CUNY News in Brief (March, 2009)
by Advocate Staff
In an effort to provide short-term relief to a budget under duress, Republican lawmakers in the New York State Senate have proposed a plan designed to attract students to CUNY and SUNY while they’re still in the cradle.
The plan, open to all children under the age of fourteen, offers parents the opportunity to lock-in future tuition costs at current rates. For example, parents of newborns can begin planning for the future by purchasing their child’s future tuition at $98 per credit. Rates increase as the child gets older, but parents can continue to purchase credits on the cheap until the prospective student reaches the age of eighteen.
Interestingly, under the Republican proposal, revenue collected from prepaid tuition credits would be funneled back into the university system. Under similar plans instituted throughout the country, revenue monies have been invested in the stock market to maximize future gains. But with the market in flux, and increasingly unreliable, Republican lawmakers are arguing that available funds should be invested immediately into public campuses throughout the state.
Speaking as if the plan were a done deal, State Senator Kenneth LaValle announced that “We are letting them make decisions on how they want to grow that money and how they want to spend that money.”
Nevertheless, the proposal will likely face steep opposition from Democrats currently controlling the legislature. Even Governor David Paterson, usually the “staunchest defender” of New York’s public education system, raised doubts about the proposal.
“These kinds of structures should never be looked at as a way of providing near-term fiscal relief” a governor spokesperson cautioned, “as they only create a hole down the road when the students arrive and the funds have been spent.” Of course, the governor’s office failed to mention that much of this necessary “near-term” relief is the consequence of Paterson’s rape-and-pillage campaign against the state education budget. But whatever.
According to its Republican sponsors, the plan offers a win-win solution to parents and public universities alike, each facing mounting constraints. On the one hand, the plan looks to generate roughly $8 billion in revenue over the course of the next decade.
On the other hand, says State Senator Dean Skelos, Republican Senator from Rockville Center, “This program will give parents and their children an opportunity for an affordable, first-rate education.”
Added LaValle, while the program does not ensure admission to any CUNY or SUNY colleges, it “will help parents secure a quality education for their children, while making a worthwhile investment in our public higher education system.”
John Forte to Teach at City College
Just months after being released from prison on a cocaine possession charge, rapper John Forte has been hired to teach at City College. Forte, who was busted by authorities in New Jersey in 2001 carrying over a million dollars worth of liquid cocaine, was released in January after serving seven years of a fourteen year sentence. He received a pardon for his troubles from George W. Bush.
Starting in early April, Forte will begin teaching a music therapy course as part of City College’s “In Arms Reach” program for at-risk youth, specifically those with incarcerated parents. The three month program will teach students between the ages of twelve and fifteen how to cope with the feelings of fear, anger and frustration common among those with parents in prison.
According to a Forte representative who spoke with AllHipHop.com, “John hopes that the catharsis of song composition will help children deal with the stigma of having a family member who is incarcerated and rebuild the spirit of those who have been traumatized or abandoned.” Former president Bush could not be reached for comment.
Hunter Students Stand in Solidarity against Budget Cuts to Universities
On March 5, thousands of students from across New York’s public and private university systems, marched on City Hall to protest Governor David Paterson’s proposed cuts to the state’s higher education budget. The CUNY contingent was represented most heavily by the hundreds of Hunter students that walked out of classes that afternoon to protest proposed tuition hikes. In a show of their frustration, Hunter students abandoned their classrooms at 2:00 PM, and headed south to Borough of Manhattan Community College where they joined with other protestors headed to City Hall.
“CUNY is made up of working-class students and students of color who really can’t afford to go anywhere else,” Hunter sophomore Jackelyn Mariano told Washington Square News. “It was supposed to be free when it opened up, and tuition has been increasing ever since.”
The rally was the latest in a string of actions taken by a nascent alliance developing between students at public and private institutions throughout the city. In January, students closed the New School in protest, followed the next month by the occupation of NYU’s Kimmel Center in the name of university accountability. According to the Graduate Center’s own Doug Singsen,
“Our next goal is: now we build something bigger than this. Our strategy is that students and faculty are the people who make CUNY run, and we have the capacity to shut it down. By doing that we can force them to meet our demands.”
- Discuss ways to prevent the spread of STDs!
- Action Tips: Green Up With Your Pet
- Learn CPR and get certified
