City Hall says proposed cuts to CUNY won’t affect programs. The university disagrees.

Published Mar 18, 2024 at 4:53 p.m. ET

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Published Mar 18, 2024 at 4:53 p.m. ET

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One of Mayor Eric Adams’ top budget officials assured lawmakers that the administration’s proposed budget cuts to the City University of New York wouldn’t severely affect its academic programing. But officials within the university system discredited these claims on Monday, suggesting instead that there’s now “a broad range in reduction in services.”

“CUNY is really an investment – it’s an investment into the city of New York and the state of New York,” said Sherif Soliman, CUNY CFO and senior vice chancellor for budget and finance.

Tense debates are already underway between the Adams administration and the City Council – which are both tasked with compromising on a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in July. Adams is continuing to stress the need for mass budget cuts to deal with the financial deficit caused by the ongoing migrant crisis, as well as the end of pandemic-era federal aid.

In January, the mayor proposed a $109 billion budget that called for severe cuts to CUNY, among other reductions in funding for libraries, sanitation and other essential services doled out to New Yorkers.

During the first budget hearing of the year, Jacques Jiha – who heads the mayor’s Office of Budget and Management – told lawmakers that the proposed cuts wouldn’t drastically affect CUNY’s programs.

“Basically, what we did is look mostly in the area of fringe benefits and do re-estimates of the assumptions that were made in that area,” Jiha said during a budget hearing on March 4. “We tried to avoid touching programs as best as we can.”

Jiha also said CUNY would corroborate his claims. But weeks later, Higher Education Chair Eric Dinowitz repeated Jiha’s testimony to officials at CUNY, who refuted the budget director’s claims.

“But why are there fringe benefit cushions to begin with?” Soliman said. “It’s because of the sustained reduction in heads throughout the community colleges due to the PEGs.”

The reduction to the heads of certain programs – which includes more than 400 full-time positions since fiscal year 2021 – is resulting in changes to library hours, counseling services and other campus operations, Soliman said.

Looking forward, Soliman said CUNY continues to be in “an ongoing dialogue” to “clarify the impact” of how these cuts are being felt at the campus level.

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Gothamist.

The $109 billion preliminary budget for the upcoming fiscal year includes $1.3 billion allocated towards CUNY, representing 1.15% of the entire budget, according to a committee report. This includes roughly $900 million in funding towards personal services, including its 6,024 full time positions. The $370.3 million in other services also includes the $26.0 million reserved for security, cleaning, printing and office equipment maintenance.

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Giulia Heyward is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers politics and breaking news. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email gheyward@nypublicradio.org or Signal 917-715-1458.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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