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Q&A
CUNY's public safety staffing, budget, and recruitment challenges
1:32:46
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115 sec
COO Hector Batista provides a comprehensive overview of CUNY's public safety resources, including budget allocation, staffing numbers, and recruitment challenges. He also discusses the measures taken to address these challenges and ensure campus safety.
- CUNY spends nearly $100 million on safety across the university system
- The university employs about 875 permanent security personnel and 275 additional staff through contracts
- CUNY has faced challenges in recruiting permanent personnel, but recent contract negotiations have helped
- The university feels confident in its current ability to address safety concerns, but acknowledges that in some cases, additional measures may be necessary
Hector Batista
1:32:46
Sure.
1:32:47
Thank you, chancellor.
1:32:48
So system wide, we spent a little bit under $100,000,000 in safety for the university.
1:32:55
That translates into roughly about 875 permanent security personnel.
1:33:03
And then through contracts, have an additional 275 with a total of about 1,150.
1:33:10
That represents, about 14, contracts, throughout the system.
1:33:16
The the presidents are always, in in, you know, instructed to use those contracts when they need to in order to whether it is for security reasons or they have, you know, an activity that's going on that they need, you know, across the system.
1:33:35
And obviously, we then provide additional personnel because the central office also has not only personnel but also has a security contract.
1:33:43
And we we send out what we call the safe teams over to the campuses depending on what the situation is.
1:33:50
So we think that, you know, obviously we feel that, this is enough in order for us to be able to manage the system.
1:33:58
As a university, we've had challenges, recruiting, permanent personnel.
1:34:04
That's why last year we were very happy with the contract that we were able to negotiate on behalf of those public safety officers, the teams in this contract.
1:34:13
And we feel that through that and some other things that we've done, we're starting to see some traction.
1:34:19
But, you know, across the nation, you know, this space has been a space that's been challenging to recruit people.
1:34:24
But, right now we feel very confident that, you know, we have the personnel that we need in order to continue to address those things.
1:34:30
But in some cases, as the chancellor alluded, the numbers are just outnumber what we could provide and we have to do what we need to do to keep the system, the the college safe.
Eric Dinowitz
1:34:41
Thank you.