QUICKIES
1% for Hunter
Bucking the trend towards free fall in CUNY’s operating budget, the
1997-8 year promises a 1% increase in general funding available. Administration
has responded by beginning a search for twenty-five new faculty positions.
These new positions will be added to the twenty-two faculty who joined
the staff this fall.*
Hunter Facility Gets $6 Million Facelift
$6.1 million was spent on everything from repainting to tree planting
during the 1996-97 school year. Registration was revamped by the creation
of the Unified Counter, aka the Oasis, which provides one-stop financial
aid services. The majority of the repairs and improvements were structural,
dealing with chairs, paint and the simple things. Work was done at the
68th Street Campus, Brookdale, the School of Social Work and the MFA Building.
The bathrooms in Thomas Hunter Hall have yet to benefit from the new look.
Numerous students report being attacked by rust on the stall doors.*
Sharp Drop in UC Minority Admissions
Directly after the defeat of affirmative action in California’s public
higher education system, students of color began paying the price. The
fall 1997 incoming class for UC Berkeley’s School of Law reflects an incredible
81% drop in admission of Black students from last year and a 50% drop in
admissions of Latino students. Disproving claims that a “race-blind” admission
process will result in higher academic quality, the overall grade point
average for this incoming class is almost exactly the same as last year.
UC officials expect a similar pattern for admissions to occur in minority
admissions to the system’s 600 other graduate programs. (See next Envoy
for in- depth coverage.) *
LA Times, The Jefferson Report, Infusion
Caputo Backs Affirmative Action
In a letter mailed to the Hunter community and published on page 2 of
the Envoy, President David Caputo reaffirmed Hunter College’s commitment
to hiring qualified women, people of color and Italians to positions within
the campus. New York City is, under law, required to engage in equal opportunity
hiring, but the laws have been changing nationally. The University of California
and the University of Texas have both eliminated affirmative action hiring
and admissions in the last year. *
National Crisis in Higher Education
A report by the Commission on National Investment in Higher Education concluded that the U.S. higher education system may be approaching a fiscal crisis. “Millions of Americans will be denied the opportunity to go to college” due to a combination of factors including enrollment growth, increased cost, “skyrocketing tuition and shrinking resources,” said commission co-chair Thomas Kean.
The report indicated that continuing to increase tuition will only worsen
this crisis; the average tuition has nearly doubled in the past 20 years,
even after adjustment for inflation. If this patter continues, 6
million students “will be priced out of the system.”*
Students in England to Pay Tuition
On July 23, the British government abandoned its long-standing commitment
to free higher education by announcing that it plans to institute tuition
for all students. Student groups say that the dismantling of government
grants as well as the new tuition fees could cost students as much as $16,000
after three years of school. Activists see this move as further proof that
the Labor Government intends to dismantle England’s welfare system.*
NYT, Infusion
