HOME
| POLITICAL-LEGISLATIVE |
TEACH-CUNY | LOBBY-YOUR-LEGISLATOR
PSC
BRIEFING
FOR CITY COUNCIL
CANDIDATES
Presented:
February 9, 2001
25 West 43rd St., 19th Floor
&
March
12, 2001
CUNY Graduate Center
By
Dr. Anne Friedman
PSC
Vice President for Community Colleges
The
City Council has a special responsibility toward our community colleges. The
funding formula for CUNY community colleges differs from that of our senior
counterparts. Legally the city is mandated to fund 1/3 of the budget with the
remaining two thirds matched in equal proportion by the state and student
tuition. Our mayor has consistently
refused to meet the city¹s funding obligation and, as a result, student tuition
has skyrocketed. As our potential
future City Council representatives we count on you to become knowledgeable
about the essential role that we play in the life of our city, to strongly
advocate for and support our students, faculty and staff and, in particular,
fight for the funding that we so desperately need.
But
we can only fight passionately for things we truly believe are worth the effort.
So it is my job today to remind you of the essential role that CUNY¹s
community colleges play in our city and convince you to join our students,
faculty and staff in our struggle to maintain our institutions as vibrant
centers of learning.
CUNY’s
six community colleges—BMCC, Bronx, Hostos, Kingsborough, LaGuardia and
Queensborough—currently serve about 60,000 students, slightly less than 1/3 of
the total university population. Over
40% attend part-time, over 50% hold either full- or part-time jobs and over half
report incomes of $20,000 or less. Nearly
40% are over the age of 25 with the median age being 27. Over 35% support
children, more than half are foreign born and close to 55% speak a native
language other than English. Two-thirds are Black or Hispanic, less than 25%
white and about 10% Asian. Nearly
two-thirds are female. In terms of tuition assistance, 56% receive Pell and 43%
receive TAP.
Well
statistics are important and statistics are informative.
But we know that students have faces and voices and stories; they are not
merely numbers on charts and graphs. Statistics
do not document the human dimension, the heart and soul of what education is
really about. At BMCC, for
instance, stories abound from 88 different countries and echo the colorful
tongues of over 100 languages. Aspirations,
determination, joys and sorrows are reflected in a rich and vibrant spectrum of
varied complexions. Let me share
with you a brief snapshot of an evening basic writing class as portrayed by one
of my colleagues in an Op-Ed piece published in the Daily News:
In
my evening basic writing classes . . .one or more of my mostly adult students
survived forcible eviction, sudden layoffs or shifts in work hours, stalking
by a violent ex-husband, a child¹s near death, a severe asthma attack, a
carjacking, a brother¹s fatal shooting, a serious on-the-job accident and
illnesses the students didn¹t have money to diagnose or treat. The
students worked long hours as paramedics, home-care attendants, nannies,
phlebotomists, craftsmen, cashiers, clerks, day laborers, street vendors or
hairbraiders. They rose . . . as
early as 4:30 a.m. to take their kids to day care centers and schools and to
travel hours to BMCC from other boroughs.
Sometimes they brought their children to class or called every half
hour to check on older kids coping on their own.
They got home at 11:30 p.m. or later and often stayed up until 2 a.m.
doing homework . . . (Jane Young, Op-Ed, Daily News)
So
what do students study when they come to our community colleges?
They
can choose from a panoply of career programs:
accounting, corporate and cable communications, computer technology,
early childhood education, nursing, allied health sciences, human services,
journalism, business management, marketing, travel and tourism.
Perhaps they will study dental hygiene, food service, the marine
industry, medical communications, paralegal studies or food science. Many of
these are transfer programs and are accredited by outside professional
associations. Some are the only
such programs offered in the state.
And
all of these career preparation curricula include liberal-arts and science
requirements. These courses provide general education for students not planning
to transfer immediately upon graduation while preparing them for transfer later.
And just as they would in the senior colleges,community-college students
progress to more advanced upon completing those at the introductory level.
The advanced courses enable students to explore possible majors, complete
their degree requirements and transfer.
Liberal-arts
and science offerings at the community colleges provide the core of higher
education. As stated in the January
1998 Mission Statement of the Community College Caucus of CUNY¹s University
Faculty Senate, these courses link "each generation to the ongoing human
search for meaning within a continuum of past and future. Studying the liberal arts and sciences helps students shape
not only their own lives, but also their perceptions of society, their
understanding of public policy and their sense of civic responsibility.
It is one of the United States’ most extraordinary achievements that
through community colleges this level of formal education has become available
to so many people who were not born into the privileged classes."
Research shows that students will most certainly change careers a number
of times after graduation; a strong foundation in liberal arts and sciences will
serve them well on whatever new paths they travel.
Additionally,
developmental and remedial courses in reading, writing and mathematics for both
native and non-native English speakers make higher education possible for
students who earned high school diplomas or GEDs but need to improve their
skills to succeed in college courses. These courses are essential to ensure that
CUNY¹s open admission policy at the community colleges succeeds and does not
merely become a revolving door for entering students after one or two semesters.
Do
our developmental students succeed?
Yes,
they do. And a 1998 study
commissioned by the CUNY Board of found that at the associate level 64% of
students complete their basic skills requirements after two semesters and 86% by
the end of their third semester. And, astounding though it may seem, at the
associate level "those who pass all their basic-skills courses were more
likely to graduate than students who took no remediation at all."
It
is true that not all will succeed; some will drop out or stop out for many
reasons. But the basic tenet of
Open Admissions is that we cast our net as widely as possible, giving all a
second chance. And we do not know
at the outset who our successes will be.
Do
our students graduate? Or are our
graduation rates a "disaster" as characterized by our
(thankfully) outgoing mayor?
Yes,
they do graduate—it may take them 6, 8, 10 years to do so but they do.
After five years our students surpass the national graduation rate (20%
vs. 17%) and after 6, 7 and 8 years graduation statistics continue to rise. And
given our students’ lives and academic and financial situations it is not at
all surprising that they take longer to graduate.
For this they should be championed rather than disparaged.
The notion of a two-year college is anachronistic.
And
what do our students do with their degrees?
Some
enter the job market; others pursue studies at senior colleges. They raise and educate their children; they contribute to our
city’s economy and the survival of their local communities; they pay taxes,
they vote as informed citizens; and they ensure that New York remains a vibrant
and thriving city.
Yet
it is becoming more and more difficult for faculty and staff to offer our
city’s community-college students the best in higher education.
We wrestle more and more with mindsets and policies that are politically
and economically rather than pedagogically driven.
We are bullied, threatened and slandered by the mayor.
We are micromanaged by a Board of Trustees that has shirked its fiduciary
responsibility to raise public funds for a public university.
Politicians and trustees meddle in an academic arena in which they are
far from expert, or even competent positing themselves as experts in curricula,
admissions and testing policies.
So
what are some of the serious issues that must be addressed?
The
current blueprint for CUNY is its Master Plan.
And the Chancellery’s budget requests reflect the priorities spelled
out in this document. This plan
represents a redefinition of the priorities of CUNY—away from an emphasis on
access and opportunity that are epitomized by the community colleges.
We read code language such as "educational opportunity within the
context of standards" which translates in reality to exclusion and
barriers. The emphasis is on "first rate graduate and professional
programs" and highly selective colleges and an Honors Academy. This signals a shift of focus from undergraduate to graduate
education—from the many to the few. And
this will necessarily reallocate resources to these elite programs, further
starving community-college students who need and deserve the most help.
CUNY
Community-college students pay the second highest tuition in the nation $2500
annually compared to California where tuition is $400.
Over the last ten years average annual tuition has increased by over 70%.
Since the early 1990s City support for community colleges dropped from 42% to
23% while student tuition increased from 22% to 42%.
Since 1991, every time the state has passed an appropriations bill it has
inserted a Maintenance of Effort provision requiring the City to fund, at least
the same number of dollars as the previous year.
As costs rise, however, that money buys less and less each year.
While
some of our students receive financial aid in order to receive TAP (Tuition
Assistance Program) these students are required to maintain full-time status.
Many therefore carry a course load greater than they reasonably should
given work and family obligations. Policy
truly tailored to the needs of many of our students would focus on the need for
part-time TAP. STAP (supplemental
TAP) used to be available for two extra semesters so that students could use
this time to complete remedial work. It
has been eliminated.
The
specter of privatization (especially in remedial areas) is of great concern at
the community colleges. And
infusing funds into narrowly-defined vocational and technical programs tailored
to fit business needs threatens to de-emphasize and devalue the essential
component of liberal arts and science education to any associates degree.
Increasingly we read and hear about the need to seek private funding, to
generate business-incubator projects to make money.
Many of us fear that our community colleges are poised to become the
K-Marts, the Wal-Marts and the Caldor¹s in the future "marketplace"
of CUNY.
At
the community colleges we have been coping with alarming decreases in Full-time
Faculty Community Colleges have even higher ratios of part to full time
faculty than our senior counterparts. Overall, 60% of our courses are taught by
part-timers. In some departments, during some semesters, this figure can
come close to 80%. And the Chancellery has told us that for "zero
level" courses (ESL, Developmental Reading, Writing and Math) there will be
no more full-time hires. It is shameful that the university denies our
dedicated and professional adjunct colleagues the salaries and working
conditions commensurate with their credentials and experience.
Finally, three of our colleges are facing enrollment declines. Most serious is
the situation at Hostos where the student body has dropped from 5,000 to 3,000
in the last few years. Bronx
Community and Queensborough are also facing downturns in enrollment.
I
thank you for joining us to day. The
City Council must play a key role in restoring city funding for the community
colleges. As you begin your campaigns I hope you will take time to visit our
campuses. I predict that you will
be inspired, and perhaps even humbled. Frank
McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has taught at NYCTC, in a New
York Times Op-Ed piece a while back hailed our community-college students as
heroes—heroes who recognize that education is "the only road to
sanity." Community-college
students are deserving and tenacious. They deserve respect and encouragement and
a true shot at a first-rate college education.
HOME
| POLITICAL-LEGISLATIVE |
TEACH-CUNY | LOBBY-YOUR-LEGISLATOR