Statement by CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez on the Enacted FY 2025 New York City Budget

"We're grateful that Mayor Adams and the City Council have enacted a fiscal year 2025 budget that recognizes the essential role that public higher education plays in New York City. The $15 million support for CUNY's seven community colleges will help offset tuition loss from enrollment declines and help cover a range of operational needs that have a direct impact on our students.

"The budget also makes critical investments in programs such as our ASAP and ACE student-success initiatives; CUNY Reconnect, which has enabled more than 33,000 New Yorkers to return to college since 2022; and CUNY Citizenship Now!, the nation's leading university-based provider of free legal services for immigrants. In addition, the budget supports CUNY programs that reduce food insecurity, provide low-cost child-care services and confront religious and ethnic discrimination on our campuses. We look forward to our continued work together to build on these and other initiatives critical to sustaining the University's historic mission to provide a public first-rate education to all students, regardless of means or background.

"On behalf of the entire CUNY community, I want to thank Mayor Adams and Council Speaker Adams, who are both alums, and the entire City Council delegation, for their commitment to CUNY as a vital New York City institution and an engine of upward economic and social mobility for all New Yorkers."

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