Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Council committee presses CUNY on graduation rates, asks for bolder goals and scaled funding
Summary
At a Committee on Higher Education oversight hearing, councilmembers pressed CUNY officials on lagging on‑time graduation rates, urged clearer targets and budget requests, and heard that proven programs such as ASAP and ACE materially increase completion but currently reach only a fraction of eligible students.
New York City Councilmembers on the Committee on Higher Education pressed CUNY leaders on systemwide graduation rates and asked the university to set more ambitious targets and prepare budget requests to scale programs that boost completion.
Councilmember Eric Dinowitz opened the oversight hearing by noting national benchmarks and CUNY’s most recent figures: the system’s 6‑year associate rate is about 36.5 percent and the 6‑year bachelor rate is 57.9 percent. “The graduation rates at CUNY campuses are important to me,” he said, asking CUNY to report how many students graduate on the traditional 2‑ or 4‑year timelines.
Sarah Trilch, Assistant Dean for Policy Research at the CUNY Central Office, said the declines in some short‑term rates reflect pandemic disruptions but that longer‑term trends showed improvement before COVID‑19. For the cohort entering in 2018, CUNY reported a 4‑year bachelor rate of 35.3 percent, a 5‑year rate of 52.4 percent and a 6‑year rate of…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
