CUNY students are awaiting changes after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on affordability.

Mamdani’s campaign ran on making the city affordable and signed several executive orders for housing and consumer protection. However, the New Deal for CUNY has not been discussed. 

The New Deal for CUNY calls for hiring new faculty and staff and making CUNY tuition-free. CollegeNET reported that 54.8% of Baruch College students come from low-income families.

Mamdani also highlighted how previous leadership antagonized CUNY.

“Andrew Cuomo threatened to cut $500 million from CUNY in 2016 because his entire record as governor is one which was marked by consistently protecting the pockets of billionaires at the expense of working people,” Mamdani told Politico. “As Mayor, I will continue to make our CUNY schools affordable and fully funded.”

During Mamdani’s time as assemblymember, he and New York State Sen. John Liu introduced the Repeal Egregious Property Accumulation and Invest It Right Act, known as the REPAIR ACT. The legislation would eliminate tax breaks to private universities that exceed $100 million in property tax and redirect the money to CUNY.

This act has not been passed and Mamdani made limited mention of it during his campaign. 

CUNY has seen decades of disinvestment. The number of full-time faculty has continued to decline, with only 7,200 as of 2022, alongside 11,000 underpaid adjuncts, according to the Professional Staff Congress. CUNY adjuncts reportedly earn less than any adjunct at any other university or college in New York. 

CUNY students rely on their schools for many of its resources, with a large majority coming from low-income families, yet students are not provided free OMNY cards by the school.

Many CUNY students have access to mental health services only through their schools. 

CUNY is an institution that has supported working class students for generations. As such, Mamdani should take steps to ensure that CUNY can continue providing affordable education.