Pataki's Budget Blasts CUNY

By Bill Crain

Governor George Pataki's budget for next year will hurt CUNY's most financially strapped students. It calls for a $2 million cut in SEEK, a combined reduction of $2 million for child care services at the senior and community colleges, and a $40 million statewide reduction in TAP. These cuts, coming at a time when the state enjoys a budget surplus, are simply cruel. There should be a tuition decrease to help students-not cuts like these.

The governor's budget, which must be approved by the state legislature before going into effect, also fails to provide money for additional full-time faculty. Since CUNY has suffered severe losses of full-time faculty since the early 1980s, and will lose more next year, the lack of replacement money is serious. One has to ask whether the budget reflects a plan to downsize the university.

The Pataki budget does provide a 2% overall increase for the senior colleges. Much of this new money will go to the new remedial programs that CUNY is putting in place as it phases out the current remedial offerings. The new programs include immersion institutes and new tests. The community colleges, which are supposed to help many students who are barred from the senior colleges, will suffer an overall funding loss of 1%.

As noted, the governor's budget is not final. If the university community and the wider communities actively oppose it, the pressure will be on the governor and the legislature to revise it. Let's press for a fair budget that gives students a chance.

Bill Crain is a professor of Psychology at CCNY.