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Student leaders and policy groups push City Council for free MetroCard pilot for low‑income CUNY students
Summary
Student activists, CUNY staff and researchers urged the City Council to pilot free MetroCard/OmniCard access for low‑income and Pell‑eligible students, citing transportation costs as a major barrier to attendance and completion and estimating a full‑universe price tag of roughly $323 million if extended to all students.
Student leaders, nonprofit researchers and CUNY representatives urged the New York City Council’s Higher Education Committee to fund a pilot that would provide free MetroCards or OmniCards to low‑income CUNY students, and to better coordinate existing city programs such as Fair Fares with campus outreach.
“Transportation costs are one of the biggest non‑tuition barriers to college success, especially for the 90 percent of CUNY community college students who rely on public transit,” Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at the Center for an Urban Future, told the committee. Dvorkin recommended a pilot targeted to low‑income and Pell‑eligible students who are not already covered by programs such as ASAP or…
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