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A Vital Job Creating Institute in NYC is Under Attack
COVID-19 is now going after education in New York
With a slew of events resulting in a tumultuous start to the year, we have been forced to make challenging sacrifices and decisions. Living through an active public health crisis, a skyrocketing unemployment rate, and now nationwide protests, nearly every institution’s foundation has been strained. One of those institutions has not only been strained, but it is also under siege here in New York. With a loss of revenue and increasing public health costs, New York State has started to target programs to defund, and one in particular is the City University of New York (CUNY) system.
Existing proposals by the state aim to reduce the number of school adjunct professors and increase class sizes. The state has suggested raising the income of some adjunct professors from $3,200 per class to $5,000 per class. But, to balance their checkbooks, this will involve laying off nearly 50% of all adjunct professors. Adjunct, or part-time, professors make up the life blood of the CUNY system. At CUNY City College, 58% of professors are part time. In CUNY Hunter College, 70% of professors are.
The CUNY system is also one of the most demographically diverse institutions in the United States for students and professors. The program acts as a…
