Debt Reveal and People’s CUNY Launch

Co-organized by the CUNY Adjunct Project & the Graduate Center PSC

When: Apr 15, 2021 02:00 PM EST

On April 15th, we presented our research on CUNY’s debt and its impact on students and workers. The unveiling of CUNY’s institutional debt is the first step of grappling with its social and racial ramifications as we build an alternative vision of a People’s Budget and a People’s CUNY. The video of the event is available here (below). Here is an amazing jamboard with everyone’s visioning around people’s budget and what else we need to know. Here is our collection of 10 CUNY budget facts. Here’s a Nation article, featuring Zoe Hu, CUNY English PhD student, explaining how schools across America are subject to the debt regime. The presentation, budget facts, article and jamboard are receipts and confirmation of what we already know from our lived experience of racist austerity. The only way we can change this institutional logic is by building relationships across campuses and titles to fight for true democratic control of our public university system. Please use these to start conversations with your colleagues and community so we can take back control of our campuses.

 

Here is a page from the amazing jamboard with everyone’s vision!

When we hear “college debt crisis”, we usually think of student debt. But colleges and universities increasingly owe millions of dollars to private creditors and financial institutions as well. To keep the credit rankings high, college administrators prioritize debt payments at the expense of students, workers, and communities. CUNY is no exception. Public universities like CUNY are targets of austerity and predatory lending, and we are only starting to examine the impact of such chronic indebtedness. Debt is a racist tool of empire and capitalist extraction, whether it targets cities, nation-states, entire continents, or public institutions like CUNY.

So, what is the cost of CUNY’s debt? On Thursday April 15, at 2pm, our budget working group joins activists across the country for a national Debt Reveal Action. We will unveil our research on CUNY’s debt to staff, students, and faculty. The unveiling of CUNY’s institutional debt is the first step of grappling with its social and racial ramifications as we build an alternative vision of a People’s Budget and a People’s CUNY. Scroll down to seem some of the budget facts leading up to the budget reveal on Thursday, April 15th, 2021 at 2pm EST.

Join us by registering here. In the meantime, if you would like to be involved in our budget working group, please contact Leanne Fan, Co- Organizer for Advocacy and Education at the Adjunct Project, at fan.w.leanne@gmail.com.