TESTIMONY OF
CHARLEE HUFFMAN

November 21, 2005

Hello, 

My name is Charlee Huffman.  I am an alum of Hunter College and a current graduate student at City College. I am opposed to the proposed “Master Plan for CUNY” which includes automatic annual tuition increases.  Unfortunately, there will not be commiserate annual wage increases from my employers or from the financial aid office to make up for the rising costs.  It is clear that CUNY needs money; it is clear that the students cannot provide this cash.  

This is not the first time I have come before you and asked that tuition not be raised.  I came to you as an undergraduate when I was at Hunter College and my tuition had more than doubled in the time it took to get a degree.  I am one of the lucky ones, i qualified for financial aid; many of my friends had to put their hopes for an education aside as costs rose.  When the increase passed, you assured us it was a necessity.  Afterwards there was no increase in adjunct salaries, still no tuition remittance for graduate student teachers and you voted to give yourselves a raise (which I’m sure was necessary).  In debt but determined, I graduated with a dual degree and honors, no thanks to the decisions of this board.   I received a small scholarship from the scholarship and welfare association, the Barbara Lang award.  I made the decision to stay within the CUNY system for graduate work because of my excellent experiences with professors, both adjunct and full-time faculty, as an undergraduate and my belief in public education.  

Now I am coming to you as a graduate student at City College, further in debt.  After paying one hundred and twenty five dollars, an application fee higher than those charged at SUNY schools and Ivy League universities (who at least give fee waiver options, unlike CUNY), my welcome to the program was a notice that tuition for graduate students had been raised in a June decision.  This letter wasn’t sent out until August, giving students no time to earn the extra money to pay for the increase, in effect forcing prospective students to take out loans to make up the difference.  Thanks. 

Many students in the CUNY system, as you well know, take extra time to graduate due to having to take breaks that allow them to work full time and save money; a four-year degree can easily turn into a 6-8 year commitment.  Is this to discourage those of us that CUNY was created to serve?  Isn’t the mission of CUNY to educate the poor and the working class?  Is this possible when tuition is raised as a matter of course and student aid becomes increasingly difficult to qualify for?  I know that there are members of this very board who received their education from CUNY before tuition was instituted.  This wasn’t so very long ago and still you propose to close a door that was open.  You deny us the opportunities you enjoyed.  I would like you to take a look at me, recognize and memorize my face.  Know that this is not a budget decision; this is a personal decision.  It is a choice that each of you is in a position to make and you bear personal responsibility for that choice.  This is no time for compromise.  If you vote for “the Master Plan” you are voting against students, individuals whose only opportunity for education is CUNY.  You are taking away our options.  You are voting against mothers’ gaining the ability to work for a living wage, you are voting against New Yorkers, primarily people of color, immigrants and the poor who have already been failed by the lower levels of the public school system.  You are voting against me.  Instead, I invite you to join with students and faculty in petitioning the city and the state to uphold their responsibilities to public education.  Encourage Pataki, who appointed many of you, to make good on his promise made in April of this year of  “no tuition increase.”