City Budget Campaign 2008

Mayor Bloomberg has proposed $65 million in cuts to CUNY’s budget. Act now to make sure those cuts are restored by the City Council and new funds added to meet critical needs at every CUNY campus.

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Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

(Edit Letter Below)

In your private roles and philanthropic activity, you have demonstrated a keen understanding of the importance of higher education to economic and social development.  I am asking you to show the same understanding of public higher education and its importance to all New Yorkers. I urge you to reconsider the budget cuts to CUNY in your Preliminary Budget and support restorations and enhancements.

The City University of New York (CUNY) is a vital resource for New Yorkers and for New York. Almost half of all college students in our city are CUNY students, and without CUNY most of them would have no opportunity to get the quality education they need to succeed in the 21st-century economy.

But CUNY is in danger because of your Preliminary Budget proposal for $65 million in cuts to CUNY?s budget and student aid. The cuts come at a time when CUNY's enrollments are higher than at any time in the last three decades, but when there are 5,000 fewer full-time faculty than in 1975, the last time enrollment was this high.  These cuts must be restored and new funds added to meet the needs of the university: more full-time faculty, mentoring and scholarship aid for students, the Black Male Empowerment Initiative, the Citizenship and Immigration Project, workforce development programs and more mental health counselors.

In budgets passed under your administration, CUNY had begun to restore the 5,000 lost faculty, expand student services and rebuild campus facilities such as libraries, laboratories and learning centers.  But the budget cuts proposed in this year's Preliminary Budget will stop this forward progress, and CUNY students will quickly feel the impact: reduced student aid and services, forcing some students to drop out, increased class size for those who remain, course cancellations, reduced library hours and deteriorating facilities.

Your reconsideration is needed to provide New York City students--many of them the first generation in their families to attend college--with a quality education.  CUNY has meant hope and opportunity for generations of New York City's working people.  In these hard economic times, CUNY is needed now more than ever.

Now is the time to invest in CUNY and the people of New York City.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

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