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Q&A
CUNY's response to Governor Hochul's opportunity promise scholarship proposal
1:26:21
ยท
141 sec
Council Member Erik Bottcher inquires about CUNY's anticipation and preparation for a potential influx of students due to Governor Hochul's proposed opportunity promise scholarship. CUNY officials Sherif Soliman and Alicia Alvero respond, detailing projected numbers and preparations for accommodating new adult learners.
- CUNY projects 3,500 current students would be covered and an additional 1,700 new students would attend under the governor's proposal
- The Assembly and Senate have proposed modifications and expansions to the original proposal
- CUNY is preparing by assessing advisor-student ratios, planning for additional support staff, and addressing textbook costs
Erik Bottcher
1:26:21
Good.
1:26:23
In January, in her state of the state address, governor Hetty Kochel announced the opportunity promise scholarship, which would offer free community college tuition for all adult learners aged 25 to 55 in New York State.
1:26:40
Does CUNY anticipate a big influx of students if this is funded by the legislature?
1:26:47
And if so, what are you doing to prepare for this influx of new adult learners?
Sherif Soliman
1:26:54
So let me start, and then in terms of the preparations, I'll turn it over to my colleague Alicia.
1:27:01
So the governor's proposal would cover 3,500 current students at the community colleges and we project that 1,700 more under that proposal would attend.
1:27:17
As you may have heard the Assembly and Senate one house budgets also have come out in the past you know forty eight hours and I think that there were some modifications and expansions there.
1:27:32
So clearly we're looking at that and seeing what those projections might be.
1:27:37
Those expansions clearly one of which was you know something that we advocated for because we have associates degree programs in our comprehensive colleges.
1:27:48
And so we are you know glad to see that expansion but we're going to sort of recalibrate the numbers to see what those projections are.
1:27:56
And I turn it to my colleague to talk about the preparations underway.
Alicia Alvero
1:27:59
We've been working closely with all the colleges and the chief academic officers to project out and based on those projections, based off of which programs each of community colleges offer that are in high needs and asking them to look at their current advisor student ratios, how many more advisors would they need because a program provides support for additional supports.
1:28:23
It's also the textbook costs associated with that.
1:28:26
So we're already building out projections in anticipation of hiring the additional supports and having the infrastructure in place.
1:28:35
CUNY knows how to do that well and get students the textbook costs covered, and and so we'll just build upon that.