Queens senator tackles CUNY infrastructure woes
/
State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky spoke about the importance of increasing CUNY and SUNY capital budgets to pay for new construction at the universities. Eagle photos by Victoria Merlino.
By Victoria Merlino
Amid complaints from faculty and students that CUNY campuses are crumbling after years of neglect, the State Senate Committee on Higher Education hosted a hearing on Monday to better understand the infrastructure funding needs at city and state colleges.
Queens State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, chair of the committee, stressed the importance of capital funding, or infrastructure funding, for college buildings in New York City and throughout the CUNY and SUNY system.
“We have not had a five-year capital plan since 2008,” Stavisky said. “The 2019 approved budget did include $834 million in critical maintenance. But critical maintenance does not put a shovel in the ground and help in the construction of new buildings.”
The state has not implemented a five-year capital plan for the public university system since the last plan ended in 2013, according to POLITICO. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has vetoed bills that would require him to include CUNY/SUNY capital plans in his annual state budget proposal. CUNY is funded through a partnership between New York City and the state.
Stavisky said she was also concerned about how capital funding could make CUNY and SUNY college buildings more energy-efficient and sustainable.
CUNY is a sprawling university system with 25 campuses across New York City, including five in Queens. The system serves almost 275,000 student, and touts itself as a means of upward economic mobility for many low-income students. In a 2017 student demographic profile, 42.2 percent of CUNY’s 244,000 students at the time had a household income of less than $20,000 in CUNY’s senior and community colleges.
The president of CUNY’s faculty and staff union, Barbara Bowen, spoke at the hearing and said the system needs additional capital funds as well as money for critical maintenance projects fixing issues like leaks and bathrooms in disrepair. Bowen is an English professor at Queens College.
“A lot of the CUNY buildings are old buildings,” Bowen said. “Some are really beautiful old buildings, but they are literally crumbling when we touch them. I have recently been to some buildings where you touch the wall and it falls apart. That is unsafe, and it’s not good.”
Bowen’s union, the Professional Staff Congress, has faced CUNY funding woes of its own with CUNY, only recently ratifying a union contract that would guarantee higher pay for professors and adjuncts following a yearslong negotiation process. Previously, the Eagle spoke to CUNY adjuncts who said they were not receiving living wages.
“It sends a message, not just a symbolic message but a material message to our students that New York doesn’t care about your education,” she said.
