Cuomo's Cuts to CUNY threatens the City's most disadvantaged Students

With New York State preparing to cut billions of dollars in spending due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students and faculty are fighting back against cuts to CUNY.

Many studies have found that across the country, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected minority groups, more specifically, Black and hispanics. Queens, which has been dubbed the ‘epicenter of the epicenter,’ is the not only one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, but also in the world.

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Enrique Peña-Oropeza, a college student from Queens, has first-hand experience struggling with the virus. The 22-year-old and his father both lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and they both ended up contracting the virus. Enrique spent five days in the hospital, while his father spent 21 days there.

Peña-Oropeza was able to speak about this on a Zoom conference hosted by CUNY Rising Alliance, a coalition of students, workers and communities fighting for a free and quality CUNY. Unfortunately, the call had to be cut short due to it being hijacked by what seemed to be neo-nazis.

A voice interrupted the call, asking if one of its members, Assemblymember Harvey Epstein had any relation to the infamous Jeffrey Epstein. Swastikas and the words ‘Trump 2020’ were being drawn.

While this is the first time Peña-Oropeza has had a Zoom call hijacked, it hasn’t been the first time he’s faced opposition towards his advocacy.

“When you’re in my position, you kind of prepare yourself for hate that could come from anywhere,” said Peña-Oropeza. “I’ve gotten insults from people on the internet a lot of times because as an immigrant, they don’t feel I have a right to speak up about this country.”

A lot of the advocacy Peña-Oropeza has been focused on funding for CUNY. Even before the pandemic started, many students were upset with how Governor Andrew Cuomo has treated CUNY. While tuition and fees are going to increase by $320 per year, aid for students will remain the same.

This is referred to as the TAP gap- the difference between the cost of tuition and the amount the school charges TAP eligible. In the past, the amount of money New York State allocated towards colleges to provide financial aid to TAP eligible students covered the entire cost of tuition. However, while tuition has increased through the years, the funding allocated to colleges has remained the same. That means colleges have to pay out of their own pocket to provide students with full financial aid. This causes strain on the colleges, and leaves them with less money in their budget to fund clubs or courses. In fact, Brooklyn College has announced that they are considering a 25% reduction to course offerings for this upcoming Fall semester. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made matters worse for CUNY and its students. Due to declining revenues, CUNY has announced that the state funding cuts applied to CUNY could be as high as $95 million. In addition to that, Mayor de Blasio has proposed $25 million in mid-year funding cuts to CUNY.

These cuts to CUNY affect the school system’s large minority population. According to the CUNY Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, of all the senior colleges, Black students make up 23.1% and Hispanic students make up 26.2% of total students, compared to 27.1% White students.

Peña-Oropeza, along with many other minority students, live in neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the virus. Peña-Oropeza lives in Corona, Queens. In Corona, for every 1,000 people, there are 36 positive cases of COVID-19. 73.6% of the population in Corona is Hispanic and many of the house-holds are mixed-status households. This is a household in which someone files their taxes with a spouse that does not have a social security number. Mixed-status households were not eligible to receive the $1,200 stimulus check that was issued by the federal government.

In addition, many of the neighborhoods that are being hit the hardest are also being helped the least. When the City announced that they were going to be giving away free masks, some were quick to notice that areas with some of the highest rates of positive COVID-19 cases didn’t have easy access to these distribution sites.

Many students are already suffering due to the virus, and believe that their education should not take a toll due to it as well.

Kasson Colon-Mangin, a student at City College who spoke at the CUNY Rising Alliance Zoom call said, “Though I understand CUNY is facing unprecedented revenue loss, it’s unethical for CUNY to raise tuition and fees during this time,”

What everyone in the call seemed to agree on was that Governor Cuomo had to increase taxes on the ultra-rich to fund the CUNY system.

“We need a billionaires tax, a multi- millionaires tax, a pied-a-terre tax. These people have money to pay. Albany has the power to tax them.” said Michael Kink of the Budget Justice Coalition.