Friday, May 18, 2001
Thank you, Chairman Berman, Chairwoman Marshall, Council Members, and Committee staff for the opportunity to testify before you and for your long-standing support. I am joined today by my colleagues from the University and would like to ask them to introduce themselves.
A special note of thanks to Speaker Vallone, Chair Berman, Chair Marshall, and Councilman Perkins for attending the student scholarship convocation on May 11, during which CUNY honored the Council leadership for the establishment and success of the City Council Academic Scholarships.
I am pleased to be here to offer testimony on the City's 2002 Executive Budget recommendations. I would first like to review with you the progress we have made during the past year.
These actions are consistent with our recently approved Master Plan 2000-2004, an ambitious blueprint aimed at enhancing the academic quality of the University. I will refer to that document throughout, as it is the Master Plan that provided the vision and horizon for the 2002 budget request, and it is to meet the goals of the Master Plan that we seek your support in the adopted budget.
I think you will agree that the past year for The City University of New York, the nation's largest urban university, has been an encouraging one.
The City's 2002 Executive Budget provides for the funding of two of the University's highest priorities -- $5.5 million for new faculty positions and $5 million dollars for College Now. However, a negative budget adjustment of $10.5 million, described as an action to comply with State maintenance of effort requirements, will nullify the benefit of any new funding if it is allowed to remain in the adopted budget. We want to assure you and others in the City that maintenance of effort language in the State budget bill does not prohibit new City funding of the University. This negative adjustment can be, and should be, reversed.
Let me add at this time that we appreciate the action the City Council took in its response to the City's preliminary budget, in calling for the funding of the City University's budgetary priorities.
The Executive Budget provides increased funding to meet rising energy costs, but it does not include funding for a number of other critical budgetary priorities, including funding for other mandatory needs such as contractual salary increments and OTPS inflation.
The City's Executive Budget recommends the elimination of the New York City Council Academic Scholarship program. This action would invalidate the aspirations of many, many students who have worked tirelessly throughout their academic careers but, absent the financial incentive of an academic scholarship, might forego a college education at CUNY. We anticipate that in the future this program will be linked directly with the CUNY Honors College to help defray the cost of tuition. We are most grateful to you for your sponsorship and support of this program, and, urge its restoration.
The Executive Budget contains three "terms and conditions" for the release of City funding to CUNY. They are: 1) that the University double, from 150 to 300, the size of the first class in the University's Honors College, and that the cost of the increase be borne by reductions in the University's central administration budget. 2) that CUNY "privatize" remedial instruction for at least 1,000 incoming students and, 3) that CUNY appoint outside reviewers to provide an independent assessment of the University's testing process.
With respect to the Honors College, 214 students have accepted seats in the first class beginning in September 2001. We expect to enroll a similar number of new students each year, reaching approximately 800 by 2005. We agree that expansion of the Honors College is an important goal, and have been seeking private funding for this exciting initiative. Cutting the budget of the University to support the Honors College will undermine these efforts, particularly now when foundations and alumni donors are making funding decisions.
Regarding privatization of remedial services, in my testimony before you last year, I reviewed the steps we took to contract out -- on a pilot basis -- for the provision of remedial assistance for a cohort of students whose educational needs have been the most challenging for CUNY to meet. We circulated an RFP, but no qualified bidders applied. We have no reason to believe that another effort would yield a different result.
With respect to the appointment of outside reviewers to provide an independent assessment of the University's testing process, we have, in fact, contracted with American College Testing (ACT), one of the two largest testing companies in the country. ACT designed the Reading and Writing tests we introduced this year, and are responsible for training, scoring, and a longitudinal study of student performance. Because of our deep concern to carry out student assessment in the most responsible manner possible, we have also asked the chief psychometrician from the Rand Corporation to counsel us on our testing program.
To summarize, the City University requests your support of the following actions:
Capital Budget
In 1998 the Governor and the State Legislature created and supported an unprecedented five-year $1 billion capital program for CUNY's senior and community colleges for the period 1998-2002. The plan identified $900 million for senior college facilities and $100 million for community colleges. This latter amount, when matched (as required by educational law) by $100 million from New York City, would provide $200 million for community college facilities. So far, the Dormitory Authority has bonded $515 million for the senior colleges, for which the State has appropriated debt service. CUNY has been fortunate to have the State's support of the senior colleges' physical plants. At the community colleges, we are grateful for the support we have already received and are eager to enhance City Capital funding. Over the past three years, City support has included the following:
In total, the City has matched $13 million in State capital funds over the past three years, leaving $87 million to be matched in the last two years of the five-year plan.
In FY2002, we are entering the fourth year of our five-year plan and we are seeking your support for critical projects at five of our community colleges. These include:
Finally, I want to make a special point about Medgar Evers College. The capital needs of Medgar Evers College must be addressed. As you know, Medgar Evers College was re-designated a senior college in 1994. One of the terms of the agreement to return Medgar Evers to senior college status was that funding of the capital program would be shared 50/50 by the City and State. Medgar Evers has outgrown its existing facilities and is the most overcrowded of our senior colleges. With support from the State and the City, the University is currently acquiring commercial property on Crown Street adjacent to the campus in order to provide sites for new buildings. The University looks forward to working with the State of New York and the City of New York to ensure that Medgar Evers College continues to upgrade its existing facilities and move forward with its proposed $80 million Academic Building I, on the site of a soon-to-be-relocated City sanitation garage.
The advocacy of the City Council for these requested items and your continuing enthusiastic support through capital (Reso A) funds are very important for the University and the students we serve.
It is a wonderful and challenging time for The City University of New York. I have highlighted in my testimony a number of areas in which additional resources will be key to our success as an institution. Your support is critical to our ability to transform struggle into opportunity and to carry out the goals of our Master Plan. The University deserves this funding, for nearly 200,000 degree-seeking students and 175,000 adult and continuing education students count on us to enable them to fulfill their aspirations and dreams.
This University is prepared to guarantee to the citizens of our City and State, colleges that are accountable, that are rigorous, and that confer degrees of genuine value. That is our end of the bargain, and those are ideals worthy of your support. The advantage to all will be a university poised to perform today so that the City and the State can succeed tomorrow.
The City University of New York