When the terms innovation and transformation are deployed, I think people are often looking unidirectionally – ahead, to the horizon. People often think of building something new and discarding something old, and/or repurposing something old into something new, something better, fundamentally changing what that thing is and does, and who uses it. When I talk about innovation and transformation with colleagues, I make a conscious effort to stop and collectively survey our knowledge of the present landscape to identify what’s working (and for whom) and how we might leverage the resources and energy that often attend innovation and transformation to shore up certain existing legacies. We also need to focus on knowledge gaps, obviously, and determine the best way to learn about what we don’t know. 

Reading about CUNY and higher education during COVID in the press, I was taken by three instances of budget cuts undermining positive CUNY legacies. So I asked myself, what if innovation and transformation was about acknowledging and strengthening what exists? 

I thoughts I’d use this informal space of reflection to think through working responsibly toward a definition and practice of transformation as moving backward and forward in time, strengthening part of the institutions that are working, that are worth buttressing with an influx of people and financial power, while also establishing new protocols, paradigms, and opportunities for growth, change, and innovation that are more expansive and inclusive. I do think this method of conversation is counter to consumerist, expansionist, and capitalist culture which seeks to replace (displace?) the known with the unknown as a means to perpetuate itself. 

I offer a couple of examples below. The first is rooted in CUNY leadership but not seated at CUNY iself. The next two are CUNY initiatives. (I might add Women’s Studies Quarterly to this matrix, but that’s another post.) 

Yesterday, I was on the phone with Prof. Michael Mesner of Brooklyn College, who has a hand in multiple efforts trying to turn CUNY community kitchens into food distribution sites across the city and planning climate mitigation strategies that take community need into account through participatory budgeting and the Mayor’s office of resilience. Half way through the call, he said “CUNY can help solve this crisis,” and then as an aside, “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that over the years!” 

Reading through the op-eds by CUNY PSC members, I felt the truth of that statement viscerally. As I thought about giving shape to the robust but sometimes unarticulated (or illegible?) connections between CUNY campuses, local governance sites and decision-making, and wider NYC publics. The optimist in me sees the potential for the human architecture of CUNY to be activated as a space of progressive change, led by students who are learners in the classroom but experts in the worlds they inhabit outside the classroom. I picture CUNY students in positions that connect governing bodies and the body politic, systems or initiatives like the Be A Buddy in the Bronx. 

Be a Buddy is a wonderful program “designed to prepare the community for future climate events through climate health education and community preparedness. Local volunteers help at-risk residents and educate the community about climate preparedness. This is an initiative led by THE POINT in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency.” The initiative designates ambassadors in the community to check in on vulnerable seniors, relating to them the processes of democratice decision making around the climate crisis, ensuring information access to those who may not be “networked.” 6 of the 10 ambassadors were CUNY alumni, staff, and adjuncts — not by design! The fact is, CUNY students represent a huge portion of the population, and what’s more, they are a politically activated portion of that population. Unfortunately, the Be A Buddy system, a system that really works and makes a huge difference in the community, is being defunded. 

Later in my call with Michael, he mentioned that program that brings high school students to the community garden at Brooklyn College, introducing them to CUNY, to urban gardening, environmental learning, and how they can respond as community leaders to issues related to food justice, has been defunded. Another example of a program that works, a program with legacy, that’s being left behind as we turn the corner into a new budgetary landscape — even as the mayoral candidates debate food scarcity and access as a major talking point in the upcoming race. 

Today, I was chatting with Prof. Ryan Mann-Hamilton at LaGuardia Community College, who is working with the President’s Society: Environment team to transform a portion of campus into a nexus of environmental learning, water access, rest and rejuvenation in a natural space, and a hub for local businesses to buy more deeply into LaGuardia’s community. It’s a student-led vision that is gorgeous and exciting. Then I read the article about the shuttering – or the all but shuttering – of the English Language Learning Center and my heart sank. My heart sank. What does it mean to build something new and bold to connect education to community and land , when something essential at the ELLC can’t be sustained? This goes against environmental and sustainability thinking. Sustainability thinking is as much about maintaining as it is about visioning and building toward better futures. 

So what is sustainable innovation and transformation look like at an ecosystem as ull of potential and complexity as CUNY? 

In “Racialized Austerity: The Case of CUNY”, the authors, Michael Fabricant and Stephen Brier, define racialized austerity as, “…racialized and racist choices to deepen state disinvestment in institutions critical to the health and welfare of Black and brown communities…” – referencing, in particular the government’s tendency to be satisfied by simply creating access to public services for Black and brown, communities, regardless of their quality and divesting funds in services as they start to more serve the aforementioned demographics at increased levels. For CUNY, where up until the 1970’s, enrollment was overwhelmingly white (it is now about 70% Black and brown) and middle class, the city’s investment declined drastically as CUNY schools became more diverse, not coincidentally, the authors argue. This also coincided with, in 1971, the state requiring CUNY charge tuition to receive state support. Essentially, as more Black and brown students began to attend college, they were not afforded the same luxury of free tuition as their white predecessors. As the investment from the city and state level has dwindled in recent decades, the financial strain placed on the entire infrastructure is potentially compromising the quality of education students receive. Race needs to be an explicit consideration in any public policy decisions to combat the implicit and often ignored racism and biases that exist.

In “Low Four-Year CUNY Graduation Rate Linked to Limited Course Seats”, Afia Eama makes what I consider to be a not very compelling argument. On one hand, the author presents the issue of students not earning their 4-year degrees in that timeframe (30% earn their degrees within 4 years and 53% within 6) because of an inability to enroll in required classes, and on the other hand, early in the writing, mentions the solution to the problem. Eama writes a student, “eventually got in after emailing every professor teaching the course, in hopes of taking advantage of the overtally system that approves waitlisted students based on graduation priority.” So, is the issue that students are struggling to enroll in the proper classes, folks are not aware of this workaround, or the workaround needs to be modified to support more students? Certainly, access to the appropriate classes is a factor for some students not graduating on time, but there are also definitely other issues that need to be unmasked that are not referenced in the op-ed. College readiness, from both a cognitive and non-cognitive perspective, for incoming students is likely the biggest barrier to improved 4-year graduation rates. It is likely not a coincidence that so-called “elite” schools who admit students with a particular academic profile have high 4-year graduation rates. Additionally, the article identifies approximately 25% of students as non-traditional, who may not even be taking full course loads. The article eventually transitions to discuss how an insufficient number of academic advisors for students can lead to inaccurate information regarding degree requirements – leading to delays in graduating. This seems valid, however, overall, I feel the author could have done a better job of linking (as it is stated in the title) the lack of access to courses to graduation rates – particularly if the connection is as clear as the author implies.

As I read through all the articles and op-eds, I came to know what is going on in universities in the U.S. and NYC, including CUNY. I could imagine about difficulties that U.S. universities are going through because of this particular COVID-19 season. But, It seems like I didn’t really know the crises the universities are facing nowadays until I read those articles and op-eds. A lot of faculty members and staff of universities suffered from getting the COVID viruses, and unfortunately, some of them even passed away (4 CUNY professors died from the COVID virus until September according to Kelsey).

One of the biggest problems the universities now have, in my opinion, is massive budget cuts in this COVID-19 season. The public universities that depend on local and federal governments for the schools’ running have been attacked tremendously due to their local governments’ funding reductions. Since many local governments are going through fiscal deficits due to the decrease of tax incomes, the local governments first cut their budgets spending on welfare policies, and numerous workers were laid off, including adjuncts and assistants in colleges.

Some of CUNY colleges underwent the same experience. For example, Brooklyn College administrators requested that their departments cancel 25% of the 2020 fall courses. With close to 3,000 laid off until September 2020, the large-scale restructuring of Brooklyn college caused many to lose health insurance as well. The real problem is that this situation is not only the case of CUNY, but most colleges in the U.S. also went through in 2020.

Another the eye-catching piece of information I received through the articles I read is regarding CUNY’s history and their financial management change. I did not know CUNY is the nation’s largest urban public university, founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education. Also, I didn’t realize that CUNY’s tuition was free at all from 1847-1975. New York City imposed tuition in 1976 for the first time, and most of the students affected by the new school tuition policy at that time were people of color.

Interestingly, The city and state governments now have a combined budget surplus of $1.9 billion. A free CUNY would only cost $812 million (based on the analysis of FREE CUNY). That is, a free CUNY could be possible in the future again.

As an international student studying in the U.S., I found very interesting news related to my status. As many states’ spending fell, the international tuition dollars at public universities jumped by 12 percent. The international students’ tuition now makes up 28 percent of public university revenue, 40 percent more than it did a decade ago. Are international students just money-makers vital to the survival of American universities? No, it shouldn’t be! Therefore, I would like to argue that international students’ tuition should be as the same amount of money as the locals pay. However, the reality is not like that. This is the point I want to make for the class discussion.

College Campuses Must Reopen in the Fall. Here’s How We Do It.

Irony of being tuition-driven and also a bastion of upward mobility: The spread of education, including college and graduate education, enables upward mobility and is an essential contributor to the upward march of living standards in the United States and around the world.

“They must also be sensitive to the particular challenge of controlling the spread of disease on a college campus. A typical dormitory has shared living and study spaces. A traditional lecture hall is not conducive to social distancing. Neither are college parties, to say the least. We must take particular care to prevent and control infection in this environment”—speaking about a typical college environment/conventional, normal aged students

Setting aside appropriate spaces for isolation and quarantine (e.g. hotel rooms) may be costly, but necessary.—money to expend 

She’s speaking for all schools—understands the entire scope of postsecondary education in America?

Fearing a Second Wave, Cal State Will Keep Classes Online in the Fall

480,000 undergraduates to 23 campuses in the fall.

“The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the finances of colleges and universities, a large number of which were already struggling before virus-related closures.”: why do universities struggle so much with funding? Is it because maintenance is legitimately expensive, or is indicative of the state of the economy? Funding and The University are intertwined concepts—do we expect too much from these establishments?

“ ‘Our university, when open without restrictions and fully in person, as is the traditional norm of the past, is a place where over 500,000 people come together in close and vibrant proximity with each other on a daily basis,” he said. “That approach, sadly, just isn’t in the cards now.’ ”—the unspoken benefits of university—the conversations in passing. Seeing other kinds of people. A way of life altered that’s impossible to replicate online.

“Wayne State University in Detroit, a virus hot spot”—the virus and class/race.

College Made Them Feel Equal. The Virus Exposed How Unequal Their Lives Are.

How do we deal with a false sense of equity within an academic setting?

Haverford as testing site: all types of students at a prestigious, competitive school—buck doesn’t stop there. Inherent ordinance based on student’s “situatedness” outside of the school’s bubble. 

Haverford is a Quaker college—the limits of an institutional missions?

Colleges Won’t Refund Tuition. Autumn May Force a Reckoning.

Why do people send their children off to College? Of course, a question like this dismisses a student’s own aspirations—or have their aspirations been subliminally determined? Do kids actually want to go to college?

“Most people send their children off to college to accomplish one (or all) of at least three goals: They want to stuff their heads so full of knowledge that they explode and then need reassembly into new and improved adult brains. They want their kids to find their people — the friends and mentors who will carry them through life. Finally, there is the credential: A diploma that means something to those who see it on a résumé, one that may also offer a chance to jump a rung or two up the economic ladder.”—is a degree enough anymore? Everyone has them.

Professors want good instruction for their students. Is there such a thing as a bad professor in 21^st century academia? Knowing what we do about the difficulty of graduate school admissions and how difficult it is to get a job, is this field not self-selecting enough to produce well inclined driven people?

A Brown degree retains its value, even if it was online—Harvard Extension school—when an education is like a designer bag—a school’s brand has value.

So two things seem certain: First, any issuance of unilateral refunds probably diminishes the future undergraduate experience somehow. Cut enough — through firings or food or ceasing construction or raiding endowments — and the value of a school’s brand can fall.

“Put a value on what you’ve lost”—how to quantify something amorphous and ineffable. Is there a standard agreement on the value? What to look to—earnings post-graduation?

Private schools: cost beyond what tuition is. If it was perfectly 1:1, what would tuition be?