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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Lisa Nishimura, Engagement Coordinator at Young Invincible
1:44:08
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3 min
Lisa Nishimura, a CUNY alum and Engagement Coordinator at Young Invincible, testified about the financial barriers CUNY students face and the need for more accessible support programs. She shared personal experiences and stories from current students to illustrate the challenges of affording transportation, food, and educational materials while pursuing higher education.
- Nishimura highlighted the gaps in existing support programs like ACE and ASAP, noting that not all students who need help are eligible or aware of these resources.
- She emphasized the importance of programs like Single Stop in helping students meet their basic needs and focus on their education.
- The testimony included examples of students struggling with food insecurity and risking their safety by fare evasion due to financial constraints.
Lisa Nishimura
1:44:08
Hello.
1:44:09
Can you hear me?
1:44:09
Okay.
1:44:10
Great.
1:44:10
So good afternoon.
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My name is Lisa Nishimura and I am the New York engagement coordinator at Young Invincible so I work especially the Committee on Higher Education for the opportunity to testify
1:44:24
moment.
1:44:25
Hearing.
1:44:25
Oh, sorry.
1:44:43
It's okay.
1:44:44
I'm here today to share my support for ensuring that all CUNY students have access to higher education and for eliminating financial barriers that may hinder their pursuit of it.
1:44:54
First off, I'm a proud CUNY alum, class of 2020, and although I am a bit removed given how much time has passed, I still work with the majority of our base who are current or recent CUNY students.
1:45:05
To this day, I hear similar sentiments of ways in which CUNY is still inaccessible to students, especially to those it's supposed to serve, low income young adults of color.
1:45:15
There are hidden costs aside from tuition that students attending higher ed institutions still have to bear from the cost of traveling to their campus to purchasing textbooks for their classes like Akim had mentioned earlier.
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While programs such as ACE or ASAP help to lift the burden of these costs and I have witnessed folks from our organization greatly benefit from them, there are still significant gaps of students who are not eligible or who are not aware of the existence of these programs.
1:45:41
I was actually one of those students who had financial needs yet I was not eligible for ACE at the time because I was an entering freshman and I was a part of the honors program.
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I heard now that they don't have that criteria anymore, so honors program students can still apply.
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However, have I had been eligible and accepted into the ACE program, it would have been a huge relief for me as I had to pay for school out of pocket and was also struggling with my basic needs including 40 monthly metro cards, which I needed to travel to and from campus to work and back home.
1:46:15
For me, those gaps were filled through the accessibility of programs like Single Stop, which allowed me to focus on my education rather than worry about how I would get to my classes or how I would gain the energy to focus due to food rationing.
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Even though this was almost half a decade ago, the same challenges I face still linger among current CUNY students who have expressed similar struggles.
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For example, a student who's studying biology at their CUNY campus stated that as an adult student who cannot rely on parental or familial support wrote about how it would let me let me finish this paragraph because it's important, who cannot rely on parental familial support wrote about how their major was so demanding with little to no room for a part time job that it forced them to quote unquote, this is a quote, skip meals or eat smaller portions to stretch their limited budget for other necessities like textbooks and transportation.
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And then lack likewise, another student wrote about jumping the turnstile because they do not have a well paying job to cover those costs.
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Again, there should be no reason why students have to make sacrifices between their essential needs and their education.
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In particular, no student should have to risk their life to ride a train to study in pursuit of a degree.
Eric Dinowitz
1:44:24
May pause hold
1:44:28
I wanna read the rules again.
1:44:35
No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table.
1:44:40
Okay.
1:44:41
Thank you.
1:44:42
Please continue.