Expand financial aid for Queens’ part-time students, report says
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A new report from the Center for an Urban Future outlines Queens’ part time students’ need for financial aid.
Photo by Jim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons
By Rachel Vick
A new report from the Center for an Urban Future is urging the state legislature to prioritize Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to expand the Tuition Assistance Program to part-time students.
The nonprofit says the decision could aid more than 20,000 students in Queens, many of whom have been shut out of other forms of financial aid.
“It’s time to make TAP available to part-time CUNY and SUNY students,” said co-author Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future. “Doing so will help thousands of low-income New Yorkers stay on the path to a college credential. The reality is that tens of thousands of New Yorkers recognize the importance of earning a college credential but cannot set aside work and family responsibilities to attend college on a full-time basis.”
Hochul’s proposed Executive Budget includes $150 million to expand TAP to cover students enrolled in six or more credits of study at a SUNY, CUNY or not-for-profit independent college.
The CUF report urged expanding TAP to cover all CUNY and SUNY students in degree-granting programs, and extending TAP eligibility from the traditional fall and spring semesters to include assistance for year-round enrollment.
There are approximately 21,544 part-time undergraduate students at four CUNY campuses in Queens — LaGuardia Community College, Queensborough Community College, York College, and Queens College — who would potentially benefit.
In 2019, there were 37,000 students enrolled part time system-wide, according to the report.
The part-time student population at LaGuardia Community College is the third highest of any CUNY, and accounts for 46 percent the school’s student body.
Less than 1 percent of CUNY’s part-time community college students have received TAP awards, according to CUF research. Only 1,738 CUNY community college students received funding through the state’s separate Aid for Part-Time Study program in 2019 — accounting for 4.7 percent of all part-time students — with awards averaging $743, according to the report.
Most part-time students are ineligible for CUNY ASAP, which subsidizes tuition, transportation and books, and for the state’s Excelsior Scholarship program.
TAP eligibility rules currently require that students be enrolled full-time for two consecutive semesters and does not typically cover students enrolled in the summer or winter intersessions.
Although studies show that full-time study is preferable to part-time study for maintaining academic momentum and should be encouraged, tens of thousands of New Yorkers are unable to set aside work and family responsibilities to attend college on a full-time basis.
“It is past time for New York’s policymakers to step up and adapt the state’s financial aid system to the needs of today’s students,” the report reads.
Hochul’s 2022 plans for public education also includes providing tuition-free workforce credentials in community colleges in high-demand fields, awarding prior learning credit across SUNY and CUNY and increasing financial support for four and two-year CUNY programs.
“My family's life was changed because my father was able to afford a college education,” Hochul said. “New York must have a statewide world-class public university system that can change lives for the next generation of students.”
