City Council Committee Meeting on CUNY

By Paul McBreen

The City Council Committee on Higher Education met on Monday, September 29, for a session titled “The CUNY Tuition Increases: Where is the Money Going?” City Council members Charles Barron, Miguel Martinez and Gale Brewer directed questions to a panel consisting of representatives from the CUNY Board of Trustees, students, a

professor/counselor at BMCC and a PSC representative.

Council member Charles Barron began by asking the administration whether students had any meaningful input or influence in the processes that led to the recent tuition increases. The Graduate Center students on hand, Paul McBreen (Classics) and Pete Mauro (Art History), readily clarified the lack of student input. The Trustees, however, were unwilling to provide a direct answer to Barron’s question.

When the matter of the technology fee was raised, the two GC representatives again stressed the low to nonexistent level of student input in the decision. In fact, they argued, the Technology Committees throughout the CUNY system, which appear to involve students in issues such as the technology fee, were created after the decision to pass the fee. Clearly, neither the tuition hike nor the technology fee could have passed a committee in which students possessed true bargaining power. The Student Government President from CCNY reported little or no student involvement in Tech Fee committees. The students suggested that standing administrative committees at all levels should include students in their compositions.

Charles Barron repeated his well-known position that CUNY should be a tuition-free institution, and insisted that a return to this former status is possible. The next meeting of the Committee on Higher Education is October 21, at 1 pm at City Hall. The focus of the meeting will be “The Fiscal Feasibility of No-Tuition at CUNY”. Student attendance at these meetings is crucial, especially Graduate Center students, who are often involved in CUNY as both students and instructors.

A report prepared prior to this meeting can be read at: http://www.council.nyc.ny.us/attachments/58915.htm or to see the City Council homepage: http://www.council.nyc.ny.us.