CUNY professors call on Albany to ‘keep its promise’

The City University of New York’s teachers’ union wants New York’s government to keep its promise.

In a radio ad titled “Legacy,” sponsored by the Professional Staff Congress, the union and CUNY’s faculty and staff, the union calls on Albany legislators to replace the millions that CUNY would lose because of the latest budget proposal.

“For more than a century, CUNY graduates have changed the world,” says the ad’s narrator. “Nobel Prize winners, civil rights leaders, Supreme Court justices, beloved authors and groundbreaking actors. Now CUNY is facing a crisis. Students were promised that tuition increases would be used to make a good education even better. But Albany’s latest budget proposal leaves CUNY millions of dollars short.

“So instead of having extra tuition funds to invest in the future, campuses are using the money just to make ends meet.”

The ad also acknowledges famous CUNY graduates such as scientist Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine, and actress-activist Ruby Dee.

The union said the ad was produced by the firm Shorr Johnson Magnus Strategic Media. The initial buy includes a rotation of more than 300 60-second spots on 14 stations over the next five legislative session days in the capital district and New York City.

In a statement, PSC-CUNY President Barbara Bowen discussed the importance of funding for CUNY schools and how it benefits students from working-class homes.

“New Yorkers need to know the state is in danger of breaking an important promise to students and their families,” said Bowen. “Albany can keep its promise this year and fix the broken promises of the past by providing the full funding to CUNY. When legislators voted for SUNY 2020, they agreed to increase CUNY tuition by a total $1,500, promising that the increases would enhance education and not be used to offset shortfalls in state funding.”

Bowen continued, “But tuition hikes can’t fund new investments because the state isn’t covering CUNY’s annually increasing costs for energy, rent, fringe benefits and collective bargaining [what CUNY calls ‘mandatory costs’]. Learn more about CUNY’s unfunded mandatory costs and more about how Albany can help ‘Keep the Promise’ of CUNY.”