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Testimony Before the
CUNY Board of Trustees
on the Proposed Community College Tuition Increase
By
Steven London
First
Vice President, Professional Staff Congress, CUNY
June
16, 2003
Good afternoon. Many
legislators have told me that they personally oppose tuition
increases at CUNY even though they voted for the State budget which
included tuition increases. But,
they take comfort in the knowledge that the Tuition Assistance
Program (TAP) will cover increased costs for the poorest students.
The problem with the claim that TAP will pay for the proposed
tuition increase is that TAP does not cover all students nor does it
even cover all poor students. While
TAP will cover tuition increases for some students, many of the
City's poorest residents are ineligible for TAP or will not see the
proposed tuition increases covered by TAP.
Part-time
students are particularly vulnerable.
Almost all of the 30,300 community college part-time students
and the 40,200 senior college undergraduate part-time students will
receive no TAP assistance. TAP
for part-time students is a small "pilot program" that
amounts to no more than a few million dollars to be spread among
CUNY's 70,000 undergraduate part-time students.
Of these part-time students, 30.8% of the senior college
undergraduate part-time students (12,382 students) and 49% of
community college part-time students (14,838 students) come from
families whose gross income is less than $25,000 per year.
(Table 3 and Table
4, CUNY Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
3/12/03)
Additionally,
students who are financially independent and have no dependents get
very poor coverage from TAP. If
a student in this category makes one dollar more than $10,000 net
taxable income ($17,500 adjusted gross income), s/he gets no TAP
coverage. Among the 36,570 full-time students in community colleges,
nearly 2000 financially independent students with no dependents make
less than $30,000 gross
income and will get no
TAP coverage. Of the
65,766 senior college undergraduate full-time students, almost 4,000
are in the same circumstance. Assuming
a $2,800 community college tuition, community college students who
are financially independent and have no dependents, making between
$10,000 and $17,500 adjusted gross income, will get a maximum TAP
award of between $630 at the higher income ($10,000 Net Taxable
Income) and $2,800 at the lower income($2,500 net taxable income).
(Table 1 and Table
2, CUNY Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
3/12/03; and New York State TAP 2003-2004 Award Calculator, http://www.hesc.com/tools/tapindependent.htm#award)
One final
indignity is visited upon financially independent students with no
dependents. Unlike
others receiving TAP assistance, in most cases these full-time
undergraduate students' maximum TAP award will not increase to cover
the increase in tuition. For undergraduates in the senior colleges,
TAP awards are capped at $3,025. While the poorest students in the community colleges will see
the proposed $300 tuition increase picked up, many more will not
have the full increase covered by TAP; e.g. a student making $10,000
net taxable income will only have $130 covered of the proposed $300
increase.
Thus, tens
of thousands of CUNY students, both part-time and full-time will
have to absorb the full cost of the tuition increases being
proposed. This will
mean many of CUNY’s most economically vulnerable students will
face increased financial hardship and will have to drop out of
school. This serves
neither CUNY’s mission nor New York City’s need for an educated
citizenry and workforce. Therefore,
I oppose the increase of $300 tuition at the Community Colleges.
Table
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Table
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Table
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