Public Employee Press

Editorials
Starving CUNY

Albany appears to be headed toward abandoning the City University of New York.

In January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his budget plan, which calls for shifting $485 million in state assistance for CUNY to the city.

This cut alone would reduce the state's funding of the senior colleges by one third.

Is this a sign that Albany intends to renege on the commitment it made during the city's 1970s fiscal crisis to support these four-year institutions?

The budget cut is only the most recent hit on the public colleges and universities in New York City. In December, the governor vetoed a bipartisan bill that aimed to help CUNY recover from the years of austerity following the 2007-09 Great Recession.

The legislation also would have provided retroactive pay for the educational system's employees, including DC 37 members and the faculty, who are working under expired contracts and have not seen raises for years.

As DC 37 negotiates a new contract on behalf of workers at CUNY, the union seems to be running into one insult after another.

On Jan. 4, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his support for raising the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour and said that his plan will cover 28,000 workers at the State University of New York.

Meanwhile, workers at the City University of New York were left wondering why they were excluded.

Thousands of DC 37 members at CUNY make less than $15 an hour. The governor's failure to treat CUNY workers and their state counterparts equally is a profound injustice.

As Cuomo embraces the nationwide Fight for $15 movement, he needs to pay greater attention to the pay inequities and wage stagnation in his own house.