CUNY Master Plan 2012-2016

INTRODUCTION
University Funding per Student Full-time Equivalent
2006-2012
$16,000
$15,000
$14,722
$14,411
$14,711
Funds per FTE (in 2012 Dollars)
$14,000
$13,000
$13,803
$13,666
$13,285
$12,000
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
All dollar figures are adjusted for inflation using the Higher Education price Index and are expressed as 2012 dollars.
Given these continuing reductions in city and state aid, it has been very difficult to maintain and
enhance quality, as well as to plan. For the better part of a decade, Chancellor Goldstein has advocated a
predictable tuition policy, one that would provide stability for the institution and allow CUNY, as well as
students and their families, to plan for the future. He has advocated for what is known as the CUNY
Compact: state-authorized, predictable tuition increases accompanied by increased philanthropy and
productivity by CUNY.
The Chancellor has steadily gathered support for this policy through speeches, legislative testimony,
and private conversations. In November 2005 remarks to the Center for Educational Innovation-Public
Education Association, the Chancellor said, “Public higher education must be a public priority, just as it is
a public good. It’s clear that we must re-envision our partnership with the state in order to ensure that
every student is encouraged and enabled to pursue a college degree.” In addition, he placed financing for
public higher education at the center of discussion during two national summits, in October 2008 and
November 2010, that he hosted at CUNY.
The culmination of these efforts arrived in June 2011, when Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature
signed into law authorization of elements of the compact model. The centerpiece of the new legislation
is the establishment of a tuition plan, one that builds in modest, predictable increases tied to state
funding while still protecting the neediest students. The model delineates shared responsibility among
partners and creates opportunities to leverage funds. It has four main elements:
• A “maintenance of effort” provision that ensures that New York State’s financial support cannot be
reduced from prior-year levels unless a fiscal emergency is declared;
• Authorization of a tuition policy that allows CUNY and SUNY to increase tuition up to $300 annually
for five years (through 2015-2016) for full-time undergraduate resident students;
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