CUNY Newswire

August 9, 2011 | The University

The City University of New York
Board of Trustees Special Meeting:
Resolution regarding the New York State Rational Tuition Policy
August 3, 2011

I would like to offer some background on the action being considered by the board tonight.

A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees was called for July 21 to consider a revised tuition schedule based on new state legislation authorizing CUNY to implement a rational tuition policy by increasing tuition up to $300 annually for the next five years.

A public hearing was held by the Executive Committee on July 20.  I would like to thank Vice Chair Berry and Trustee DiMartino for their participation in that hearing.  The Executive Committee then met on July 21 and authorized a new tuition schedule for fall 2011.  My thanks to all of the Executive Committee members for taking the time to meet on the 21st.

On July 26, a state Supreme Court judge, responding to a lawsuit filed by several students, issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the implementation of the tuition schedule approved by the Executive Committee, unless and until the full Board of Trustees meets and votes on the schedule.  Because the full board does not meet until late September, and because time is of the essence, it was determined that a special meeting of the full board should be convened for this purpose.  Again, I am grateful to our board members for responding so quickly to this need.

Before I describe the components of the state’s plan, I would like to give the board some background about how tuition for The City University of New York and The State University of New York has historically been set.  I think the historical context will help to shed some light on the reasons that the governor, with input from the state legislature, adopted the model that we are considering tonight—one for which I have been very strenuously advocating for nearly a decade.

In the past, the setting of tuition levels at CUNY and SUNY was done in a very haphazard way.  In some years there were very steep tuition increases—15, 20, even 30 percent—while in other years, sometimes over a period of consecutive years, there would be no tuition increases.  The reason is that the state would generally raise tuition when it was in a precarious financial situation, leading to sudden and significant increases.  On some occasions, the tuition increases were so high that students were forced to leave the University because they could not quickly find additional financial resources.

I have always believed that we need to have a predictable tuition policy in order to allow for appropriate planning—both by students and their families and by the University.  It is unfair that students, whether living at home with their families or living on their own, do not have the ability to plan for tuition increases, especially since most of them are juggling scarce resources for competing needs.  At the same time, the University should have the ability to plan for how to provide assistance for students, beyond the financial assistance offered by state or federal governments, particularly for those students who may be put in harm’s way because of escalating costs.

For years I have urged state officials to adopt a more predictable and rational approach to setting tuition levels, what we call at CUNY the CUNY Compact model.  Finally, this year, the governor came forward with a plan that was adopted by the state legislature.  The plan allows the University to raise tuition up to $300 per year for full-time, in-state, undergraduate students, and a proportionate amount for nonresident, graduate, doctoral, per-credit, and selected program rates.

This recommendation is very consistent with the CUNY Compact approach of establishing a rational and predictable plan for setting tuition targets.  It allows students and families to plan for the costs of a college education, and it will allow the University to more effectively activate other sources of income.  For example, donors have often asked why they should provide significant support for the University if the state is not willing to meet its obligations.  This five-year plan is a strong statement to the wider community that the state is indeed investing in CUNY and SUNY.

Let me mention some important aspects of the state’s plan.

One is the state’s maintenance-of-effort commitment to the University.  Financial support cannot be reduced from prior-year levels except in cases of financial emergency.

In addition, the state allows the University to keep the revenue from the new tuition, rather than returning it to the state, as was often the practice in the past.  The new state plan ensures that if a student pays a dollar of support, that dollar stays at the University for investment purposes.

The plan also ensures that the state will continue to fund the University’s mandatory costs, such as collective bargaining increases and energy increases.

A critical part of this five-year plan is that it addresses the importance of financial aid as a component of any tuition increase.  The plan stipulates that if students are now receiving the maximum award from the state’s Tuition Assistance Program, called TAP, they will not have to pay the increase.  If students are receiving less than the full TAP award—say, 80 percent of full TAP or 60 percent of full TAP—the increase will be reduced proportionately.

So part of the revenue that the University receives from this increase is going to support students who are most at risk.  I have always emphasized that the neediest students should not be impeded in their pursuit of a degree because of a tuition increase.  The state’s plan is consistent with that caveat.  And because the plan will enable us to increase our philanthropic efforts, we will be able to direct more of those resources to assist students in need.  I should also note that, consistent with the adopted state budget and the recent federal debt ceiling agreement, both TAP and the federal Pell Grant program are funded for next year.

As you can see, this is a bold step forward for the State of New York, a fundamentally different approach to investing in higher education.  For that reason, I think it is important for us to support this approach tonight.

This is a critical time at the University.  Over the last four years, our senior colleges have sustained operating-budget reductions of $300 million, and our community colleges have seen state base aid reduced by over 20 percent over the last four years—all while absorbing record student enrollments.

Let me be very clear: cuts of this magnitude are unsustainable.  Without increased and predictable income, we will not be able to provide the classes that our students need.  We will not be able to provide the academic support services that our students need.  We will not be able to equip the laboratories and hire the counselors, financial aid staff, and lab techs that our students need.  The effect of fewer class sections and fewer services is that it will take longer for students to graduate, creating an even greater financial burden on students and their families—much greater than the tuition increase that is being proposed today.

Given the financial realities we are facing, I don’t think that we have an alternative.  In fact, the $300 increase will not completely solve our problem.  It certainly won’t make up for all the dollars that have already been extracted from the University’s budget.  And going forward, as more and more students choose CUNY for their education, we will need more full-time faculty, more support services, more library resources.

This is a very important moment for the University.  The state has come forward with a historic plan to stabilize tuition funding, recognizing the urgent need for both our students and our University to effectively plan for the future.  I think this is a change that will reverberate for many years ahead at CUNY, and I believe it is important that we support it.