growing enrollment.  The story is one I have called “The Tale of Two Tails.”  We are enrolling more high-achieving students—a tail at one end of the preparedness spectrum—as well as a growing number of underprepared students, a tail at the other end.  Today, nearly eight out of 10 students who come to our community colleges from the New York City public schools need some remediation.  CUNY, working with the New York City Department of Education, addresses their wide range of needs through a number of carefully developed academic programs, including College Now courses, pre-session skills initiatives, and intensive language immersion programs.  But meeting the needs of students who are at very different levels of readiness is a challenge, both academically and financially.  While some students may be seeking advanced research opportunities, for example, others may need learning communities and intensive advisement.

I’d also like to note, with great pride, that CUNY has seen a 55 percent increase in its enrollment of veterans since 2009.  The University has always had a strong commitment to ensuring that its student veterans receive the services they need to succeed in transitioning to college and completing their degree—including financial advisement, counseling, and disability services.  Late last year I announced the creation of a University-wide committee to review policies and programs that affect our student veterans and make recommendations to enhance our services.  It is our view that those who have given much to their country should be given every opportunity to succeed as students and civilians.

I am also proud to note that CUNY’s faculty continue to be recognized for their innovative research efforts.  This year grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Institutes of Health are advancing the work of CUNY researchers across our senior and community colleges.  In addition, funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Department of Homeland Security is helping faculty members improve all of our lives through health and crime-prevention initiatives.  And a $20 million federal grant—the only one received in New York State—will enable CUNY to assist out-of-work adult New Yorkers who are changing careers. 

The outstanding work of our faculty highlights the need to increase their numbers in order to keep pace with our record enrollment.  This is a priority of the University’s 2012-13 Budget Request, which emphasizes investment in our academic core: full-time faculty, academic programs, research opportunities, academic support services, and information management and technology capacity.

For our operating budget, the State Executive Budget proposal recommends an increase of $70 million for our senior colleges, mainly to meet mandatory needs—including health insurance for some adjunct instructors, which our board unanimously recommended last year—and to restore some funds that were reduced last year.  Consistent with the state’s new tuition policy, the budget also recognizes revenue from CUNY’s 2011 and 2012 tuition increases.

As I mentioned, for the University a key provision of the tuition policy is the maintenance-of-effort agreement that ensures that funding cannot drop below the prior-year level.  Stable funding not only allows University planning but also sends a strong signal to donors that an investment in public higher education is a statewide priority.  It assures philanthropists that their gifts are not a substitute for public support but an enhancement in key areas that can make a transformative difference to the University.  Our $3 billion “Invest in CUNY” campaign remains a top priority.  Just last week, we brought together our many philanthropic partners to thank them for their tremendous support of CUNY and to identify opportunities to leverage state funds to maximize their impact on students and faculty.

On the community college side, the executive budget recommends a $7 million increase in operating funds, resulting mainly from our increased enrollment, and keeps base aid at $2,122 per student.  As you know, over the last four fiscal years, base-aid funding has been reduced by $553 per FTE, for a total reduction of over 20 percent.  Given the key role that community colleges play in our city and state, and given CUNY’s national leadership in creating innovative and effective models of learning at our community colleges—including the New Community College set to open this year—we are concerned about the flat funding proposed for these colleges.

Our community colleges are the locus of nationally recognized workforce development efforts, as well as the most promising work to advance student success.  The University has several initiatives to address the range of student needs I alluded to earlier.  For students with minimal remedial needs, we are expanding the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, or ASAP initiative; for students with some or no remedial needs, we emphasize learning communities and cohort education; and for students with needs in reading, writing, and mathematics, we encourage deferred admission and enrollment in CUNY Start, an immersion program that preserves their financial aid and accelerates preparedness for college-level courses.

We are proud of the progress of these programs.  For example, ASAP students have experienced a graduation rate that is double that of a comparison group.  Participants in learning communities have shown higher course pass rates and have earned more credits than non-participating students.  And the majority of CUNY Start students test out of at least one area of remediation, and all make significant progress in meeting remedial needs.  In order to continue this progress and our essential work at the community colleges, we ask for your support for at least a $100-per-FTE increase.

We also request your support to expand the successful ASAP initiative across our community colleges and, going forward, to all of our associate degree programs, including those at the College of Staten Island, New York City College of Technology, and Medgar Evers College.  ASAP is designed to create clear pathways to degree completion, through financial support, full-time study, small cohorts, and comprehensive academic, advisement, and career development services.  The results speak for themselves.  After three years, 55 percent of the 2007 ASAP cohort had graduated, compared to 24.7 percent of a similar, non-ASAP group.  Our 2009 cohort, which comprises students who require some remediation, has seen 27.5 percent of its students graduate in just two years; a comparison group had a two-year graduation rate of 7.2 percent. Given these results, we simply must find ways to expand this important program.  We are asking the state for $5 million to support our expansion plans.

I’d also like to draw your attention to two items of particular concern to CUNY.  The first is the CUNY LEADS program (Linking Employment, Academics, and Disability Services).  The program was not funded last year, and CUNY absorbed the cost in order to maintain the important services it provides.  LEADS is a partnership between CUNY and the State Education Department’s Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) that focuses on improving academic success and employment opportunities for students with disabilities.  To date, 2,121 students with disabilities have been referred to VESID and have been retained at an exceptional 86 percent rate.  Those students who are job-ready have a 72 percent employment rate, compared to the 56 percent national employment rate for people with disabilities.

The program is not only effective but also quite efficient.  An investment of just over $10,000 to develop and place a CUNY LEADS student in competitive employment saves New York State more than $14,000 per year in disability benefits.  Much of this is in the form of Medicaid savings.   Clearly, an investment by the state in this model program will yield a tremendous return, and I ask that you consider funding of $2 million.

The second item is funding for CUNY’s child-care centers.  CUNY has 19 campus-based child-care centers enrolling approximately 1,350 children of CUNY student parents.  All of the programs offer quality early care and education programs.  The availability of high-quality child care is critical to enabling student parents to access a college education as they balance the demands of family, work, and school.  Over the past two years, our child-care funding has been drastically reduced, which is why we were very grateful for the legislature’s addition of $544,000 for child care at the community colleges last year.  However, that amount was not included in the executive budget.  Once again, we ask for your help in funding this central component of our student services.

An additional concern going forward is the availability of financial aid.  More than 38 percent of CUNY undergraduates report household incomes of less than $20,000.  It is often financial aid that determines their ability to seek and complete a degree.

Under the state’s tuition policy, universities are responsible for covering tuition costs above the level of the current maximum Tuition Assistance Program award of $5,000.  With the University’s recent tuition increase, tuition at CUNY’s senior colleges, now $5,130, pierces that ceiling.  That increase created a $4.3 million financial aid obligation for CUNY.  To ensure that no student is put in harm’s way because of the TAP limitation, the University has established a $5 million financial assistance program to provide tuition waivers for students at risk of continuing their matriculation. 

As tuition continues to be raised by $300 annually for the next four years—from fall 2012 through fall 2015—the tuition waiver obligation will also continue to grow.  We anticipate a total obligation of more than $44 million by fiscal year 2016.  Pursuant to the state statute, we are working with SUNY on an analysis of the Tuition Assistance Program, which is due in 2013, and we look forward to working with the executive office and the Finance and Ways and Means committees, as well as the entire legislature, to review this critically needed financial assistance program.

Turning to our capital program, the executive budget recommends another $284 million allocation to our senior colleges for critical maintenance projects and almost $27 million to our community colleges for projects that have received funding from the City of New York.  We are particularly grateful for this attention to our maintenance needs, which have become more urgent as enrollment grows.  In just the last decade, our enrollment has increased by nearly 30 percent—an additional 62,000 students.  Our campuses are open seven days a week and classes are scheduled throughout the day, increasing the wear and tear on classrooms and common areas.

As you know, CUNY does not have land to build additional facilities; we must maintain and upgrade our existing buildings.  The majority of our 27 million square feet of campus space is more than 30 years old, and the average building is more than 50 years old.  In fact, some of the University’s buildings are more than 100 years old.  Our aging building stock and the history of deferred maintenance are the most significant issues impacting our capital program.

We are grateful for the appropriations allocated in previous budgets, starting with the first year of the current five-year plan.  I’d like to mention just a few of the things that have been accomplished with that support.   Thanks to your help, last year we opened a new, 600,000-square-foot facility at John Jay College, and we took ownership of a new location for the CUNY School of Law in Long Island City.  In addition, by maximizing state funds through public-private partnerships, last fall we opened the Lois V. and Samuel J. Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, as well as student-faculty housing for the Graduate Center.  And in late 2010, Medgar Evers College opened the five-story building that houses its School of Science, Health and Technology.

Thanks to you, we will continue making progress at CUNY.  For example:

• At BMCC, the new Fiterman Hall, which replaces the building destroyed on 9/11, will be open for the fall term.
• At Bronx Community College, the North Instructional Building will also open for the fall term, the first major building constructed on the campus since it was acquired from NYU in the early 1970s.
• At Lehman College, a new science facility with laboratories for teaching and research will be completed by the end of this year.
• At City College, both the Marshak building façade replacement and the Shepard Hall exterior rehabilitation will be completed in late spring.
• The CUNY School of Law’s new facility in Long Island City will be open for the fall term.
• And at Queens College, we anticipate completing the Kupferberg Center Arts Complex renovation in the spring.

We deeply appreciate your support of these important efforts, all of which are alleviating space pressures and a backlog of deferred maintenance caused by increasing student demand.

All of these projects were years, even decades, in the making, and we are completing them at a critical time: when New York City needs jobs.  Today, 20 percent of all the construction projects in the city are CUNY projects.  We estimate that CUNY is generating thousands of jobs from its construction program.  For every $10 million spent in construction, it is estimated that 60 jobs are created at the job site and 30 jobs are created offsite in materials fabrication on an annual basis.  We also can’t forget our important partnership with the successful New York State Small Business Development Centers at six CUNY colleges to spur job creation and economic development.  The centers have together created or saved more than 21,000 jobs in key industries, including construction, with an economic impact of well over $500 million.  We are eager to work with the executive office and the legislature to expand the work of the centers.

However, after this year, CUNY’s construction program will slow down.  After that it will be several years before our next significant project completion.  In fact, if we do not start more projects soon, it could be five to 10 years before another large project is completed.  This is not for lack of projects; CUNY has several that are shovel ready and will alleviate serious space deficits at our colleges.  We would like to see the executive budget provide additional funding for programmatic projects.

This includes two key projects at our senior colleges.  One is the new academic building proposed for New York City College of Technology.  You might remember that last year the governor, with the support of many state legislators, announced the launch of his innovative statewide economic development initiative at this campus—and fittingly so, as there is no better illustration of the need for economic development than City Tech’s antiquated building in downtown Brooklyn, a community desperate for job creation and economic growth.  Our building project would provide that; it is designed and ready for construction.  The new facility will not only address serious overcrowding at the campus but will also modernize a college that, as its name implies, focuses on the latest occupational technologies.  The facility will provide essential instructional, computer, and laboratory space, upgraded classrooms, and an emphasis on health sciences technology, including a nursing simulation center.

I should note that the City Tech project already has $252 million appropriated to it.  Our cash-flow plan includes spending those appropriations over the next three years, so we do not need an increase to our spending cap in the next three years.  However, we do not have approval to move this project forward.  We have been advised that we need to have full construction appropriations in place in order to start.  As a result, we still need an additional $128 million in appropriations, despite the fact that we will not need to spend the funds for another three to four years.

The other project is the renovation of the Field Building, Baruch College’s facility at 17 Lexington Avenue.  This is a facility that sits on the site of City College’s original home, the Free Academy, dating it to the very origin of CUNY and public higher education in New York City.  As the birthplace of the University, this site has very special meaning for CUNY and for the city.  The current building has been in use almost continuously since 1928, with minimal upgrades.  It is in dire need of a complete infrastructure upgrade and renovation, including new science labs, classrooms, and enhanced ADA accessibility.  

These projects demonstrate why CUNY’s capital program remains such a high priority for the University.  It has been critical to our academic growth, helping to improve classroom instruction, research capacity, and laboratory and library work.  It has been equally critical to New York City, creating much-needed jobs in a struggling economy.  With your support, we hope to continue this important work.

Chairperson DeFrancisco, Chairman Farrell, and members of the committees, let me thank you again for your continued efforts to strengthen public higher education in New York.  A highly skilled workforce is the foundation of the state’s future, and we look forward to working with you to help ensure the state’s vitality in the coming years.

I want to begin that process with a challenge to each one of you: to join me in raising your voices in a clarion call on behalf of this underappreciated and essential asset class in higher education.  If we don’t reimagine community college education, and convince the marketplace of its tremendous value to our future, our country’s entrepreneurial capacity and its educated workforce—that is, our social and economic front line—will be seriously compromised.

Community colleges comprise the largest and fastest-growing sector of higher education.  They are the focal point of national and state economic recovery efforts.  And they are a truly American form of higher education, welcoming all and serving a student body that, perhaps more than that of any other higher education sector, reflects our country’s changing demographics.

That’s certainly the case at the six—soon to be seven—community colleges that are part of the CUNY system.  Three out of five of our community-college students are women.  About two-thirds are black or Hispanic.  Almost half say that their native language is not English.  And three-quarters come from families earning $40,000 or less.

Our community colleges serve more than 91,000 degree-seeking students.  Over the last decade, we have seen their enrollment increase by 30 percent. 

CUNY is not alone.  More and more students, especially in this economy, understand the need to advance their education and the incredible value that a community-college education offers.  These students have a range of aspirations and deserve the best education we can offer. 

And that’s why we’ve come together today.  To paraphrase poet William Carlos Williams’s wonderful little poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow,” so much depends on community colleges.  There is much work to be done in order to fully tap their potential—and that of their students. 

Today, the national three-year graduation rate for two-year institutions is about 22 percent.  For large urban community colleges, it’s closer to 16 percent.  And poorer students and students of color are even less likely to graduate with a degree. 

Let’s make no mistake: a degree matters.  Degree recipients earn more, have better food and housing security, are healthier, and participate more in their communities. 

So why don’t more students graduate?  We all know that financial pressures, family obligations, work schedules, and even a lack of information are factors for many students.  But as remediation rates point out, a significant reason is the disconnect between students’ skill levels and what is expected of them in college.  As we well know, success in college doesn’t start the first day of your freshman year.  It starts long before that. 

Today is all about harnessing the creativity and the will needed to address these issues and to bring together the best practices and new ideas from across the country.  It has been gratifying to see some national attention paid to our community college students.  The American Jobs Act proposed by the president a couple of weeks ago includes assistance for modernizing facilities at community colleges.  And the federal American Graduation Initiative announced a couple of years ago acknowledges the essential role of community colleges to the country’s future, and sets a goal of graduating an additional five million Americans from two-year colleges by 2020. 

But how will we get there?  I am speaking to the group that I believe holds the answers to that question.  Your expertise and creativity will help us reimagine community-college education. 

More than anything, we must act boldly.  We must be willing to question established practices and experiment with new ones.  At CUNY, we’re doing just that.  And it’s producing some astonishing results.

In 2007, we began a new program designed to help community-college students graduate in a timely way and gain employment.  The ASAP initiative—which stands for the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs—was created in partnership with the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity.  It began with just over 1,000 students and is now under way at our six community colleges.

The program is motivated by a guiding principle: minimizing students’ uncertainty as they enter the new world of a community college.  That includes everything from uncertainty about the registration process to uncertainty about how to balance school with work. 

As a result, ASAP students receive financial incentives, such as tuition waivers for eligible students and free monthly transit cards and use of textbooks.  They attend full-time, and they are grouped together in cohorts.  They take small classes in convenient scheduling blocks, and they receive intensive academic, advisement, and career development services.  I should note that many of the ideas developed for ASAP came from research you are all familiar with and, in some cases, have even conducted.

So you might be saying: great program, but isn’t it much more expensive?  The answer is yes. 

The answer is that success merits investment.  Budgets are about making choices.  The countries that will lead in the future are the ones that invest in innovation.  If we are going to maintain our presence as a country of leaders, we must educate our students in the best ways possible.  If we can collectively demonstrate that we can raise graduation rates while maintaining quality, then it’s time to consider some very real policy changes.  Are we willing to make investments in new, effective models?  Or will we maintain the status quo, and compromise our ability to compete in global markets?

I believe that if we don’t alter our methods of funding—if we don’t make investments that have been shown to offer strong returns—then we will continue to have what I refer to as a national security issue.  It is not our borders that will be threatened but our economic security.  In the end, our economic well-being depends on a well-educated citizenry, one that can compete in an unforgiving marketplace.  There is no better investment in our collective future than an investment in education.

As we found out with the ASAP initiative, investing in innovation pays off.  Our goal for ASAP was ambitious: a three-year graduation rate of 50 percent, substantially beyond the national average.  I’m delighted to tell you that we ended up with a 55 percent graduation rate.  This was cause for real celebration—especially because the results have been subjected to rigorous evaluation.  Today, we are tracking the progress of a new cohort, one that has some remedial needs.  Preliminary results show that it, too, is already outperforming a comparison group.  And we are teasing out the effects of the different ASAP elements as we figure out how to scale up the program—and what that will cost.  What we do know is that while the cost per student may be more than the traditional model, the cost per graduate is not.  And what we need are more graduates.

But to really understand the impact of a reimagined approach like ASAP, you need to see it.  That’s why I’ve invited six of our ASAP graduates to join us as honored guests this morning.  What better way to begin our conversation about community colleges than meeting their graduates?

I’ll ask each student to stand as I introduce him or her, and then we can acknowledge all six together.

Loukman Lamany

Bronx Community College Class of 2011

Loukman is originally from West Africa and came to the United States after more than four years away from school.  With perseverance, and daily meetings with an ASAP advisor, he learned to study in English and manage a full course load, and found, in his words, “a motivating environment for success.”  He earned his associate degree in business administration and is now studying accounting and political science at CUNY’s Baruch College.

Geizel Amadour

LaGuardia Community College Class of 2009

Geizel graduated in business administration at LaGuardia in two years, then transferred to CUNY’s Queens College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree just two years later.  She calls the ASAP staff her “second family” and says that getting both financial assistance and individualized guidance was “too good to be true.”  She now plans to become a physician assistant.

Sinai Cuahutenco

Hostos Community College Class of 2011

As an 18-year-old who had spent four years in Mexico following the death of her mother, Sinai enrolled in a CUNY program that enables out-of-school youth to earn their GEDs and go on to college.  She earned her high school diploma, then graduated from the ASAP program at Hostos with a GPA of 3.98.  She is now at CUNY’s Hunter College studying biochemistry and plans to attend medical school.

Fatima Ali

Queensborough Community College Class of 2009

Fatima earned an associate degree in liberal arts after being on the dean’s list each semester and earning an award for excellence in literature and writing.  She just earned her bachelor’s degree in English this spring with a GPA of 3.97.  You’ll be glad to hear that Fatima is now considering graduate school options and is interested in pursuing higher education administration.

Linda Berkeley

Borough of Manhattan Community College Class of 2011

Linda began ASAP determined to earn a degree—and with academic and financial support, she did, graduating in two years with a degree with honors.  She also became a star on the big screen, having been featured in the ASAP Leadership Program recruitment video.  Linda is a public health major at CUNY’s Hunter College and hopes to work in health care administration.

Jamel James

Kingsborough Community College Class of 2011

Jamel earned his degree in liberal arts in two years.  Raised by a single mother, he mentored high school students through his involvement in Project Reach Youth and won a highly selective New York Needs You fellowship in 2010.  He is currently studying public affairs at CUNY’s Baruch College and plans to go to law school after graduation.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you share my pride in these community-college graduates.  Please join me in acknowledging their outstanding achievements.  I also want to recognize the remarkable director of the ASAP initiative, Donna Linderman, who has been a force of nature in creating a results-oriented program.

As these students’ stories demonstrate, we have many lessons to learn about shaping a community-college education that acknowledges the complex nature of two-year education.  What we’re learning through the ASAP initiative is also informing our development of CUNY’s new community college, set to open in 2012.  It is being created with the very idea we are addressing today: reimagining community college education.  Our goal is to improve students’ graduation rates and their career prospects.  We’re including elements like required full-time enrollment in the first year, a common first-year curriculum, college-wide learning communities, an Office of Partnerships to establish employer relationships, and a college-wide theme centered around sustaining a thriving New York City. 

The creation of a new community college model exemplifies why we are gathered today: to find ways to engage students and help them achieve real proficiency.  This is no small task.  It requires, among other things, real collaboration with city, state, and federal partners.  Here in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has been a true advocate of quality public higher education across the state.  In fact, I am delighted to announce that the governor just this week approved CUNY’s new community college, officially establishing it as part of the CUNY system.  And I am also very pleased to acknowledge, with admiration, the governor’s latest appointment, David Wakelyn, the state’s new deputy secretary of education for New York State.  David has extensive experience in leading national projects to improve educational performance, through both the National Governors Association and America’s Choice School Design.  And I have to add that he also taught math to 7^th and 8^th graders through the Teach for America program.  David, on behalf of CUNY and all of us here, I welcome you. 

As I leave all of you to your work today, let me again challenge you.  Community colleges are the true testing ground for the public higher education mission of access and excellence.  This is where the ideal becomes reality: for the students who had less-than-inspiring experiences in their K-12 education, or whose aspirations have been pushed aside by real-world needs, or who may be the first in their families to go to college, or whose potential is yet to be tapped.

How do we engage them, challenge them, retain them?  As our ASAP student Sinai said, ASAP was the force that helped her crack the shell in which she was enclosed.  How do we give every student that opportunity?

I hope that today we find answers to these questions.  I am delighted that all of you have joined us, and I wish you a day of stimulating conversation and bold ideas.

I am joined at the table by Senior Vice Chancellor for Budget, Finance and Fiscal Policy Marc Shaw, Associate Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance Matthew Sapienza, Director of Capital Budget Gwen Perlman, and Director of the CUNY Black Male Initiative Elliott Dawes.

I am also pleased to introduce Frank Sanchez, CUNY’s new vice chancellor for student affairs, who was previously associate vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Colorado Denver and is completing his second semester with us.

Let me begin by thanking all of you for your support of CUNY’s operating and capital budget needs.  Over the years, your partnership has helped our students immeasurably.

I come to you at what I know is a difficult time for the city, as New Yorkers, and the city itself, are still suffering from the effects of our national recession.  CUNY is proud to play a key role in the city’s recovery and revitalization.  Two-thirds of the associate degrees conferred by two-year colleges in New York City were awarded by CUNY.  Within six months of receiving their degrees, 94 percent of CUNY’s associate graduates are employed or continuing their education.  What’s more, 85 percent of our community college graduates stay in the state, contributing to its workforce and tax base.  Clearly, a CUNY education is an investment that pays significant dividends to both graduates and to the city they serve.

As you know, demand for the University continues to grow.  Our enrollments are at record levels: 91,000 at our community colleges.  In the last five years alone, enrollment at our six community colleges has increased by more than 23 percent—the equivalent of adding another LaGuardia Community College to our system. 

We are gratified that more and more New Yorkers are seeking a CUNY education; these increases are a clear indication of the quality and value that CUNY offers.  Our community colleges are helping New Yorkers through job-training programs in growth areas like health care; through transitional programs for employees who have lost their jobs; and through programs to help workers in fields such as hospitality and real estate gain new credentials in order to stay competitive.

We also continue to focus on enhancing CUNY’s historic role of serving immigrants.  We are pleased to partner with many councilmembers to help members of their district with citizenship issues.  Last month we also held the ninth annual CUNY/Daily News Citizenship Now! call-in, which makes available trained counselors to answer immigration questions for free.  To date, the call-in has helped nearly 100,000 people navigate the complex path to achieving citizenship.

Because CUNY is serving so many New Yorkers in key areas, cuts to its community colleges have a significant impact on students, community members, and the city.  We are particularly grateful to the council for the $4 million current-year restoration to the preliminary budget.  However, the 2012 Executive Budget recommends support for the community colleges of $236.4 million, which is $20.2 million less than the current FY2011 budget.  The reductions include $21.4 million in operating support from prior years, as well as new PEG initiatives of $23.8 million, for a total of $45.2 million.  These operating-budget reductions are partially offset by mandatory cost increases for expenses such as energy, fringe benefits, pensions, and building rentals.  As you know, the maintenance of effort provision requires the city to provide at least the same level of support to community colleges as the previous year. 

Let there be no question about the harmful effects of the continued decline of city funding for the University and the importance of restoring the $45.2 million in operating support.  Over the last three years, from FY2009 to FY2012, city funding per FTE student has decreased by 15 percent.  That is, at a time when CUNY must expand programs and services to meet the needs of more students, we are faced with a significant loss in per-student funding.  This is not a formula for success.

This decline is bound to have long-term consequences in our ability to maintain full-time faculty and make available the necessary course sections and academic services.  I’m sure you agree that we cannot ask our students to shoulder the brunt of these funding decreases in the form of large tuition increases.  This is why we continue to advocate for a rational tuition policy and the full maintenance of financial aid through the CUNY Compact model.  We must be able to sustain access to high-quality educational opportunities for our students regardless of the vagaries of the economy.

I am very proud of the diligent work by our presidents and faculty to maintain high academic standards in order to ensure the value of a CUNY degree.  Because the benefits of earning a degree are so clear—both to the student and to the city—we continue to focus on increasing graduation rates at our community colleges. 

Notable among our efforts is the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs initiative, or ASAP.  Thanks to the mayor and the City Council, this innovative program is achieving great success.  As you know, ASAP offers financial and academic support to improve graduation rates and job prospects for community-college students.  CUNY set an ambitious target of 50 percent of ASAP students graduating within three years.  ASAP not only met but surpassed this original target, with 55 percent of the fall 2007 cohort earning an associate degree within three years in 2010.  This is more than three times the national three-year graduation rate of 16 percent for urban community colleges.

The ASAP model—with its limited number of majors, structured advising, and clear pathways to degrees—is informing the development of our New Community College in Manhattan, set to open in summer 2012.  In February, the CUNY Board of Trustees approved resolutions to establish the college and its programs of study.  The State Education Department intends to ask the Board of Regents to take up approval of the NCC at its June meeting.  This is a rare opportunity to build an entirely new college, the first at CUNY in more than four decades.  There is no more urgent task in higher education than to find ways to help more community college students succeed in earning their degrees and transitioning into the labor market.

That’s also the reason we continue to prioritize our extensive collaborations with the New York City Department of Education.  Early preparation is a crucial factor for college success, and our partnership with the DOE is focused on preparing more students to attend and graduate from college.  This includes our College Now program, the largest urban dual enrollment program in the country, as well as our Graduate NYC! initiative, which aims to increase the number of DOE graduates prepared for college, thereby increasing retention and graduation rates at CUNY.  We are very pleased to work closely with Chancellor Walcott, who shares our sense of urgency about improving student success.

Our enrollment increases have also had a significant impact on our capital program, as demand for space grows and the wear and tear on our buildings accelerates.  The council has been an invaluable partner to our community colleges, providing important support to our health and safety projects, and to major projects such as Fiterman Hall and the new North Instructional Building at Bronx Community College.  Your partnership has also helped CUNY support the city’s economic recovery by creating construction jobs when they are most needed.  We estimate that for every $10 million spent in construction, approximately 60 jobs are created at the job site, and 30 additional jobs are created off-site in materials fabrication, on an annual basis.  With your support, CUNY’s capital program has already created thousands of good jobs across the city.

However, nearly 75 percent of our community college facilities are at least 40 years old.  In 2007, a comprehensive analysis of the critical maintenance needs at all of our colleges revealed that funding in the hundreds of millions would be required to bring our community colleges into a state of good repair.

In response, three years ago the state allocated critical maintenance funds to the community colleges.  As you know, funds provided by the state to our community colleges cannot be used unless they are matched 50/50 by the city.  The state made it clear that its allocation had been limited because it expected the allocation again to go unmatched by the city. 

Last year, the city agreed to allocate funds.  I thank the council for its generous allocation of $29 million to all CUNY colleges for FY 2011, which provides $20 million in funding for critical maintenance projects at the community colleges.

This year, we are requesting $50 million in lump sum funding for critical maintenance projects at the community colleges.  This funding, when matched with state funds, will allow us to continue our crucial work across the campuses to ensure the health and safety of all those who use our facilities.

Each of our colleges must also address urgent needs specific to their campus facilities.  Let me offer some examples:

At LaGuardia Community College, the Center 3 building’s terra-cotta façade is nearly 100 years old and in poor condition.  It needs to be replaced if the building is to be preserved.  Replacement is estimated to cost $118 million, to be implemented over three phases of work.  We have secured funding for the project design and Phase I construction, and must secure the additional $41 million in city funding alone that is needed to complete the project.

At Hostos Community College, a complete renovation of the five-story Grand Concourse facility is under way.  The first floor is completed, the fifth floor is currently in construction, and the remaining floors will be upgraded as funding allows.

At Bronx Community College, we have begun a critical project to upgrade the campus central plant and its heating, cooling, and electrical distribution infrastructure.  The design and initial phase of construction, costing $50 million, are funded, thanks in part to your help.  Completing this essential project will require an additional $45 million in city funding alone.

Most of the buildings at Kingsborough Community College are about 40 years old, and the campus faces a number of significant infrastructure issues, including upgrades to the fire alarm system, roof replacements, and upgrades to several electrical and heating/cooling systems.

At Borough of Manhattan Community College, we must address several projects at the 199 Chambers Street building, including upgrades to approximately 60 restrooms to ensure ADA compliance, upgrades to the gymnasium air conditioning system, and replacement of deteriorated windows with new energy-efficient ones.

Finally, at Queensborough Community College, the critical electrical system upgrades have been funded in part with your help, and Phase I of the project is ready to begin design.  Other infrastructure needs include roof replacements, ADA-accessibility upgrades to the campus theater, and creation of a new dining room and kitchen facility.

Members of the committees, the funding you have provided is a start toward achieving a state of good repair on our community college campuses, and we are grateful for your support.  We hope that the future will bring a five-year capital plan for CUNY that will provide a mechanism for addressing the funding of ongoing maintenance projects.

The executive budget also eliminates funding for Vallone Scholarships ($6.0 million), the Black Male Initiative ($2.3 million), various centers and institutes ($500,000), and the Creative Arts Team ($400,000).  I ask for the council’s assistance in restoring funding for these essential academic support programs.  In particular, the Vallone scholarships offer important support to high-achieving city students, encouraging them to remain in the city for their college education. 

In addition, the University’s Black Male Initiative (BMI) has taken a leading role in encouraging the retention of under-represented groups in higher education, with 29 student development projects across our campuses, including counseling programs, speakers and mentors, and workshops, open to all students at CUNY.  Initiatives have ranged from free SAT summer classes to re-entry programs for those formerly incarcerated to a Teachers as Leaders initiative to encourage students from under-represented populations to consider careers as New York City public school teachers.  We are deeply committed to the Black Male Initiative as a means of addressing the urgent need to foster greater participation and success in higher education.  As we begin to develop the CUNY Master Plan for 2012-16, I have asked Frank Sanchez, vice chancellor for student affairs, Elliott Dawes, director of the Black Male Initiative, and others to collaborate on the next phase of the BMI: the development of a proposal for a BMI institute focused on advanced research that would elevate this effort to a national level.  With that in mind, it is especially important that funding for the current BMI be restored.  It is central not only to CUNY’s mission but to the mission of public higher education: to ensure that academic opportunities are accessible to all.

Chairperson Recchia, Chairperson Rodriguez, and members of the committees, I know you share our commitment to helping New Yorkers through difficult economic times.  We deeply appreciate your continued support and look forward to working with you to meet the needs of our students and our city.

I can’t think of three leaders more deserving of our recognition.  Each has taken bold steps to transform our educational enterprise, to encourage innovation and accountability, and, perhaps most important, to put students at the forefront of every decision and every change.  They teach us that whether we’re talking about first graders or professional students, college freshmen or junior high schoolers, our students’ educational experience is the most important step in developing creative, responsible, thoughtful citizens.  It’s abundantly clear that our students’ future, and the future of this country, depends on making education—transformational, revolutionary education—our highest priority.

For years we’ve been focused on that same goal at CUNY.  And today we’re celebrating some of the strides we’ve made, including our record-high enrollment (262,000 degree-seeking students) and our successful students.  They have demonstrated their talent again this year by garnering a Rhodes Scholarship (CUNY’s seventh), two Truman Scholarships (the seventh in seven years), four Goldwater Scholarships, and four National Science Foundation grants.  We’re also celebrating our tremendous faculty, the recipients of almost every honor possible—Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships, Pulitzer Prizes, and Oscars—as well as our colleges—six, soon to be seven community colleges, 11 baccalaureate colleges, and our graduate and professional schools.

We have made these strides because we’ve done what all of us recognize as the fundamental task of educators: to prioritize academic quality and to take bold steps to initiate transformational change. 

This has been our focus since I became chancellor in 1999, when we initiated a series of changes to reinvigorate the University.  We raised academic standards, removed remediation from our senior colleges, and tiered the system to give students clear expectations about their college experience and their academic progress.  We developed a Performance Management Process to hold our colleges accountable for reaching annual goals, including the improvement of graduation rates.  We created new schools and hired strong leadership (exhibit A is here today: Michelle Anderson), and we built cutting-edge facilities, from science buildings to libraries to residence halls.  We’re still doing these things, because we are deeply committed to creating an environment in which students understand that hard work and academic quality are valued and expected.

But there are still challenges we have yet to meet.  In a system of CUNY’s size and diversity, our students are still not able to move nimbly from one campus to another—or even, at times, within a single campus.  They are often stymied in their academic progress because of the complexity and inconsistency among the general education and transfer policies at the many colleges in our integrated system.  The result is confusion and frustration, the accumulation of excess credits with no gain in academic engagement. 

If we want to take the next step in advancing the University’s academic transformation—if we want to continue to put students first and create a college experience that is the rigorous intellectual exploration it should be—then we must address a reformation of our general education framework.  And so we have begun the next phase of CUNY’s transformation.

This will be a familiar journey to many of you.  It’s certainly not new ground at CUNY.  Let me quote from a Middle States report on the University: “Articulation between the two-year and four-year colleges is a pressing problem….The goal should be acceptance by the four-year colleges of the entire block of transfer work taken in a university two-year college….”  Pretty straightforward, right?  Except for the fact that this Middle States report was written in 1967.  It gives new measure to what we mean when we talk about the glacial pace of higher education. 

In the meantime, students’ progress continues to suffer.  As the nation’s largest urban public system, CUNY must function as an integrated system.  We owe nothing less to the students we serve. 

So we’ve embarked on an initiative we’re calling “Pathways to Degree Completion.”  Let me share the rationale behind this initiative, because I think our purposes speak directly to the student-centered leadership we’re celebrating today:

1. To raise the quality of content in general education courses across the University, at both the community and senior colleges, by aligning curricula to rigorous, agreed-upon learning objectives.  A precondition of student success is to define competencies and expectations, to make clear the outcomes that the University as a whole values.  Such a review enables courses to be refined, refreshed, and updated, which is essential to ensuring the value of a CUNY degree.
2. To give students more opportunities to explore and take chances, and to study in more upper-division classes than they can now access due to the highly prescriptive nature of current general education requirements.  College is meant to be a time of exploration, of intellectual curiosity and inquiry among different disciplines, a time of defining your own questions and seeking ways to answer them.  Ensuring a well-rounded experience is essential, but too many boundaries leaves little room to make original choices and discoveries.
3. To put CUNY more in line with the number of credits now required by most U.S. universities in their general education framework.  College curricula requirements at most universities are roughly divided among one-third general education courses, one-third courses in the major, and one-third elective courses.  CUNY’s average number of general education credits is well above the norm, leaving students with little flexibility and a good deal of confusion.  We want to develop graduates who have spent more time deeply engaged in scholarly pursuits rather than in deciphering complex curricular requirements.
4. To remove uncertainty from the process of transferring among CUNY colleges by establishing a University-wide standard: a 30-credit common core of general education courses for all undergraduate colleges, plus an additional 12 credits of general education for use by baccalaureate colleges.

Reforming general education is a complex process that will take time—because our goal is to be guided not by numbers but by learning outcomes.  Ensuring that our students have a rigorous, comprehensive, and cutting-edge college education is our priority, just as it has been since 1999.  That’s why the really difficult work ahead—defining competencies and reviewing courses—must be faculty driven.  I love to brag about the world-class faculty we have at CUNY, and for good reason: they are scholar-teachers who care deeply about their disciplines, their students, and their responsibilities as educators.  It is their expertise we depend on, and it is their collaboration that will make this next step in CUNY’s transformation a success.  For the first time in CUNY’s history, faculty from both senior and community colleges will engage in system-wide conversations about the content and standards of general education.  And it’s no accident that I have asked Michelle Anderson, along with the president of our Graduate Center, Bill Kelly, to guide the next phase of our general education work: transformations require strong leaders, and, as today’s award demonstrates, Michelle is one of the best.

Forgive my enthusiasm for this subject, but I am inspired by the bold work of today’s honorees.  Your efforts are a reminder that we cannot become mired in complacency.  We serve our students best when we think big and act courageously, as Michelle Anderson, Geoffrey Canada, and Harold McGraw have done.  Small ideas generally yield small results.  It’s a focus on the big picture—an unrelenting fixation on student success and academic quality—that has the potential for the greatest gains.  Thank you all for your outstanding contributions to that goal.

We come to you today at what we all know is a difficult time for the State of New York—and, I would submit, a time when the presence of CUNY and SUNY, two of the three largest public university systems in the nation, has never been more important.

As Assemblymember Deborah Glick, chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, wrote recently in an opinion piece in the Albany Times-Union, “…SUNY and CUNY for decades have been the most effective economic development investments the state and city have made.”  Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee and chairman of the Senate Majority Conference, has also spoken of the importance of our public universities to the future of the state.  One of the senator’s New Year’s resolutions, posted to his Senate site, pointedly resolves to “expand our economy through our higher education and health care institutions.”

CUNY continues to advance its critical mission on behalf of the state.  Our enrollment is at record levels: as of fall 2010 we are serving more than 262,000 degree-seeking students and an additional 257,000 adult and continuing education registrations.  In fact, our surging enrollment prompted us to implement our first-ever wait list for applicants who filed late.  Most recently, enrollment in our winter session—the short period in between the fall and spring semesters—set another record, with almost 14,000 students, an 11 percent increase over last year’s enrollment.

At the same time, more and more high-achieving students continue to seek out CUNY.  SAT scores for 2010 CUNY first-time freshmen have increased by 33 points on average at our top-tier senior colleges.  We were also delighted with the recent news that CUNY student Zujaja Tauqeer, who is enrolled in the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, was selected as one of only 32 Americans to be a 2011 Rhodes Scholar.  CUNY students continue to win nationally competitive awards such as Truman, Goldwater, Marshall, Fulbright, National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Health fellowships and scholarships.

CUNY faculty continue to garner prestigious recognition, as well.  For example, three CUNY professors were awarded 2010 Guggenheim Fellowships: Kimiko Hahn, distinguished professor of English at Queens College; Colum McCann, distinguished lecturer in the Hunter College MFA program; and Joshua Brown, executive director of the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the Graduate Center.  In addition, Anthony Carpi, professor of environmental toxicology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, was at the White House last month to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

Enabling our faculty to provide a world-class education for all of our students, one that truly prepares them to compete in a global marketplace, is the University’s highest priority.  We are committed to furthering the academic progress we have made over the last several years.

The University’s 2011-12 Budget Request reflects this priority.  It emphasizes investment in our academic core: full-time faculty, academic programs, research opportunities, academic support services, and information management and technology capacity.

This year’s request represents the sixth year of the University’s financing approach, the CUNY Compact, which has made possible so much of CUNY’s academic renewal.  The compact calls for shared partnership between government and the University—with government covering mandatory costs and the University addressing investment initiatives through philanthropy, efficiencies, and partnerships.  In these lean times, the University has aggressively pursued initiatives to gain internal savings, increase fundraising, build public-private partnerships to develop facilities, and collaborate with business and industry to create new revenue opportunities.  As I have said before, our public universities must now be entrepreneurial universities.

The compact model also emphasizes a rational tuition policy, one that calls for modest, predictable increases and that protects our neediest students.  CUNY has led the way in voicing the importance of a rational tuition policy.  Going forward, the question is how such structural reform can be implemented in public higher education.  One consideration may be a policy that positions tuition as part of the investment vehicle for the four-year Master Plans prepared by the University and approved by the state.  Such a policy would recognize tuition as one of the revenue streams used to meet the approved plan’s financial obligations.  Tuition is then predictable and rationally tied to an institution’s academic objectives—objectives developed specifically to benefit students.

All of us at CUNY appreciate that the State Executive Budget calls for full funding of the University’s mandatory costs, consistent with the CUNY Compact, and also recognizes the five percent tuition increase for spring 2011 approved by our Board of Trustees.  I thank the governor for his sensitivity in maintaining mandatory costs during a very difficult time and for his understanding of the need for a more rational way to deal with tuition.  The executive budget also leaves whole the Tuition Assistance Program, which is an increasingly critical resource for struggling families.

For CUNY’s senior colleges, the budget proposes a reduction in state aid of more than $83 million.  It also further reduces state aid by almost $12 million to help cover a shortfall of $300 million from last year.  For our community colleges, the executive budget recommends a 10 percent base-aid reduction per FTE.  After accounting for a small increase from enrollment growth, the resulting decrease to the community colleges is more than $15 million.

With the proposals in this year’s executive budget, reductions at our senior colleges since FY2009 now total $300 million.  At the community colleges, cuts total almost $55 million.  All told, CUNY’s reductions since FY2009 total $355 million—or almost 14 percent of our proposed FY2012 funding level of $2.6 billion.

We clearly understand the state’s difficult fiscal situation.  At the same time, there is no question that cumulative cuts of this magnitude affect our operations.  Hiring full-time faculty has been one of our highest priorities; they are the backbone of the University.  We have worked diligently over the last several years to build back a severely depleted faculty corps, adding more than 1,200 full-time faculty over the last decade.  But in the last year or two, those numbers have flattened as resources shrink and retirements grow.  Enrollment, however, remains at record levels.  The result is fewer full-time faculty for more students—a trend no university can sustain.  We must prevent any loss of the gains we have worked so hard to achieve.

For our capital program, the executive budget recommends another $284 million allocation to our senior colleges and almost $32 million to our community colleges for critical maintenance projects.  We are grateful for this attention to our urgent maintenance needs.  Upkeep and upgrades are essential, especially now, when more students means more wear and tear.

We are also grateful for the appropriations allocated in previous budgets for major construction projects under way across the University, including the Lois V. and Samuel J. Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in East Harlem, the new Fiterman Hall at Borough of Manhattan Community College, the building expansion at John Jay College, and the North Instructional Building at Bronx Community College.  We also recently purchased a new site for the CUNY School of Law in Long Island City, Queens, and are moving forward with construction for a 2012 opening.

I am proud that we are maximizing these state funds through public-private partnerships.  Several facilities—whether the School of Social Work, the law school, or our residential halls at CCNY and Queens College—were made possible through innovative collaborations with private developers and other entities.

I do want to note a potential impediment to CUNY’s future building program.  The University agreed with the Division of Budget on a completion plan for many important projects at CUNY that were actively in construction in 2007—many of which were decades in the making—to be completed.  We need the support of the executive and legislature to green-light these capital projects, which address vital campus needs.  A long lull in capital work at a time when our campuses are at capacity would affect academic operations well into the future, from the number of sections offered to the availability of courses.

What’s more, construction projects mean jobs in New York City.  For every $10 million spent in construction, it is estimated that 60 jobs are created at the job site and 30 additional jobs offsite in materials fabrication, on an annual basis.  With your support, CUNY has created thousands of good jobs across the city through its capital program.

I should also note that one major project not funded in the executive budget is the new academic building at New York City College of Technology.  This important shovel-ready project will add 350,000 square feet of essential instructional and lab space to the campus, and funding would enable construction to start this year.

All of us at the University are acutely aware of the challenges faced by New York State and, indeed, by states across the country.  We also know that these challenges can only be met by an educated, innovative workforce and by the public universities that create the state’s skilled professionals and entrepreneurs.

Better-educated people live longer, are healthier, earn more, have better job security, and are more civically engaged.  Where but our universities can we develop a creative, inquisitive, enterprising citizenry?  Let’s not forget the fundamental purposes of our higher education institutions.  Immersing ourselves in deep and sustained study enables us to better understand our world and our responsibilities as citizens.  Advanced education builds greater perspective and empathy, broadens our notions of what’s possible, teaches us to ask questions and formulate answers, and heightens our forms of expression.  It builds the whole person—it fires our imaginations, fuels our humanity, and instills a lifelong curiosity.  Today, as our state and our country face unprecedented local and global challenges, we must protect the one institution created to serve the public good and improve our collective future: the university.

As President Obama emphasized in his State of the Union address last month, “We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”  This is particularly true today, when, as the president said, “[o]ver the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school education.”  In New York, Governor Cuomo made clear in his presentation of the State Executive Budget the three things the state needs to grow out of its economic difficulties: “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

The City University of New York is preparing New Yorkers for those jobs.  What’s more, we’re helping to create those jobs.  In fact, CUNY is one of the single most important engines moving our city and state forward.

Every university will talk about its role in economic development.  But at CUNY, “workforce development” and “job creation” are not platitudes.  At the University, we recognized long ago that we needed to be active participants in shaping the labor market and preparing and credentialing New Yorkers—not only to improve the lives of our students, who are the current and future workers, but also to improve the quality of jobs and services provided to and by New Yorkers, whether high tech or entry level.

For example, over the last decade alone, research funding at the University has tripled.  We are home to world-class researchers and to new entities like the CUNY Energy Institute at City College, created in 2008.  The institute is developing advanced technologies to reduce oil imports and increase the efficiency and use of domestic energy resources.  Over the last two years alone, the institute has raised nearly $20 million in funding, supported 30 doctoral students, and created 20 knowledge-based jobs in New York.  Technology developed by the institute will lead to several commercial enterprises that will result in many more jobs.  Two enterprises are already in the planning stages.

At the same time, the University has implemented a “green buildings” initiative to train workers for entry-level jobs and career advancement opportunities.  For example, a “Green Maintenance for Buildings” program, with funding from the Robin Hood Foundation, provides training for positions in building operations with an emphasis on energy efficiency.   Every one of the program’s first 39 graduates has received at least one job interview.

The University has taken this kind of comprehensive approach in other fields.  In the health care sector, for example, which represents about 11 percent of all jobs in New York City, CUNY’s responsibility is to prepare a sufficient number of qualified personnel to meet the health-care needs of the city’s residents.

• To that end, the University has created a new School of Public Health to train practitioners and researchers in urban health issues like asthma and diabetes.

• We have developed a longstanding collaboration with the largest health care union in New York City, enabling more than 6,000 union members to enroll in CUNY programs every year.
• And we have graduated nearly 12,000 associate- and baccalaureate-level nurses over the last 12 years.

In other areas, such as small business development, the University is helping to create future jobs.  We have awarded more than 73,000 business degrees over the last decade alone.

• At CUNY’s Baruch College, the Field Center for Entrepreneurship, which began as a lab to help city residents start businesses, has served 10,000 clients, secured more than $83 million in debt and equity financing, saved more than 1,700 jobs, and created another 2,200 jobs.
• Small business entrepreneurs are also getting a boost from CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College, which was the first education partner selected for Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative.  LaGuardia’s program helps small business owners develop growth plans.  Participating businesses in the first cohort have already hired an additional 63 people and garnered more than $2 million in contracts.
• And CUNY’s New York City College of Technology is part of a consortium that Verizon approached to develop talent for the technology jobs of the future.  Working with the communication workers union, City Tech developed a cutting-edge program that positions participants for career advancement opportunities.  Their gain is also Verizon’s gain; the company stays competitive with skilled workers who grow as the industry grows.  The program has already served about 550 participants.

Name any other sector important to New York, and CUNY is creating the jobs, workers, and innovative practices that sustain it: hospitality, the arts, media, finance, information technology, and many more.  A three-decade sampling of CUNY baccalaureate recipients found 85 percent of them still living in New York State, repaying the investment in their higher education many times over.

CUNY is an unparalleled force in New York’s labor market.  But going forward, that essential role will surely be compromised by the continued decline of public support for the University.

New York’s best economic policy is to have an educated citizenry: the entrepreneurs and change agents, the talented and innovative workforce, the public servants.  States across the country are looking for an answer—some catalytic event, a game changer—in order to spark economic growth.  But New York’s economic stimulus is already here: it’s our public universities.  Supporting their work is the best investment in the future that New York can make.

Chairperson DeFrancisco, Chairman Farrell, and members of the committees, all of us at CUNY are grateful for your longtime support of CUNY and public higher education in New York.  These are undoubtedly challenging times, but we are confident that by working in partnership with you, CUNY can continue to be a powerful vehicle for New York’s economic and social revitalization.  Thank you.

The jump in the state’s income tax rate—from 3 percent to 5 percent (and 4.8 to 7 percent for corporate taxes)—reflects Illinois’s profound financial crisis: a budget deficit of $15 billion, and $8 billion in unpaid bills.

And Illinois is not alone.  Nationwide, our states are in serious financial trouble. 

And that means, among other things, that our country’s public higher education system is facing its own crisis. 

Across the country and here in New York, state support for public universities has been declining for the last two decades, as other interests demand more state dollars.  A recent study indicates that since 2008, at least 43 states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities and/or made large increases in tuition.  Just last week, Governor Cuomo proposed a 10 percent cut to CUNY, bringing the total reductions to the University’s operating budget since 2009 to more than $350 million—almost 14 percent of our proposed funding level for the coming year.

I have spoken before about the importance of addressing these challenges through the CUNY Compact model.  The compact emphasizes a rational tuition policy, one that calls for modest, predictable increases, and a shared partnership between government and the university—with government covering mandatory costs and the university becoming more entrepreneurial in generating revenue streams, through philanthropy, efficiencies, and public-private partnerships.

But looking ahead, the outlook for state governments remains grim.  A December Times article pointed out that “[m]any state and local governments have so much debt—several trillion dollars’ worth, with much of it off the books and hidden from view—that it could overwhelm them in the next few years.”   Financial analysts worry most about the long-term problems of a handful of states, including California, New Jersey—and New York.  As the Times article said, “New York balanced its budget this year by shortchanging its pension fund” and “delayed payments to vendors and local governments.”  In California and New Jersey, not even an Illinois-sized jump in income tax would cover the budget deficits.  There has even been talk about state bankruptcy as a solution, made possible through changes in federal or state laws.  But when I think of the large debt burdens that many states are facing, I am reminded that in New York, bonds are issued through thousands of entities.  Bankruptcy, whether or not a viable option, would pose many legal and financial challenges.

The result is that across the country, as funding decreases and tuition rises, public higher education is in crisis mode.  And let’s not forget that the vast majority of college students—nearly 80 percent—attend public institutions. 

I would suggest that we are at a national turning point, one that prompts serious questions about the future competitiveness of our country.  As states cut support for public higher education, they effectively consume their seed corn—their surest investment in the future.  Economics journalist David Leonhardt has been unequivocal about the role of education in our country, which he calls “the lifeblood of economic growth.”  As he says, “[Education] helps a society leverage every other investment it makes, be it in medicine, transportation, or alternative energy.  Education—educating more people and educating them better—appears to be the best single bet that a society can make.”

Budgets are about setting priorities.  Every budgetary shift away from higher education is a statement about the value we place on our future.  That’s never been more true than today, a time when we need more college graduates, educated to higher levels. As Harvard researchers Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz have pointed out, “Workers now have to read complicated documents, master blueprints, work computers, solve formulas, and use the Internet, among other tasks….To be a full-fledged member of the global economy requires higher levels of education for most workers.”

The United States, unfortunately, is losing ground. 

Goldin and Katz have shown that in the first three quarters of the 20^th century, educational attainment in this country increased nonstop.  This was also, not surprisingly, a time of great economic growth.  But in the last quarter century, educational attainment has slowed considerably.

In fact, over the last three decades, the eight-year completion rate among college goers has fallen from 51 percent to 45 percent.  Among those who do receive degrees, the percent earning them within four years has also dropped, from 57 percent to 44 percent.

At the same time, other countries have made considerable educational gains.  According to the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], in 1995, the United States’ four-year college graduation rate was about 33 percent—well above the OECD average of 20 percent and the European Union (EU) average of about 18 percent.  But even though the U.S. graduation rate increased between 1995 and 2008, it did so at a much slower rate than those of the OECD and EU nations.  By 2008, the United States’ four-year college graduation rate of about 37 percent was slightly below the OECD and EU averages, which were about 38 percent.  In other words, in less than 15 years, we have already lost ground compared to other nations.

This is nothing less a national security issue. The United States is losing its competitive edge.  It is simply not educating enough of its citizens to the levels needed in a knowledge economy. 

There is no question that educating our citizenry is fundamental to advancing our personal and professional goals and keeping our country vibrant.  Better-educated people live longer, are healthier, earn more, have better job security, and are more civically engaged.  And our society is likewise enriched by the millions of engineers, nurses, teachers, entrepreneurs, and so many others who discover the brilliant ideas, solve the difficult problems, invent the new devices, and conceive of the new industries.

This isn’t just talk.  This isn’t just a hope.  This is what we do at CUNY every day, and why we are one of the single most important engines moving our city and state forward.

Every university will talk about its role in economic development.  But at CUNY, “workforce development” and “job creation” are not platitudes.  At the University, we recognized long ago that we needed to be active participants in shaping the labor market and preparing and credentialing New Yorkers—not only to improve the lives of our students, who are the current and future workers, but also to improve the quality of jobs and services provided to and by New Yorkers.  We’re not just building the workforce; we’re building a better workforce.  And we’re not just creating new jobs; we’re creating quality jobs.

That means working in a dynamic way with business, industry, and government.  We have built a nimble, entrepreneurial mechanism that is a true force in the New York labor market—generating everything from highly specialized research careers to entry-level jobs. 

For example, over the last decade alone, research funding at the University has tripled.  We are home to world-class researchers and to new entities like the CUNY Energy Institute at City College.  The institute was created in 2008 is developing advanced technologies to reduce oil imports and increase the efficiency and use of domestic energy resources.  Over the last two years alone, the institute has raised nearly $20 million in funding, supported 30 doctoral students, and created 20 knowledge-based jobs in New York.  Technology developed by the institute will lead to several commercial enterprises that will result in many more jobs.  Two enterprises are already in the planning stages.

At the same time, we have also implemented a “green buildings” initiative to train workers for entry-level jobs and career advancement opportunities.  For example, a “Green Maintenance for Buildings” program, with funding from the Robin Hood Foundation, provides training for entry-level positions in building operations with an emphasis on energy efficiency.   Every one of the program’s first 39 graduates has received at least one job interview.  In addition, Local 32BJ asked CUNY to help with its “1,000 Green Supers Program” by training union members to make buildings more energy efficient. 

The University has taken this kind of comprehensive approach in other fields.  Take, for example, the health care sector, which represents about 11 percent of all jobs in New York City.  CUNY’s responsibility is to prepare a sufficient number of qualified personnel to meet the health-care needs of the city’s residents.  That means approaching health care from every angle.

• For example, the University has created a new School of Public Health to train highly skilled practitioners and researchers in urban health issues like asthma and diabetes.
• We have developed a longstanding collaboration with the largest health care union in New York City, enabling more than 6,000 union members to enroll in CUNY programs every year.
• And CUNY has graduated nearly 12,000 associate- and baccalaureate-level nurses over the last 12 years.

In other areas, such as small business development, the University is helping to create future jobs.  At CUNY’s Baruch College, the Field Center for Entrepreneurship, which began as a lab to help city residents start businesses, has served 10,000 clients, secured more than $83 million in debt and equity financing, and helped save more than 1,700 jobs and helped create another 2,200 jobs. 

Local small business entrepreneurs are also getting a boost from CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College, which was the first education partner selected for Goldman Sachs’10,000 Small Businesses Initiative.  LaGuardia already has a robust business services component, including an active New York State Small Business Development Center, one of six at CUNY campuses.  LaGuardia’s pilot project with Goldman was initiated last year and offers a 20-week program to help small business owners develop growth plans.  Participating businesses in the first cohort have already hired an additional 63 people and garnered more than $2 million in contracts.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention CUNY’s many connections to the arts in New York City, from its education of writers, musicians, performers, and so many other artists to the full calendar of cultural programs and events offered at our 23 institutions.  New York City is dependent on its creative class for its very development—both economic and cultural development.  CUNY faculty, alumni, programs, and performances contribute significantly to our tourism industry and enhance our quality of life through a never-ending supply of art, music, theater, poetry, opera, dance, film, and literary events and exhibitions. 

Name any other sector important to New York, and we are creating the jobs, workers, and innovative practices that sustain it: hospitality, media, finance, information technology, and many more. CUNY is an unparalleled force in New York’s labor market. 

But that essential role will surely be compromised by the continued decline of public support for public universities.

New York’s best economic policy is to have an educated citizenry: the entrepreneurs and change agents, the talented and innovative workforce, the public servants.  States across the country are looking for an answer—some catalytic event, a game changer—to spark economic growth.  But their economic stimulus is already here: it’s our public universities, “the lifeblood of economic growth.”  Supporting their work is the best investment in the future that New York can make.

Thank you.

Most of you know that The City University of New York counts Sy as one of our own.  This morning I’d like to begin by telling you about another CUNY student.  She is in the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College—and just happens to be one of only 32 Americans chosen this year to be a 2011 Rhodes Scholar.

Zujaja Tauqeer is majoring in history and is part of a combined degree program through which she will earn an M.D. from the New York Downstate College of Medicine.  Born in Pakistan, Zujaja and her family, who are Ahmadis, were granted asylum in the United States.  Zujaja began intensive research work in high school and still continues her high-level work on the neuroscience of autism and the history of Pakistan.

Zujaja’s extraordinary story is also a quintessentially CUNY story.  The University has historically welcomed students from across the globe and encouraged their aspirations.  I am delighted that Zujaja has joined us this morning, and I’d like to acknowledge her remarkable accomplishments, along with those of two former CUNY Rhodes Scholars also in attendance this morning: Lev Sviridov, one of our two 2004 scholars, and Lisette Nieves, a 1992 scholar.

All of us at CUNY are deeply proud of all of our Rhodes Scholars.  Their talents and their great potential are the reason that we began the Macaulay Honors College in 2001 and why we are so passionate about all of our colleges.  Every student deserves the opportunity to fulfill their greatest potential.  And every deserving student should get the chance to reap the economic benefits of a college degree—higher lifetime earnings and better job security.  Today, the jobless rate for high school graduates is double that of college graduates.

These opportunities have always been part of the historic promise of public higher education.  But today, that system is in uncharted territory.  Across the country and here in New York, state support for public universities has been declining for the last two decades.  And as our recession has deepened, the situation has become more perilous.  A recent study indicates that since 2008, at least 43 states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities and/or made large increases in tuition.  For example:

• The University of California has increased tuition by 40 percent
• State funding for the University of Washington was reduced by 26 percent
• The state of Michigan cut financial aid by over 60 percent
• The Virginia Community College System has seen tuition jump by over 18 percent

Here in New York, state support for CUNY’s senior colleges has been reduced by over $200 million over the past three years.  Our community colleges have lost about $29 million in state funding over the past two years, in addition to almost $12 million in city funding this year.  In total, the reductions represent 9.5 percent of our current $2.6 million budget.  Today, about 60 percent of our budget comes from state and city funding combined, and about 40 percent comes from tuition.  In the face of these most recent cuts, we have had to enact a 5 percent tuition increase this spring.  CUNY is still the most affordable quality undergraduate choice in the New York metropolitan area—but there is no question that this is a painful decision to make.

Looking forward, states will continue to face serious budget challenges.  The fact is that other interests are demanding more state dollars—such as health-care costs and social services for the poor, K-12 education, and corrections.

This point was made recently by Peter Orszag, the former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.  In a New York Times editorial, he noted that as health care costs have risen, higher education budgets have been raided: “Governments’ general support for higher education 25 years ago was nearly 50 percent greater than state spending on Medicaid.  That relationship has flipped: Medicaid spending is about 50 percent greater than support for higher education.”

And the recession has hit state coffers hard.  A December Times article pointed out that “[m]any states have so much debt—several trillion dollars’ worth, with much of it off the books and hidden from view—that it could overwhelm them in the next few years.”   Financial analysts worry most about the long-term problems of a handful of states, including California, Illinois, New Jersey—and New York.  As the article said, “New York balanced its budget this year by shortchanging its pension fund” and “delayed payments to vendors and local governments.”  Next year will be much worse, as “states and cities typically face their biggest deficits after recessions officially end, as rainy-day funds are depleted”—including the federal stimulus money, which is set to run out this summer.  In addition, tax collections are still not back to their pre-recession levels.

The result?  With funding decreasing and tuition rising, public higher education is in crisis mode.  And let’s not forget that the vast majority of college students—nearly 80 percent—attend public institutions.  It is imperative that we prioritize the crisis in public higher education.  That’s one reason that CUNY hosted a second “Summit on Public Higher Education” in November, bringing together public system leaders from across the country to creatively consider our financing, our operations, and our mission.

Let’s also remember that when we talk about budgets and financing, we’re really talking about quality—the quality of the graduates we prepare and the research we conduct.  This is a time when we need more college graduates, educated to higher levels.  Instead, we’re losing ground.  A joint National Academies study, an update to its well-known “Gathering Storm” report, has again called for improved education and research in science and engineering.  The update points out that:

• The United States ranks 20^th in the high school completion rate among industrialized nations and 16^th in the college completion rate.

• And the United States ranks 27^th among developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving undergraduate degrees in science or engineering.

This is nothing less a national security issue.  Educating the next generation of innovators is critical to our nation’s ability to grow and compete in the global knowledge economy. 

This is a time for action.  This is a time for re-imagining public higher education.  How can we continue to meet the critical mission of educating our country’s citizens without adequate public support?  I do not pose that merely as a rhetorical question.  It must be answered.

As public higher education is squeezed out of its place in the funding line, public universities often turn to tuition to make up for lost resources—shifting the burden from government to students.  At CUNY, we became concerned about this pattern years ago.  Big tuition spikes were enacted during economic downturns, when students could least afford them.  We determined that we needed a more rational funding model—and that became what we’ve called the CUNY Compact.  The compact model of financing creates a partnership between government and the university: state and local governments should cover mandatory costs, and the institution provides resources for investment, through philanthropy, increased efficiency, and modest, predictable tuition increases.  The compact is built on incentives: if one partner puts in a share, other partners are more likely to invest, as well.

But with state support continuing to decline, institutions must become even more creative—without overburdening students.  How can we create more nimble universities?  Can we expand incentivizing partnerships with business and industry that support our educational mission?

Just as university researchers are engaged in inquiry that can lead to new commercialization, so, too, can university leaders engage in inquiry that might lead to new revenue streams.  This is a time when the same spirit of “what if?” that drives our academic research must also drive our approach to financing.  Universities must become incubators of new ideas, re-orienting themselves to a new environment of institutional entrepreneurism.

For example, one area of opportunity is our real estate.  Public-private partnerships offer incentives to all partners and can enable much-needed facilities expansions or upgrades.  Universities across the country have used such partnerships to build research facilities, student housing, medical schools, and many other projects.  In 2009, CUNY put together a complex public-private partnership to create a new home for our Hunter College School of Social Work and our new School of Public Health in Harlem.  This partnership has enabled an accelerated schedule for the project (two years vs. three to four years) and more flexibility in procurement, generating overall savings of more than 10 percent.

For an urban campus like CUNY, public-private partnerships also offer opportunities to gain space where little available land exists for growth and development.  A continuing challenge for us is not only finding space for research and classrooms but also for faculty housing.  We are working with developers to identify existing residential properties for this purpose.  As a university, CUNY has some purchasing advantages, including exemptions from real estate tax, transfer taxes, and mortgage recording taxes, as well as access to tax-exempt financing. 

CUNY’s concept would allow current residents to stay in their apartments.  As units become available, CUNY would utilize them for faculty, staff, and administration.  In addition, we’d like to make affordable housing available for New York City schoolteachers and other public employees, such as firefighters and police officers.  In this way, CUNY would advance the goal of affordable housing, develop faculty housing, and build some revenue to add to our endowment—enabling us, ultimately, to build a better public higher education system.

Likewise, we hope that a public-private partnership—again, one built on incentives—will enable us to gain space for CUNY’s new community college, set to open in 2012 in Manhattan.  The new college re-imagines the traditional community college structure in order to improve students’ graduation rates and their career prospects.

I am very pleased that the founding president of the new community college officially began work this month and is with us today.  Dr. Scott Evenbeck was recruited from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and is a prominent expert on education assessment and initiatives to boost student success.  Also with us today is CUNY’s new vice chancellor for student affairs, Frank Sanchez, who comes from the University of Colorado and has extensive experience in fostering student leadership and degree completion.  I am delighted to welcome both of them here.

To find a home for the new community college in the crowded Manhattan landscape, we are in the early stages of initiating a new public-private development.  The project would utilize the site of a building called North Hall on the John Jay College of Criminal Justice campus.  The campus is currently moving from North Hall to a new facility now under construction.  Under the proposed partnership, CUNY would sell a portion of the North Hall site to a private developer and retain the balance of the site for the new community college.  The partnership would enable CUNY to finance a portion of the new college’s facility with proceeds from the sale, without relying on the state for the full appropriation.  CUNY envisions a mixed-use building to be built by the developer—the University would own the lower portion of the building and use it for the new community college, while the upper floors would be developed as residential or commercial units. 

Real estate isn’t the only area where possibilities for entrepreneurship exist for public universities.  At CUNY we must avail ourselves of all ideas and incubate multiple lines of inquiry that have potential for revenue.  Consider, for example, that a couple of months ago, Amazon, the online retailer, reached a new milestone: it sold more e-books than paper books.  As e-readers take firm hold in the marketplace, we are looking at them as one way to address the rising costs of textbooks.  E-books are generally about one-third the cost of traditional textbooks.

CUNY has initiated an innovative partnership with the New York City Department of Education and IBM to explore the use of e-textbooks in K-12 classrooms.  Next month, a pilot program will test the use of selected textbooks on Kindle readers with ninth graders at Stuyvesant High School.  Course textbooks in world history, biology, and geometry will be downloaded onto readers used by each student.  Eventually, CUNY will develop programs to supplement the e-textbook material and market them to school districts throughout the country, with the goal of improving learning and generating a new revenue stream for the University.  By fully utilizing available technology, the three partners—CUNY, IBM, and the DOE—will be able to hold down costs and offer students tools that will better prepare them for college-level work.

In addition, many of you may have seen that just last month, Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel, and New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky released a Request for Expression of Interest, seeking responses from a university, applied science organization, or related institution to develop and operate an applied sciences research facility in New York City.  The city is looking to strengthen its applied sciences capabilities, particularly in fields that lend themselves to commercialization—including quick job creation from innovation.  Later today, CUNY will be initiating a conversation with the leaders of Columbia University, The Cooper Union, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, NYU, and Cornell to coordinate a response to the city’s request.

I offer all of these ideas today as stimulus for thinking—a few “what ifs?” in reimagining CUNY’s finances and creatively building our revenue streams.  As in any robust research enterprise, many “what ifs” are necessary.  Some will fail; some will flourish.  But all ideas that incentivize revenue are urgently needed, especially now, as both governments and families struggle to regain ground.

And let’s not forget the most critical point: securing the health of our public higher education system is essential to our state and our country’s health.  We desperately need the inventors, creators, and entrepreneurs of the next generation—not just a few, but an entire citizenry with the skills, knowledge, and drive to generate a constant flow of ideas.  We need many more Zujajas, Levs, and Lisettes—students who, given the opportunity to be challenged by a rigorous public education, are prepared to be the next global leaders.

Last week, newly elected governor Andrew Cuomo delivered his inaugural State of the State address and strongly enforced the idea that the way in which state government is run must be changed.  We can no longer continue on the same course in this time of great fiscal exigency.

In times of crisis, we must also be mindful of building toward the future.  What better way to secure the intellectual capital needed in our rapidly transformed innovation economy than through education?  As CUNY prepares to deal with its significant financial challenges, we must also prepare the next generation of New Yorkers.  And that means that we must secure the core of our enterprise.  We cannot gamble with the talent that will drive New York’s competitiveness in the decades ahead.  It’s the most important investment we can make in New York’s future.

Thank you.  I’d be glad to take a few questions, if we have time.

President for Academic Administration David Gomez of Kingsborough, Vice President for Academic Affairs Peter Katopes of LaGuardia, and Vice President for Student Affairs Ellen Hartigan of Queensborough.

I would like to take a moment to extend our appreciation for your support of CUNY’s operating and capital budget needs.  Chairperson Recchia, you have been a longstanding champion of the University, and Chairperson Rodriguez, as a CUNY alumnus and now as chairperson of the Higher Education Committee, you have been a consistent advocate for our students.  We thank you, along with the members of the committees, Speaker Quinn, and the entire council.  Over the years, your partnership has been very significant to us and has helped our students immeasurably.

I’d also like to thank the council for encouraging us to work closely with the executive branch to meet our pressing operating and capital needs.  We are grateful that the mayor has heard many of our concerns.  However, there are still some important issues to discuss with you today.  For your reference, we have attached to today’s testimony the University’s analysis of the Executive Budget, which outlines the recommendations affecting CUNY.

As you know, demand for the University continues to grow.  Our enrollments are at record levels.  Since 1999, enrollment at our six community colleges has increased by 43 percent—almost the equivalent of adding the total undergraduate populations of NYU and Columbia combined.

Our six community colleges are one of the city’s best engines of workforce development.  With your support, they are on the front lines of recovery efforts, helping New Yorkers adapt to economic changes through job-training programs in growth areas like health care, including a new health information technology program; transitional programs for mid-career and managerial employees who have lost their jobs; and a range of programs to help workers in fields such as hospitality and real estate gain new credentials and knowledge in order to stay competitive during these challenging times.  Almost 90 percent of our associate-degree graduates are employed within six months of earning the degree.  CUNY students also stay in New York City: of those who are employed, 91 percent work in New York City, contributing to the city’s economy.

Applications to CUNY continue to increase.  As of last week, regular freshman     applications were up 19 percent since this time last year.  Transfer applications are up by 27 percent.  We are gratified that more and more New Yorkers are seeking a CUNY education; these increases are a striking indication of the quality and value that CUNY       offers.  I am very proud of the hard work by our presidents and faculty to maintain high academic standards in order to ensure the value of a CUNY degree.

As we work to accommodate students, we are also uncompromising in our belief that academic quality must be maintained.  As a result of our increasing applications and enrollment, we have been working for some time to responsibly consider and plan for an earlier admissions deadline for the fall 2010 semester.  Since September, we have announced a deadline for undergraduate admissions of February 1, 2010.  This date was communicated to high school counselors, community-based organization professionals, and transfer counselors at CUNY’s community colleges, as well as SUNY community colleges in the New York metropolitan area, both in writing and in workshops in the fall.  Applicants and counselors were informed that students who applied after the February 1 deadline would have their applications considered on a space-available basis.  The fact that the number of students applying by February 1 increased by more than 20 percent over the same time last year—while high school enrollment remained steady—indicates that students and counselors were responsive to the adjusted timeline.

At CUNY’s April Board of Trustees meeting, I explained the work under way to plan for an earlier admission deadline.  As of May 8, CUNY was no longer able to accept applications with the assurance that the applicants’ credentials would be reviewed and a place at a CUNY college would be offered for the fall 2010 semester.  We have implemented a waiting list for students who apply at a late date, and CUNY’s admission website offers a designated link with detailed information about the wait list.  In implementing the list, CUNY has joined the mainstream of highly regarded universities that routinely employ waiting lists.  It is our intention that wait-listed students with significant English language needs, or those likely to require remediation in academic reading/writing and math, will be accommodated through specialized interventions designed to address their learning needs.  Through these interventions, students will be better prepared to succeed in college-level coursework upon matriculation, and they will be given priority status for spring 2011 admission.  All of these steps indicate our resolve to carefully and prudently plan a way to accommodate a record number of students while still offering each student the high-quality educational experience she or he deserves.

As you know, I have emphasized the importance of academic quality for some time.  We have spoken of the benefits of earning a degree and the need to increase graduation rates at community colleges—and this has now become a national conversation and a national imperative.  Even the most recent New York Times magazine included an article pointing out that the United States no longer leads the world in educational attainment—and, at the same time, the gap between the pay of college graduates and everyone else reached an all-time high last year.

At the leading edge of efforts to increase degree attainment is CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs initiative, or ASAP.  Thanks to the mayor and the City Council, this innovative program, which offers financial support and comprehensive academic support to improve graduation rates and job prospects for community-college students, is achieving great success.  Based on all predictors, this year we expect a three-year graduation rate in the neighborhood of 60 percent for our ASAP students, compared to a national three-year graduation rate of about 16 percent for large urban community colleges.   I think you will agree that these are promising results.

In fact, our experience with ASAP is informing our development of a new community college in Manhattan.  I am very grateful that funds for the new college have been included in the Executive Budget.  Our continued enrollment growth mandates expansion—particularly in Manhattan, which is served only by BMCC, a college with an explosive enrollment of almost 22,000 students.  Rather than simply squeeze in additional students, we are determined to take a responsible, thoughtful approach.  We are using what we have learned in ASAP and through the work of our own community-college presidents and faculty and a national advisory group to re-imagine community-college education.  The new college is designed to include components such as required full-time enrollment in the first year, a common first-year curriculum, and college-wide learning communities, all developed in consultation with faculty.  We continue to make significant progress in the formation of the new college, including curricular, organizational, and human resources planning, and expect to open in 2012.

CUNY’s rapid enrollment increases have also had a significant impact on our capital program.  As more students access our facilities, filling classrooms, libraries, and laboratories, the demand for space grows, and the wear and tear on our buildings accelerates.

The council has been very attentive to the many capital needs of our community colleges, and I thank you for helping us make real progress in providing safe, modern spaces for our students.  Projects such as the replacement of Fiterman Hall at BMCC and the construction of the North Instructional Building at Bronx Community College would not be possible were it not for the council.

By way of update, the deconstruction of the old Fiterman Hall was completed in November 2009, and foundation work on the new building began shortly thereafter.  Steel fabrication is now in progress.  Construction is expected to be completed in June 2012.  When this building is available, it will greatly help to relieve overcrowding at one of our most congested campuses.

Bronx’s North Instructional Building is also well into construction.  Foundations and structural steel are complete, and precast concrete wall panels are now being installed.  Plumbing, mechanical, and electrical contractors are preparing to start work.  Completion of the 98,000-square-foot building is scheduled for April 2012.

In addition to these large projects, there are many smaller projects that are either in construction or will start soon, thanks to the council’s allocation of lump-sum capital funds.  These include the renovation of the fifth floor and roof of the 500 Grand Concourse building at Hostos; the construction of a new child development center at Bronx Community College; the renovation of the admissions and bursar areas of the Center 3 building at LaGuardia; and the replacement of the central boiler plant at Kingsborough.  The council has also been very generous in its support of the College of Staten Island’s Cyber Café and Library Information Center.

The January allocation of $23 million in critical-maintenance funds from the mayor also allowed CUNY to begin to address a few of the most serious issues at our campuses.  We are very pleased with this incremental progress—but the fact remains that capital needs at the community colleges are substantial.  I have testified previously about the critical maintenance study that we did in 2007 in partnership with SUNY, which indicated that we have a backlog of hundreds of millions of dollars in critical-maintenance work.

As a result, we requested a multi-year allocation of $200 million in critical maintenance funds in this budget, $50 million for each year of the four-year plan.  As you know, education law requires that capital projects for the community colleges be funded 50 percent by the state and 50 percent by the city.  We have been very gratified that even in this difficult financial climate, the state has consistently matched funds for our community colleges.

These critical-maintenance funds would address priority projects at the community colleges.  For example, at Hostos Community College, a large concrete panel recently fell from the façade of the 500 Grand Concourse building.  We are more than fortunate that this occurred on Good Friday, when no students were on campus.  As a temporary measure, sidewalk bridges have been installed to protect pedestrians.  However, a permanent structural solution is now in the works to ensure public safety and the integrity of the building

In addition, LaGuardia’s 10-story Center 3 Building is almost 100 years old and is approximately the size of Macy’s.  Its enormous terra-cotta façade is in need of complete replacement.  Over the past few years there has been increasing façade deterioration and window failure in several locations.  These dangerous conditions have necessitated the installation of protective barriers around the perimeter of the building.  The University does have funds to initiate the design of this project.

And at Bronx Community College, utility upgrades are urgently needed to address the campus’s failing and inefficient mechanical infrastructure and to provide additional capacity for future growth.  This multi-phase project will include the installation of a new central plant and distribution system for both cooling and heating, as well as new central electric service and switchgear/distribution equipment for each building.  Funding is in place for the first phase of this project, but much more is needed.

In this time of unprecedented growth at our community colleges, we simply cannot ignore urgent health, safety, and plant maintenance issues at our campuses.  I should add that funding for these projects is not only essential for the colleges but has logical benefits for the city.  Construction is a central part of the city’s economic plan, and maintenance and construction contracts spur the local economy during this critical time.

In fact, the Mayor’s 2011 Executive Budget recognizes the key role our six community colleges play in the city.  We are grateful for the operational support recommended for CUNY in the budget.  The FY2011 Financial Plan provides $243.5 million in city support for CUNY’s community colleges, which is $1.0 million more than current-year funding levels.  This year-to-year change reflects $36.9 million in additional funding for mandatory cost increases such as collective bargaining, fringe benefits, and energy, and other new programmatic needs, and is offset by $35.9 million in overall reductions.  Among the reductions is $21.4 million in direct community-college operating support.  As you may remember, last year the council restored this funding on a one-time basis.  We ask for your help again.

As we encourage our community colleges to enhance their core academic enterprise, we have emphasized the need for competitive programs and additional full-time faculty.  We have made great gains in adding to our full-time corps, but with enrollment growing at an even faster pace, we still have a long way to go.  At our community colleges, part-timers still outnumber full-timers, comprising 63% of the total faculty.  This is an area in which progress can only be made with sustained operational investment.

The Executive Budget also eliminates funding for several crucial initiatives at CUNY, including $9.5 million for the Peter F. Vallone City Council Scholarships, $2.5 million for the Black Male Initiative, $900,000 for centers and institutes, and $400,000 for the Creative Arts Team.  In particular, the Vallone scholarships make a considerable difference to students working hard to meet their financial obligations and make progress toward a degree.  The scholarships offer vital support to high-achieving city students, encouraging them to remain in the city for their college education.  In addition, while national efforts to increase educational attainment gain momentum, the University’s Black Male Initiative (BMI) has taken a leading role in fostering the participation and educational success of under-represented groups in higher education.  The BMI continues to be an effective means of encouraging student persistence through counseling programs, speakers and mentors, and workshops, which are open to all students at CUNY.  I ask for the council’s assistance in restoring funding for these essential academic support programs.

Chairperson Recchia, Chairperson Rodriguez, and members of the committees, you know better than anyone the enormous pressure that the economic recession has placed on New Yorkers.  With your continued support, CUNY can maintain its role as one of the city’s best resources during troubling economic times.  All of us at CUNY remain deeply committed to our historic mission of serving New Yorkers and helping them to advance themselves personally and professionally—now more than ever.  I thank you for your valued partnership in this effort, and I look forward to continuing our important work.

Welcome to 2010: what I’m calling the Year of the Community College.

Why community colleges?  Our conversation today is borne out of many sleepless nights I’ve spent thinking about our students’ progress—their ability to graduate and to succeed in a very competitive marketplace.  So much of their success depends on community colleges.  And, as I’ve said many times, I had little experience with community colleges, whether as a student, faculty member, or administrator, before I became chancellor.  Fortunately, CUNY’s six community colleges are led by outstanding presidents who are nationally recognized for their innovative work and a rich source of creative thinking about two-year colleges.  So out of my sleepless nights came a long series of conversations and ideas, and an understanding of the pivotal role community colleges play in higher education.

This country’s community colleges are the largest and fastest-growing sector of higher education.  They enroll almost half of all undergraduates.  And they are the focal point of national and state economic recovery efforts; they provide affordable degree and training programs for the country’s skilled workforce. 

But most of the country probably knows next to nothing about community colleges.  In fact, during the first half of 2009, just 1.4 percent of national news coverage from TV, newspapers, news Web sites, and radio dealt with education—that’s all education, K-12 through higher education.  And of that paltry amount, less than 3 percent was devoted to community colleges [.042%]. 

President Obama has said that “[c]ommunity colleges are an undervalued asset in our country.  Not only is that not right, it’s not smart.”  He’s right.  If you want to get a lens on the future of our country—its workforce, its social and economic development, its capacity to innovate—then you have to understand what’s happening at our community colleges.

CUNY’s six community colleges serve more than 88,000 degree-seeking students.  Over the last decade, we have seen enrollment increase by an astounding 43 percent at our community colleges.  It’s akin to adding NYU’s entire undergraduate student body. 

CUNY is not alone.  In 2008, the share of young people attending college in the United States hit an all-time high.  And it’s an increase that took place entirely at community colleges.  More and more students, especially in this economy, understand the incredible value that a community college education offers: quality plus accessibility.  In fact, almost 20 percent of Americans who earned doctorates in 2008 attended a community college at some point.

So who goes to community colleges?  At CUNY, three out of five community-college students are women.  About two-thirds are black or Hispanic.  About 46 percent say that their native language is not English.  And three-quarters come from families earning $40,000 or less.

These students come from diverse backgrounds and have a range of aspirations.  They need, and deserve, the best education we can offer.  And we need their skills and talents.  As the nation’s economy continues to become one requiring more sophisticated skills, advanced degrees are increasingly necessary.  A new report indicates that jobs for those with associate degrees are expected to grow twice as fast as the national average. 

Yet at a time when our country needs more college graduates, we are instead losing ground.  The United States’ postsecondary graduation rate sits below the average of its peers among the 30-country Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).  In addition, American 15-year-olds scored below the OECD average in science literacy and mathematics.  If our country is going to compete globally, it must educate locally, by helping more students succeed to the highest levels possible.

It has been gratifying to see that recent national and local initiatives recognize this fact.  The federal American Graduation Initiative announced last summer has a goal of graduating an additional 5 million Americans from two-year colleges by 2020.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “Gateway to the Middle Class” initiative pledges $50 million over the next four years to CUNY’s community colleges to increase the city’s skilled labor force.  The goal is to graduate 120,000 New Yorkers by 2020. 

These are promising and welcome initiatives.  But a troubling reality remains: too many students are unprepared for college-level work, and too few graduate.  It’s not enough to talk about access to college; it is attainment of a college degree that will most help students—and our country.

But today, the national three-year graduation rate for urban public community colleges is about 16 percent.  What’s more, poorer students and students of color are not only under-represented in higher education nationally but are also less likely to graduate with a degree. 

I have said it repeatedly: a degree matters.  Degree recipients earn more, have better food and housing security, are healthier, and participate more in their communities. 

So why don’t more students graduate?  We know that financial pressures, family obligations, work schedules, and even a lack of information are factors for many students.  But as remediation rates point out, a significant reason is the disconnect between students’ skill levels and what is expected of them in college. 

This is why improving students’ preparedness for college is so important.  Many students don’t take enough college-preparatory courses in high school.  Some studies show that students are much more likely to finish college if they took college-preparatory algebra in high school.  One well-known researcher put it this way: “The academic intensity of the student’s high school curriculum still counts more than anything else…in providing momentum toward completing a bachelor’s degree.”  Success in college doesn’t start the first day of your freshman year.  It starts long before that. 

No one knows that better than my friend and colleague Joel Klein.  It’s why he’s doing such remarkable work in turning around our public schools.  Almost 70 percent of CUNY enrollees come from New York City public schools.  So it’s imperative that we work closely with the schools to ensure that students are prepared.  CUNY has in place several collaborative programs with the DOE to encourage college readiness and participation.  These include College Now, a dual enrollment program that serves about 20,000 public high school students, as well as a middle grades initiative and 11 early-college schools.

One of our newest and most promising partnerships with the DOE is called the CUNY-DOE College Readiness and Success Working Group, which grew out of conversations I’ve had with Chancellor Klein.  The initiative brings together both systems to find the specific factors that determine college readiness and success and to improve both.  Representatives from CUNY and the DOE are combing through research to pinpoint stumbling blocks and identify curriculum alignment issues between high school and college.  The group will be able to tell high schools how their graduates have performed at CUNY—a piece of information every teacher should have—and to identify promising programs that can be scaled up. 

Given what we already know about improving the retention, performance, and graduation rates of students, we set out in 2007 to create a new program specifically designed to help community-college students graduate in a timely way and gain employment.  The ASAP initiative—which stands for the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs—was created with the support of Mayor Bloomberg, in partnership with the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity and the New York City Council.  It began with just over 1,000 students and is now under way at all six CUNY community colleges.

The program is straightforward.  One of the key principles that emerged in our initial discussions was the importance of minimizing students’ uncertainty.  Entering college can be confusing.  Incoming community-college students find themselves in large, complex institutions with numerous departments and majors and multilayered procedures for financial aid, registration, and advising.  Many students arrive poorly prepared; they may have weak study habits and few experienced family members and friends to whom they can turn for counsel.  In addition, their education is often competing for their time against their very real need to earn a living—to pay bills and support a family.  With so many factors inhibiting their ability to fully engage with their academic pursuits, we knew that the ASAP initiative had to focus on addressing these barriers and streamlining their experience.

To that end, ASAP students receive financial incentives, such as tuition waivers for eligible students and free monthly Metrocards and use of textbooks.  They agree to attend full-time in order to immerse themselves in the academic material.  They are grouped together in cohorts to take small classes in convenient scheduling blocks, in order to better concentrate their time, develop a support network, and complete their assignments.  All of them receive comprehensive academic, advisement, and career development services to help maintain their focus.  Taken together, the program’s components are designed to reduce uncertainty and create clear pathways.

Our goal for ASAP is ambitious: a three-year graduation rate of 50 percent, substantially beyond the national average.

I am pleased to announce today that our most recent data show that 46 percent of ASAP students are projected to graduate in just two and a half years—well above a comparison group’s 16.9 percent projected rate.  And based on all predictors, we expect a three-year graduation rate of 60 percent for our ASAP students.  What’s more, almost two-thirds of ASAP’s two-year graduates have enrolled in a CUNY four-year college in order to continue their studies.  I think you’ll agree that this is significant progress.

The lessons we’re learning from the ASAP initiative are informing an even more ambitious project that we are pursuing: the development of a new community college in Manhattan.

Our enrollment surges would naturally lead us to think about the possibility of an additional campus, especially in Manhattan, which is served by only one community college, BMCC, a campus that is bursting at the seams with about 22,000 students.  But our focus in thinking about a new college has been less on alleviating space concerns than on how we might re-imagine community-college education.  We are emboldened by the initial results of the ASAP initiative and by new practices already under way at our existing community colleges.  The next question is how to embed the successful approaches into the framework of a new institution.

To answer that question, John Mogulescu, CUNY’s senior university dean for academic affairs, is overseeing the development of the new community college by drawing on the best research, practices, and scholars, both at CUNY and nationally.  Extensive input has been gathered through more than 150 meetings with faculty and staff, online surveys, and consultations with experts from academia, government, and business.  Our goal is to increase student success—that is, to improve students’ graduation rates and their career prospects.  Our development process has suggested some significant departures from the traditional college structure—things like pre-college interviews, required full-time enrollment in the first year, a common first-year curriculum, college-wide learning communities, an Office of Partnerships to establish employer relationships, and a single, college-wide theme centered around sustaining a thriving New York City.  All of these components address our overall imperative: to engage students even before the first day, and every day after that.  We must use every tool to help them achieve real proficiency.

Our work has garnered a generous grant and sustained interest from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation.  Planning is now in the hands of 11 working committees, and discussion about budgets, facilities, and hiring is under way.

What we envision implementing will not be easy.  But there is no reason to start a new community college if we are not fully invested in implementing bold new approaches and doing everything we can to enable our students to perform to their potential and earn a degree that will maximize their future opportunities.  

The same is true of all of our community colleges.  We must be willing to engage in a national conversation about preparing students for college, challenging them academically, and supporting their likelihood of success.  And we must be willing to try new ideas, to re-consider what we thought we knew.  It’s not an exaggeration to say that our future depends on our students’ success.  As one of our ASAP students recently said as he received his associate degree—just three and a half years after arriving in this country—“ASAP has given me all the tools I need to work, learn, and achieve my goals.  But the most important lesson that they have taught me is the ability to remain focused and to believe in myself.”

For our community colleges, it’s as simple as that—and as difficult as that. 

Thank you.

I come to you at an unprecedented moment in CUNY’s history, when we are experiencing our highest enrollment to date: more than 260,000 degree-credit students, including more high-achieving students than ever before.  While we know that economic hardships have driven many New Yorkers to college to acquire new skills and attain additional certification, our decade-long growth is also a manifestation of two ongoing factors.  First, the University continues to be recognized for its academic quality and has become a destination for students seeking an exemplary education.  Second, students are coming to CUNY better prepared for college-level work, and we are therefore seeing better retention across the University. 

We take great pride in the increased interest in CUNY and the improved performance by CUNY students.  However, our explosion in enrollment—an additional 65,000 students since 1999—poses serious challenges.  The need for faculty and the demands on space are also at unprecedented levels.  With our freshman applications for fall 2010 also showing a double-digit increase, we expect these demands to grow even more urgent.

At the same time, the University’s commitment to quality is unwavering.  The Macaulay Honors College’s class of 2013 has an average SAT score of close to 1400.  A recent Macaulay graduate, Ryan Merola, was just named one of nine scholars nationally to be a 2011 Mitchell Scholar.  Students across the CUNY campuses are also winning competitive national awards; most recently, five CUNY students were awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships for 2009. 

Hunter College was named the nation’s No. 2 “Best Value Public College for 2010” by the Princeton Review and USA Today.  Queens College and Baruch College were named to the Princeton Review’s “Best Northeastern Colleges” list.  In November, Hunter College Distinguished Lecturer Colum McCann won the 2009 National Book Award in fiction, the top American prize for literature.  And three outstanding educators joined the University in 2009: Karen Gould, president of Brooklyn College, Félix Matos Rodriguez, president of Hostos Community College, and William Pollard, president of Medgar Evers College.

We are also very pleased to announce that based on recent actions by the national accrediting agency, we anticipate that the new CUNY School of Public Health will soon be fully accredited.  It is the first public school of public health in New York City and the only one in the country to focus on urban health.  Two prominent scholars and medical doctors from Harvard Medical School, David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, recently accepted offers to join the CUNY School of Public Health.

These are only a few of the countless ways that the entire University community is working diligently to give students the best educational experience possible.  Just as our citizens turn to public higher education to help them prepare for an uncertain future, so, too, does the state depend on CUNY and SUNY to build the workforce and innovation capacity of New York.  I know that Chancellor Nancy Zimpher shares our deep commitment to serving our state and its students, and she and I will continue to work together—and in partnership with the governor and the legislature—to advance this critical goal.

Our 2010-11 budget request, adopted unanimously by the CUNY Board of Trustees, reflects that commitment.  It marks the fifth year of the CUNY Compact, our multiyear financing approach that offers an economically efficient way to finance the University by delineating shared responsibility among partners and creating opportunities to leverage funds.  It prioritizes the University’s needs in meeting the demands of a rapidly growing student body, including additional full-time faculty, expanded student services, facility improvements, and educational technology.  These are requests that address the very core of the University’s mission to ensure that students have the academic grounding they need to compete in an unforgiving marketplace.

All of us at CUNY appreciate that the State Executive Budget calls for full funding of the University’s mandatory costs, consistent with the CUNY Compact. 

For our senior colleges, the Executive Budget recommends a total of $1.8 billion, which reflects a decrease of state support of about $84 million, offset by additional funding of $91 million for mandatory costs and collective bargaining and $11 million from the FY 2010 tuition increase.  The $11 million reflects an increase from 20 percent to 30 percent in the amount of the FY 2010 tuition increase retained by the University.  A portion of the $84 million reduction, about $21 million, is related to across-the-board proposals to reduce salary and fringe benefits costs, to be negotiated with the unions.

The proposed reduction will have a very real effect on the work of our senior colleges.  Since 1999, these colleges have together welcomed almost 38,000 additional students to their campuses—nearly an entire NYU.  Our colleges remain uncompromising in their commitment to academic quality.  But the fact remains that continued budget cuts combined with growing enrollments means a serious strain on resources and an acute need to add full-time faculty and academic support personnel. 

Let me discuss the Executive Budget’s proposed Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, which recommends a number of adjustments related to tuition and regulatory provisions.  The act would allow CUNY and SUNY to receive and disburse revenues from tuition and self-supporting program activities without an appropriation.  It would also authorize the CUNY Board of Trustees to raise tuition incrementally up to an annual cap of two and one-half times the five-year rolling average of the Higher Education Price Index.  I would note that the Board of Trustees recently approved our budget request proposal to increase tuition rates by 2 percent for fall 2010.  The act also permits differential tuition rates by campus and program.  As we indicated through meetings and recommendations of the New York State Commission on Higher Education, CUNY has long supported differential tuition by program, informed by market competition and price elasticity.  The act would also allow for greater flexibility in procurement procedures, and we fully support this effort to improve the efficiency of our purchasing.

The State Executive Budget also recommends a reduction in community-college base aid of $285 per FTE for next year, which would be a decrease of $21.8 million.  The proposed reduction follows this year’s base-aid cut of $130 per FTE, bringing the total reduction, if enacted, to a $415-per-FTE cut.  The proposed base-aid cuts would reduce the rate to $2,260 per FTE—the lowest rate since 2005.  

Members of the committees, all of us at the University are deeply concerned about the proposed community-college reduction.  Community colleges are the largest and fastest-growing sector of higher education and enroll almost half of our country’s undergraduates.  They are essential to our nation’s recovery effort, a pipeline to jobs.  In New York City, where the jobless rate just rose to 10.6 percent, CUNY’s six community colleges are leading the way toward recovery, serving more than 88,000 students. 

More than ever, New Yorkers rely on our community colleges for their professional advancement, through job training, professional development, and career-ladder opportunities.  Our six community colleges are obligated to meet an extraordinary array of academic needs for the most diverse group of students, whether that’s state-of-the-art training programs for emerging industries, specialized cohorts to improve academic performance and graduation rates, or additional advisement to assist returning students.  Their work on behalf of our students continues to be nationally recognized.  What’s more, almost 97 percent of our most recent associate-degree recipients reside in the state, contributing to its progress.

Today, however, our community colleges are bursting at the seams, in serious need of faculty and classrooms to meet unprecedented demand.  In order to meet that demand, as well as the workforce needs of the state, they must have appropriate support and the full restoration of their funding. 

The 2010-11 Executive Budget also recommends several changes to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).  In the 2008-09 academic year, 75,000 CUNY students received $178 million in TAP awards.  This financial assistance makes it possible for many of our students to pursue and attain a college degree.  We are concerned that the recommendations include an across-the-board reduction of $75 to TAP awards.  CUNY accounts for about 20 percent of students statewide who receive TAP, students who are among the poorest in the state.  The University’s priority will always be to assist the neediest students.  Financial aid is most equitable when it is aimed at students with the greatest need and those in the hard-pressed middle class.

Let me introduce the subject of the capital budget by returning to a point I made earlier.  CUNY’s unprecedented enrollment growth, while a welcome indication of New Yorkers’ confidence in the University to help them prepare for the workplace and compete for fewer jobs, has also created a pressing demand for space and a pronounced strain on our facilities.  Our campuses are open seven days a week, and classes are scheduled throughout the day, increasing the wear and tear on classrooms and common areas.  As you know, CUNY does not have land to build additional facilities; we must maintain and upgrade our existing buildings.  As a result, our facilities program remains a high priority for the University.

We are very grateful for the generous appropriations allocated over the last few budget cycles.  Recent events at our campuses demonstrate the progress that has been made to increase space and meet educational needs.  These include the groundbreaking for the Lois V. and Samuel J. Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, which will include the CUNY School of Public Health, in East Harlem, the new Fiterman Hall at Borough of Manhattan Community College, and the topping out of both the building expansion at John Jay College and the North Instructional Building at Bronx Community College.  We have also selected an appropriate new site for the CUNY School of Law in Long Island City, Queens, and are moving forward with facility plans.  I appreciate your support of these important efforts, all of which are alleviating space pressures caused by increased demand for the nationally recognized programs at these colleges and schools.

These projects also illustrate the ways that CUNY has been leveraging its capital funding through public-private partnerships.  These much-needed buildings—whether the School of Social Work, the law school, or our residential halls at CCNY and Queens College—were made possible through innovative collaborations with private developers.  Anything that can be done to expedite such efforts in the future is greatly appreciated.

Still, many of our campuses are in disrepair and badly in need of modernization.  Over 65 percent of CUNY’s buildings are more than 30 years old, and some of the University’s buildings are more than 100 years old.  In 2007, CUNY, in partnership with SUNY, completed a facilities analysis that showed that CUNY has a backlog of more than $1.7 billion in critical maintenance needs.  With the support of the legislature, for the last two years CUNY has received funding for critical maintenance projects, including those at our community colleges, to be matched by the city.  I am very pleased that this year the Executive Budget recommends another $284 million allocation for our senior colleges and almost $35 million for community-college projects, including urgent needs such as LaGuardia Community College’s Center 3 Building façade replacement, continued utility upgrades at Bronx Community College, and electrical upgrades at Queensborough Community College.  We are grateful for this attention to our maintenance needs.  Ongoing maintenance allows us to prevent the greater, long-term expenses that inevitably result from deferrals. 

The Executive Budget also includes a $256 million dollar reduction in the CUNY capital disbursements cap over the next five years, limiting the University’s ability to fit new projects into its plan.  I must point out that, in this economy, spending on construction makes sense.  Costs are now lower, and much-needed jobs can be created.  For every $10 million spent in construction, it is estimated that 60 jobs are created at the job site and 30 jobs are created offsite in materials fabrication on an annual basis. 

CUNY’s capital program has also benefited from the compact approach to financing, which relies not only on public funding but on the University’s ability to raise considerable private funds.  A public-private partnership, which leverages all funds, often provides an incentive to those wishing to support public higher education.  Reductions to facilities funding could impede private fund-raising efforts.

Chairman Kruger, Vice Chairwoman Krueger, Chairman Farrell, Senator Stavisky, Assemblywoman Glick, and members of the Senate and Assembly, all of us at CUNY are grateful for your longtime support of CUNY and public higher education in New York.  These are undoubtedly challenging times, but we are confident that by working in partnership with you, CUNY can continue to be a powerful vehicle for New York’s economic and social revitalization.  Thank you.