Increasing the tuition for City University of New York students has been something I have been a witness to multiple times during the time I was there as a student. How will students pay for the latest ‘health and wellness’ tax that the Board of Trustees is looking to charge students? Why is this question only posed when we actually need to make sure our public institutions must be sustainable?
Increasing tuition at CUNY is a story as old as time. I have been on multiple lobbying trips in my time at CUNY, I’ve shaken the hands, talked about the problems, taken the pictures and then left the office. But I’d be back multiple times from 2015 as a freshmen student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College to my senior year at Baruch College. While we managed to get a tuition freeze back in 2016 (seems like such a long time ago!), it still stands that the State of New York is not being fiscally receptive and receptive to the advocacy, lobbying and determination of students to be heard in this very critical debate. We work on homework, study for our tests and between it all we present the face of people just trying to become something in a world that wants to take away our opportunity to and from our lobbying trips. When I entered college, I was immediately enrolled into the Accelerated Studies in Associate Degrees program at BMCC. Not only did someone individually walk me through class enrollment, long-term educational planning, mentoring and guidance, but my metrocard and books were covered for the semesters I was enrolled at BMCC. This program helped ease my worries about how I would be able to afford transportation, books AND college. It set me on a path to academic success where my advisor would be the one who tackled all the heavy stuff and I would just need to make sure I kept a solid GPA in order to stay in good standing and check in with her about any concerns I may have. I feel incredibly personal when it comes to the issue of education, because I come from a background where my parents didn’t have a college education and I had the opportunity and insatiable curiosity to pursue my dream of studying political systems and understanding how I can play a more active role in my country. I come from South Asia, where women have very limited opportunities for professional growth and advancement. I wasn’t going to squander it and I most certainly didn’t want other first-generation Americans and Immigrants to feel left out of an awesome opportunity to completely changing their destiny. With ASAP funding on the chopping block I felt propelled to action to help save our opportunity programs by mobilizing students to go out there and speak out. For this meeting, it seemed tone-deaf and out of touch to have a meeting with such importance on the eve of finals, and we all know how tough finals can be and the need to prepare for them.
In 2016, I was involved in the Bernie Sanders campaign for President. I was working in the field, talking to voters, handing out flyers and was peered down from the windows of suspicious would-be voters in Southeast Queens who weren't used to people knocking on their doors, trying to get them out to vote. I was enrolled full-time and my primary motive was getting Bernie Sanders elected so we could tackle the institutional challenges of being priced out of universities that dared to give us a dream and an opportunity to be educated and to join the professional workforce where we could have the empowerment to challenge our cycles of oppression. I had the unique opportunities to honor the Kaurs before me and attain an education that was never an option for them. I am living their dream in being able to speak out and put myself out here as much as I can.
It is no secret that in today’s world, the youth are restless and they are demanding that the old timers (“ok boomer”) generation stop hoarding access to our universities, governmental institutions and start tackling the challenge of climate change -something that the younger generation will have to find ways to live through if we don’t go extinct. Due to limited funding, there not being funding for CUNY and the professors who lend their talent and knowledge, there is systemic class unavailability in my home college of BMCC at the time but that empowered me to e-permit out to other CUNY colleges and expand my knowledge of how other campuses operate and make friends with students at Brooklyn College. I ended up taking a Labor Politics course at Brooklyn College. During my time there, I saw so many infrastructural defects and where there would literally be leaking ceilings and desks from the 1940’s. Some call it a occupational hazard, but no one prepared me for being a curious student in a physically deteriorating building. Sometimes, there would be students either heading to class or coming out of it, and there would be repairmen working on wires and we had to navigate around them to get to our destination. So it presented clear and present hazards.
Unfortunately, while Bernie did open his campaign at Brooklyn College- CUNY, he did not meet with students who were insisting upon having a dialogue around Higher Education and the crisis that CUNY is experiencing, some are chalking it up to an oversight by campaign staff that he was not able to talk to CUNY students. But for any candidate seeking ANY office, the litmus test should be on how they are willing to solve the student debt crisis and you only understand this crisis if you ask students who are waving their signs behind you and are cheering you on. Having an Higher Education Town Hall with Presidential candidates would put more pressure on state authorities once CUNY comes into the spotlight and the conditions that students and faculty are routinely dealing with. While it is hard to fit four years of my life at CUNY in one blog post, I can say that I learned from the very best in this institution and without student-faculty solidarity, I would not be here. I am eternally grateful to the Professional Staff Congress and the Adjunct faculty who have graded my papers, mentored me during office hours and provided me with internships and professional opportunities for advancement. I continue my work in organizingwith a focus on Asian American and Black empowerment in my work with non-profits and civil society groups.
With the likes of Pete Buttigeg who seek the most politically opportune response to tackling student debt, there is an entire America that wakes up unable to afford rent, can’t make their student loan payments and struggle to build community with each other since they are psychologically spent from being punished for daring to go into Higher Education. I have personally encountered high levels of anxiety, worry and depression because I was working TWO jobs in my last semester of college just to make sure I could stay on top of my tuition payments. My college always brought up new expenses to try to wrestle money away from me, but I always managed to get a full audit and they would back down. When I went to the financial aid office, the sign read “please do not move past this line” and there would be a pink line on the floor to indicate where you stop and they begin. I always mused “maybe they dont want me moving past this line because they don’t want any witnesses to the robbery.”
It was during that visit in my junior year of college when I had entered Baruch College, where I found out that Governor Cuomo’s much touted ‘Excelsior Scholarship’ wouldn’t be awarded to me. Now, I was confused because I met all the guidelines and the financial aid officer was itching to get me out of there so I couldnt ask anymore questions, kinda like the doctor’s office. Having had four years in Higher Ed, it was simple to see the progress we would have to make would have to be transformational and that incrementalism would not be an option because interest only grows on student loan payments, not in making college accessible and open to all. The problem that plagues the contemporary higher education landscape is taht when students graduated, they were recognized more for their financial contributions than say, maybe how much they have the power to influence the world and how much they are actively working to combat many of the pressing issues we are facing the world today.
With this hearing today, students are contending with finals and the prospect of even bigger tax for having melanin and a dream.
Even the schools that pride themselves on corporate non-profit governance and the ones who boast of being the origin source of where elected officials have completed their degrees are ones where ‘activists’ not welcome ‘changemakers denied’ can be prominently displaced even if we dont see the physical manifestation. When it comes to tackling the problems of institutional barriers many students (rightfully so) fall prey to cynicism and apathy and I have felt those feelings as well. But watching this Board of Trustee meeting on December 9th, 2019, where students have been very REAL about their struggles in keeping their head above water, being able to feed their families and enjoy time with their children, it has inspired me to a very great extent. When students and professors come together, we can combat these increases.
With this hearing it was remarkable that students from another group called Free CUNY, were actively bringing in coffins and other signs to illustrate how much the BoT has contributed to the death of accessible education. While it may seem drastic and some may frown upon it, I couldn’t help but marvel at this group and their determination in showing the Trustees how they really felt. I sincerely felt their (justified) anger over their inaction in making this university system fair and open to all and education justice is something we need to instill in this institution. The Governor of New York (Andrew Cuomo) and Mayor of NYC (Bill de Blasio) are charged with the appointment of Trustees and clearly they don’t have our interests at heart since they appoint people who can afford these increases, meanwhile students are sleeping in the library and showering in the school gym because they have insecure housing situations. I saw several examples of the food and housing crisis in my time at CUNY, where students would be working multiple jobs, dealing with family issues and not getting mental health care coverage that could help them. Some schools have 8 or 10 session thresholds, which really does prevent students from forming a connection with their counselor and let’s be honest, mental health is not something that can be managed in 8 to 10 sessions (if you’re on a CUNY that is lucky enough to have those sessions.)
Last night, this meeting was heavier on my mind so I had an opportunity to share a question with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about the inequities of funding CUNY and what that has been doing to the younger generation. She noted that there has been a long history of ‘disenfranchisment of people of color and since CUNY was free before the Civil Rights laws that were opening up historically white-male spaces, there was resistence to integration of students of color and providing them with education and opportunity’ BUT she also noted that in 1969, that Iowa and New Hampshire (all majority white states) were given more influence and say in the ways in which our electoral candidates would be able to win the nomination for President.’
New York Communities For Change has a CUNY Rising Alliance activist network that seeks to go into CUNY colleges and organize students to fight back against the tuition-tax-by-another-name. The coordinator for this effort is Jamell Henderson, who has graduated from multiple CUNY colleges and facilitates action on BoT hearing, press conferences, student conferences among many other student-centric activities. I cannot think of anyone better for this position as someone who has gone through the system and knows the issues that are glaring and prevent so many from achieving their degree in a timely manner. He comments that:
“it was one of the most stressful meeting to be had, because as students, faculty and staff were sharing and alums were sharing their experiences, I couldn’t help but pay attention to the faces of the Board of Trustees and how disconnected they are doing this on the last week of classes before finals, it’s disgusting, distasteful, and it’s poor leadership overall. You’re not even thinking about the students who are going through so much right now. The students do not deserve this, the students deserve better and we all deserve better.”
The City University Board of Trustees will meet on Monday December 15th, 2019 to cast a final vote on whether tuition will be raised.
Not only did officials from Public Advocate Jumaane William’s Office testify at the hearing (Steve Fox), but the Public Advocate himself was taken on a tour of York College — CUNY to explore just how fast building infrastructure and services were underperforming and in need of maintenance.
Obviously the Board and Chancellor must be thinking that students are ‘unruly,’ ‘aggressive,’ or any number of discrediting nomers. But one thing is clear. There are students out there one bill or rent away from completely breaking down and being priced out. Education Justice is incredibly important for the black and brown students who rely on this university to break them out of their chains. Let’s invest in our students. They’re our future.
