ALBANY – City University Chancellor Matthew Goldstein yesterday warned that Gov. Pataki’s proposed $1,200 tuition hike and other higher-education plans will make it harder for the city’s poor to attend college.
Testifying at a joint legislative budget hearing, Goldstein said about 60 percent of CUNY students come from households where total income is less than $30,000.
The system, he said, is looking for ways to reduce spending and find new streams of revenue to limit any tuition increase below the $1,200 Pataki is proposing “so that our most vulnerable students are held as close to harmless as possible and our core business of teaching and learning is protected.”
CUNY tuition, unchanged since 1995, is currently $3,200 a year.
Goldstein supported some level of tuition hike this year, but he also urged lawmakers to consider smaller, annual tuition hikes for the future to help the system generate revenue and keep up with inflation.
The chancellor also was critical of Pataki’s plans to defer a third of each student’s state tuition-assistance package until graduation, saying it will “deny sufficient quality financing at the time it is needed to pay for college costs.”
Goldstein asked lawmakers to reject Pataki’s request to cut money to community colleges and for educational opportunity programs for minorities.
The CUNY chancellor scored points for his candor with Democratic lawmakers, who during earlier testimony took State University Chancellor Robert King to task for not advocating enough.
King, Pataki’s former budget director, supported his former boss’ tuition hike proposal and sidestepped questions about Pataki’s plan to change the financial-aid program.
“I wish we had more of a cheerleader for the SUNY system,” Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Queens) chided King.
Meanwhile, a new federal report found that SUNY ranks 15th highest in the nation in tuition and fees.
At $4,140, New York exceeds the national average of $3,746 and ranks ahead of such major state university systems as those of California, Florida and Texas.
Asked about the report during his testimony before the budget committee, King argued that SUNY’s cost is still lower than most public colleges in the Northeast.
Average tuition and fees at public colleges for 2001-02.
1. Vermont, $7,470
2. New Hampshire, $6,728
3. Pennsylvania, $6,316
4. New Jersey, $6,078
5. South Carolina, $5,502
11. Connecticut, $4,772
15. New York, $4,140
18. Massachusetts, $3,999
36. Texas, $2,975
42. California, $2,730
46. Florida, $2,555
Annual CUNY tuition: $3,200
After Pataki’s proposed hike: $4,400