{"id":5793,"date":"2024-03-17T08:47:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T12:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=5793"},"modified":"2024-03-17T08:47:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T12:47:57","slug":"largest-donation-in-cuny-history-for-comp-sci-and-ai-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2024\/03\/largest-donation-in-cuny-history-for-comp-sci-and-ai-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Largest Donation in CUNY History for Comp-Sci and AI Project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Simons Foundation President David N. Spergel and CUNY Chancellor F\u00e9lix V. Matos Rodr\u00edguez<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Governor Kathy Hochul announced last month that <\/span>CUNY will receive $75 million from the Simons Foundation<\/span><\/a> to improve the computational science programs and incorporate CUNY into the governor\u2019s proposed <\/span>Empire AI project<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The donation is the largest in CUNY history. The funds will be split with $50 million going toward enhancing the computational science programs and $25 million to establish CUNY as part of Hochul\u2019s plan for an AI computing center upstate, consisting of various local universities in a collaborative research consortium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith this funding, we are creating more opportunities for our students while solidifying New York as a leader in technology,\u201d Hochul said in the <\/span>press release<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chancellor F\u00e9lix V. Matos Rodr\u00edguez said it will \u201cguarantee access for our diverse community\u201d of over 10,000 researchers and a student body with 60% first-generation students and over 80% students of color.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unknown how much of the donation will go toward the Computer Science department at Hunter College.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

William Sakas, Chair of the Computer Science Department at Hunter, declined to comment<\/span> because he said he is waiting to learn more details relevant to the Hunter community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Left to Right: Tech:NYC President and Executive Director Julie Samuels; CUNY Chancellor F\u00e9lix V. Matos Rodr\u00edguez; Simons Foundation President David N. Spergel; and CUNY Graduate Center Interim President Joshua Brumberg<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The donation will fund the creation of a new master\u2019s degree program, the hiring of more faculty and increased career opportunities for students and staff, according to the press release.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite not knowing if the funding will affect Hunter directly, some students were excited nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of people, and it’s really competitive,\u201d said Joey Huang, a freshman Computer Science major. \u201cIt’s great that there are more job pathways opening up because I think right now there’s a lot of insecurity for CS majors who are worried that their degree is going to be useless because of the oversaturation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The computer and information technology field is projected to grow faster than most other occupations and add over 300,000 new jobs per year in the coming decade, according to <\/span>a government report<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of CS majors currently are looking into cybersecurity and software engineering, and they aren’t really exploring their other options,\u201d said Huang. \u201cSo if the funding is going into broadening their horizons, I can understand that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The donation will strengthen the degree-to-career pipeline for undergraduates and graduate students by providing research opportunities and will provide tuition subsidies and fellowship stipends for Ph.D. students to become mentors for undergraduate researchers, according to the governor\u2019s press release.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a new Hunter student, Huang said networking can be challenging in the large introductory computer science courses and wants more opportunities to improve the sense of community within the program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be super intimidating sometimes,\u201d said Huang. \u201cEven more intimidating sometimes because if you’re a woman, obviously you’re in a sort of male-dominated space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the school\u2019s enthusiasm for the large donation, some students said the money should be spent elsewhere, or to address major funding issues at CUNY.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One student brought up Hunter\u2019s notorious failing infrastructure when she heard about the donation, and cited reports of asbestos, bed bugs, exposed electrical wires, and inoperable elevators.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
An edition of Hunter\u2019s school paper, The Envoy, from Dec. 5, 1995<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTo hear that they’re putting that money into building up one program rather than sort of holistically improve the whole entire school \u2026 that’s pretty alarming to me,\u201d said Journalism major Sydney Sepp.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other funding issues include recent budget cuts and lay-offs. There were 235 jobs lost resulting from budget cuts that amounted to $155 million in the last fiscal year, <\/span>according to a comptroller report<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Hunter students are also scrambling to find affordable housing due to<\/span> the imminent demolition of the Brookdale dormitories<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sepp said the money could be dispersed more broadly to address some of these glaring issues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat program needs it the most? I would give it to them,\u201d said Sepp.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor Kathy Hochul announced last month that CUNY will receive $75 million from the Simons Foundation to improve the computational science programs and incorporate CUNY into the governor\u2019s proposed Empire AI project.\u00a0 The donation is the largest in CUNY history. The funds will be split with $50 million going toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":5794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[574,583,15,470,14],"class_list":["post-5793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ai","tag-computer-science","tag-cuny","tag-governor-hochul","tag-hunter-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5793"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5815,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5793\/revisions\/5815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}