NEW YORK — As Andrew Cuomo vies to become the next mayor of New York City, his past attempts to cut state aid to the City University of New York are raising questions about his commitment to public universities in a race centered on affordability.
CUNY endured decades of declining state aid, including during the former governor’s tenure from 2011 until 2021 — a trend the state has started to reverse.
With the high cost of living front and center in this fall’s mayoral election, Cuomo’s CUNY policies — most notably a 2016 push to slash nearly $500 million in state funding to the university system — are resurfacing. His top opponent, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, assailed those proposed cuts and has backed legislation in Albany that would increase funding for the system with the goal of making tuition free.
“Andrew Cuomo threatened to cut $500 million from CUNY in 2016 because his entire record as governor is one which was marked by consistently protecting the pockets of billionaires at the expense of working people,” Mamdani said in a statement to POLITICO. “As Mayor, I will continue to make our CUNY schools affordable and fully funded.”
Cuomo has also faced criticism for not funding certain mandatory cost increases for CUNY and the State University of New York, approving tuition hikes and establishing a free-tuition program while governor that fell short of expectations.
POLITICO spoke to 16 people, including city and state lawmakers, former state and CUNY officials, and students and advocates, who portrayed a record of neglect toward public higher education — a history they argued bodes poorly for the university if he becomes mayor. They say it’s emblematic of a broader track record as governor of supporting policies hostile to the city he now wants to lead. Critics have long blasted Cuomo for underfunding the city’s sprawling transit system as well as the public housing and school systems.
“At this moment in our country’s history where communities of color are so much under attack and immigrant communities are so much under attack, CUNY is absolutely more important than ever,” said Barbara Bowen, former president of the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY’s faculty and staff union. “I am very concerned that having a mayor with that history of lack of support and active undermining of CUNY would be especially dangerous at this political moment.”
In recent weeks, Cuomo has been promoting his agenda for New York City public schools, but he has yet to delineate a plan for CUNY.
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi did not address whether the former governor has a plan for CUNY, but dismissed criticism of his record.
“I guess Festivus came early this year as every politician (elected or not) who ever had an issue with our administration — about any issue, regardless of the merits — seems to have converged in one place for the airing of grievances!” Azzopardi said in a statement. “What you’re hearing are the gripes of a bureaucracy and their enablers.”
He added: “Any look at the actual facts makes it crystal clear our administration looked out for the students, even while contending with many difficult budget years that were book ended by recovery from the Great Recession and COVID-19.”
Cuomo versus CUNY budget cuts
CUNY is the nation’s largest urban public university system. With roots dating back to 1847, it helps low- and middle-income New Yorkers — including many people of color and immigrants — move up the socioeconomic ladder. Its alumni contribute $70 billion to the state’s economy annually, according to CUNY.
In 1976, CUNY ended its nearly 130-year-old free-tuition policy amid the city’s fiscal crisis, and the state eventually assumed financial responsibility for the system’s four-year colleges.
State funding per student at the four-year colleges dropped by 38 percent between 1990 and 2022, when adjusted for inflation, and by 18 percent between the Great Recession of 2008 and 2022, according to a Professional Staff Congress analysis.
“There were just less classes available,” said Smitha Varghese Milich, former legislative director for CUNY’s University Student Senate. “It hindered me from graduating on time.”
Stephen Brier, professor emeritus in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, said Cuomo’s father — the late former Gov. Mario Cuomo — also proposed significant cuts to CUNY’s budget.
“Both of them are products of Catholic schools … and neither of them has had any feeling for what CUNY was and what it really represents in the history of this city,” said Brier, a Mamdani supporter.
The governor’s most significant clash with CUNY came in 2016, when he sought to reduce the state’s contribution to it by $485 million — and tied $240 million in back pay for faculty to it. He also sought to renew five years of tuition hikes.
The plan faced backlash from students, faculty and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. While Senate Republicans supported the cost shift, Assembly Democrats opposed it. Then-CUNY Chancellor James Milliken warned it could lead to college closures.
“If you go back and look at the budgets he [Cuomo] proposed, he was an expert at finding ways to try to get the city to pay more or shift responsibility back to the university,” said an individual familiar with past state budget negotiations who was granted anonymity to speak about them.
State Sen. Liz Krueger, who was in the Legislature at the time and endorsed Mamdani last month, recalled Cuomo complaining about not fully controlling the CUNY Board of Trustees, despite his initial delays in filling vacancies.
“He kept using that as the excuse to treat CUNY as the foster child he never really wanted,” Krueger said.
The final budget in April 2016 restored the $485 million, but did not include tuition increases or back pay for faculty, which was later secured in a long-delayed contract.
Azzopardi, Cuomo’s rep, dismissed the characterization of the 2016 plan as a cut, noting the original budget proposal only sought to shift responsibility for the $485 million to the city.
Tuition assistance controversies
Critics have also faulted Cuomo for the Tuition Assistance Program gap, which arose when tuition increases were approved in 2011 without a corresponding increase in TAP’s maximum award. His final budget as governor included a TAP award increase, a three-year plan to fully eliminate the TAP gap and a three-year tuition freeze.
Regarding the TAP gap, Azzopardi said campuses had to pick up some of that cost but received a huge infusion through tuition increases.
And Cuomo came under fire for vetoing “maintenance of effort” bills in 2015, 2017 and 2019. That meant universities had to shoulder cost increases such as collective bargaining raises, rent and utilities.
Azzopardi brushed off concerns about the “maintenance of effort” measure, pointing out that lawmakers passed bills that would unbalance the budget, fully aware they would be vetoed.
Cuomo’s Excelsior Scholarship Program, launched in 2017 with promises of free tuition for middle-class families earning up to $125,000, also sparked controversy. A 2020 analysis found it underserved CUNY students due to strict eligibility requirements and not taking into account other costs like room and board or fees.
Nearly 29,000 students received Excelsior scholarships in the 2022-23 school year. Cuomo touted it in his education plan.
Azzopardi refuted claims the Excelsior program didn’t assist enough CUNY students.
“Because of his work on Excelsior and increases to TAP more than 75% of CUNY students go to college tuition free,” he said. “How is that a bad thing?”
And in 2020, Cuomo froze 20 percent of CUNY’s budget amid the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in adjuncts being laid off. The following year, he restored that money. (Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesperson, noted enrollment declines as a significant reason for the funding cuts.)
“He made a point of underfunding and pushing cutbacks and threatening things like layoffs and pushing through furloughs on all public employees,” said Susan Kang, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She said Cuomo’s controversial 2012 pension plan — which he has since disavowed — harmed CUNY faculty.
Critics say CUNY wasn’t Cuomo’s priority
Critics have long contended that CUNY was not a priority for Cuomo. While SUNY also experienced underinvestment, it was the main conduit for his economic development projects.
He also had a tense relationship with CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, an appointee of former Republican Gov. George Pataki, even more so after Goldstein’s “golden parachute” retirement package. PSC, the CUNY faculty union, declined to endorse Cuomo in the competitive 2014 Democratic primary.
A former senior official under Cuomo told POLITICO the former governor prioritized high-profile building projects that boosted his image over investing in CUNY, and noted that SUNY has many schools in upstate Republican districts.
“He needed the Upstate Republican vote, and he needed the Upstate Republican legislators,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to avoid retribution from Cuomo’s team. “Famously, he coddled Republicans in the Senate as a way to maximize his political power and played Democrats and Republicans against each other in the Assembly and the Senate. So it was a very clear path for him.”
Plans for CUNY’s future
Cuomo’s 25-point education plan doesn’t address his broader plans for CUNY, but includes proposals such as expanding partnerships between high school career programs and community colleges.
Advocates and union leaders said Gov. Kathy Hochul has started addressing CUNY’s challenges. CUNY has received $11.3 billion since she took office. The governor also reimbursed CUNY and SUNY for the TAP gap in 2022 and expanded eligibility for the program.
Lawmakers are still pushing the “New Deal for CUNY,” a measure that seeks to restore free tuition and add more full-time faculty.
Separately, Mamdani co-sponsored a bill with State Sen. John Liu to revoke the tax-exempt status of Columbia University and New York University to help fund free tuition at CUNY. It has languished in Albany, and Mamdani hasn’t made it a major focus of his campaign.
PSC endorsed Mamdani in the general election and he was among candidates the union ranked in the primary.
“I don’t know that candidate Cuomo has ever felt that having the support of the public higher education union was critical to his success in this election, unfortunately,” union president James Davis said, noting Cuomo did not attend the March mayoral forum.
If elected, Cuomo’s relationship with CUNY would change significantly. While the state primarily funds four-year colleges, funding for community colleges is shared between the city and the state.
Liu, who heads the Senate’s New York City Education Committee and endorsed Mamdani, declined to talk about Cuomo, but appeared to reference his role in CUNY’s struggles.
“There’s no question: there were decades of disinvestment in CUNY and it would be great to have a mayor that is going to put CUNY on a much higher priority,” he said.
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