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Q&A
Why students choose CUNY despite challenges
2:24:37
ยท
130 sec
Council Member Eric Dinowitz asks CUNY student representatives why they continue to attend CUNY despite the challenges they've mentioned. The students explain their reasons for choosing and staying at CUNY:
- Affordability compared to private institutions
- Inclusive community and support for student success
- Belief in CUNY's mission and the access it provides to higher economic status
- Commitment to improving their home institution
- Students mention that a free MetroCard program would be helpful, especially for graduate students balancing work and studies.
- They emphasize CUNY's role as an incubator for future leaders and professionals.
- The representatives express their dedication to 'staying at home and fixing what we have at home.'
Eric Dinowitz
2:24:37
Thank you.
2:24:37
You ended by saying students should feel proud of the school they go to.
2:24:43
You both listed a number of say, deficits currently in the budget and how CUNY operates and yet you're still attending CUNY.
2:24:55
Can you talk more about that?
2:24:57
Like despite all those challenges you you remain at CUNY.
Tahisha Fields
2:25:00
Well for me, Baruch was one of the most affordable and not only top mental health counseling programs compared to Fordham and NYU.
2:25:11
So still getting the same academic process.
2:25:15
I chose and looked through the old the schools I wanted to go to so it was either Baruch or Brooklyn.
2:25:23
And it's
Akkeem Polack
2:25:25
a lot
Tahisha Fields
2:25:25
of money to do full time in mental health counseling but it was still most affordable compared to the private school.
2:25:31
So that was one of my factors.
2:25:33
Also I feel like CUNY is more inclusive to making sure that you're a community and that you are thriving to do what you need to do in the school and have a success and also have alumni come back and help you.
2:25:46
And that was one of my other reasons of why I attended CUNY.
2:25:51
I think the free metro card program will be helpful especially for a graduate student who you have other compounding issues that are going on and you're going back to get another degree, it's really hard.
2:26:04
Do you stay at work, go home from work, and then also go to class?
2:26:08
That's another fair on top of that even if you had like other things compounded on it.
2:26:13
So CUNY is affordable but I think alleviating about the transportation might be helpful.
Daniel Reden
2:26:20
Yeah and our colleges are the incubator of the future generation.
2:26:24
We have future council members, future doctors, engineers and the care of the future is ours, right?
2:26:30
And so we believe in CUNY, we believe in the mission, we believe in the access it provides to higher economic status for the people who go here who don't have access or wouldn't otherwise have that if it weren't for CUNY.
2:26:40
And it's in our rights, it's our responsibility to stay at home and fix what we have at home.