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Student Groups Opposed to Tuition Hikes and Cuts to Higher Education

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release:
Wednesday, October 30, 2002         		 For More Information contact:
Miriam Kramer, NYPIRG 212-349-6460
Cell: (646) 408-3735

Charlene Piper, NYPIRG student board chairperson looks on as an impassioned Kevin Simpson, a 2nd year student at Queensborough Community College, tells the media how difficult it might be for him to pay more tuition.
STUDENTS SEND HALLOWEEN LETTERS TO BLOOMBERG AND PATAKI: "TREAT" NOT "TRICK" BUDGET FOR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

NEARLY 650 STUDENT GROUPS AGAINST TUITION HIKES
AND CUTS TO HIGHER EDUCATION

Dressed as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other scary monsters, college students and advocates, today, staged Halloween events at City Hall and eight campuses statewide to urge for a "treat" not "trick" higher education budget that maintains current funding for colleges and universities as well as financial aid and opportunity programs.

During the event, students announced nearly 650 groups against cuts to higher education and a tuition hike at SUNY, CUNY, and the state’s community colleges.

In their letters to Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and state and city leaders, the groups write, "We, the undersigned student organizations, strongly oppose tuition increases, cuts to financial aid, and further cuts to CUNY and SUNY’s budgets and programs. High-quality, affordable and accessible higher education is vital for New Yorkers [. . .] While we understand that New York faces challenging budgetary decisions, the state and city budgets should not be balanced on the backs of college students and their families. CUNY, SUNY and community colleges are too important to allow further cuts or tuition increases."

Miriam Kramer, NYPIRG's higher education coordinator, introduces the Halloween event at City Hall.
The letters also summarize the following findings from a report, Shifting the Burden, released by student groups in September:

  • Tuition and fee costs at New York’s four-year public colleges are the 14th most expensive in the nation. The state’s public community colleges are the 5th most expensive in the nation.
  • Between 1990 and 2000, the real, inflation-adjusted cost of the average tuition and fees charged at New York’s four-year public colleges and universities skyrocketed by 97%, far outpacing other states and the rise in median family income in New York.
  • During the period when cost increased, state support declined by 22%.
  • Cuts to opportunity programs and financial aid often accompany tuition hikes.

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    Attachments:
    Letter to NYS Officials |Letter to NYC Officials | List of Coalition Members
    Summary of Findings

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