A summary of some new news related to CUNY's and CSI's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. See https://csi-covid19.github.io for the archive.
To add/suggest news, please email John Verzani
On 5/21 we had a College Council meeting. In the chairs report we saw this prediction:
As for other less drastic means, I have yet to hear of contingency plans by the college beyond this, but you can be sure the next areas that would be announced come from the temporary personnel budget are: College Assistants, Graduate Assistants, and research infrastructure (animal lab facility, HPCC,...)
(Pardon the editorial comments below, but it was all so predictable):
On 5/22, at General Chairs it was announced that the Plan to Eliminate the Gap (PEG II, as we already had PEG):
targeting non-reappointment - $4.8M worth of adjuncts
Reduce NTAs - $500,000 (BTW, graduate students can be so classified)
* CA budget by 2M – July 1 – 30% of budget. That is about 130 CAs!
500,000 from unsponsored research (that is research infrastructure)
* Gains from vacancies - +1.2 M from attrition; (that is we aren't replacing any faculty that separate) * $400,000 in savings from transportation – eliminate tax levy – because not students using. (The students will be paying for less) * Energy savings – some energy savings - $250,000 (or about 5% of that budgett)
Meanwhile, the hope that the second half of the CARES act funding (~6M) would be directly beneficial for the campus appears not to be the case, as the college will need to demonstrate past or future expenses related to the coronavirus. This may be a boon for addressing infrastructure needs, but less likely, it appears, to address the pending state budget cut to the tax levy allocation.
Cuomo has governed New York state since 2011. State aid to CUNY, adjusted for inflation, has declined by nearly 5 percent during his tenure, though the state’s gross domestic product has increased.
At the same time, CUNY tuition has steadily risen. A New York State resident who is a full-time student at a four-year CUNY school now pays $6,930 a year, up from $5,130 in 2011. New York’s Tuition Assistance Program, which provides aid to students below a certain income threshold, no longer covers the full cost of tuition, and Cuomo forces individual colleges to make up the difference. Another tuition increase of $200 per year, along with a $120 “health and wellness” fee, is set to be voted on by the CUNY Board of Trustees in June.
“We were in short notice, asked to leave the dorms, and being an international student I have no family here to stay with,” said Nicole Agu, a College of Staten Island student and USS Vice Chair of International Student Affairs.
Agu explained that with the advocacy of USS, international students who were not able to leave the country were replaced in Queens College dormitories.