{"id":2332,"date":"2020-03-03T15:51:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T15:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=2332"},"modified":"2020-03-16T17:03:10","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T17:03:10","slug":"cuny-and-suny-students-lobby-albany-for-tuition-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2020\/03\/cuny-and-suny-students-lobby-albany-for-tuition-freeze\/","title":{"rendered":"CUNY and SUNY Students Lobby Albany for Tuition Freeze"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Students
Students meet with Assembly Member Myrie Zellnor’s Legislative Assistant.<\/figcaption> Photo by Henry Fernberger<\/span><\/figure>\n

Last Thursday, students, staff and faculty travelled from all over New York state\u00a0 to show their elected officials in Albany just how burdensome another tuition hike would be.<\/span><\/p>\n

City Tech senior Jessica Woodberry\u2019s experience was a prime example of CUNY students who pay out of pocket. \u201cWith the hike in tuition I can\u2019t afford to go to school anymore I have had to drop some classes to make sure I can pay what the loan doesn\u2019t cover,\u201d Woodberry said while holding back tears in a meeting with Assembly member Zellnor Myrie\u2019s legislative assistant. \u201cI\u2019m a single parent and there are days where I can\u2019t eat or feed my child because I have to pay tuition or textbooks or transportation.\u201d Woodberry\u2019s story wasn\u2019t unique among more than 600 students who converged on the State building to win more funding CUNY and SUNY. Stories ranged from students needing to jump turnstiles to get to class to having to choose between books over food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0In this year\u2019s executive budget request, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yearly tuition hikes of $200 for the next five years and a flat operating budget despite the increase in <\/span>enrollment<\/span><\/a> and ailing<\/span> infrastructure<\/span><\/a>. In the past years, tuition has gone up by $1600 which is about 40% of the current <\/span>cost <\/span><\/a>of tuition per semester<\/span><\/p>\n

CUNY and SUNY need $86 million dollars from the state budget to stop a tuition hike according to the <\/span>New York Public Interest Research Group<\/span><\/a>. That\u2019s .0004% of the $178 billion New York State budget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuition wasn\u2019t the only issue on the group\u2019s docket. The coalition of six different student governments and unions made demands which included an increase state investment, a freeze in tuition hikes, eliminating the <\/span>TAP Gap<\/span><\/a>, expanding Education Opportunity Programs (EOP), and a reform on state financial aid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
USS President Timothy Hunter addresses the room before the day of lobbying.<\/figcaption> Photo by Henry Fernberger<\/span><\/figure>\n

Team leaders prepared their groups encouraging students to tell their personal stories to move the politicians. University Student Senate (USS) President Timothy Hunter offered up his own story as an example to bring to their meetings. \u201cMy mom was a graduate of Medgar Evers College. When she was getting her undergraduate degree in 1993. She was having her classes not in classrooms but in trailers,\u201d said Hunter. \u201cThey called them portables. They said they\u2019d be temporary.\u201d Hunter took his specialized high school prep in those same trailers and classes are still being held in them today. Students and teachers were in 45 different offices throughout the day telling stories just like these.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the end of the week’s legislative session and by the time the students had made it to elected officials\u2019 offices many elected officials were already headed back to their respective districts. Some lobbying groups were received by legislative staff and not the elected officials themselves. \u201cI came up to see her, but she was back in our district,\u201d said Esperanza Rosenbaum, a recent graduate of City College.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A post shared by Hunter NYPIRG (@hunternypirg)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n