Hunter College students can vividly remember when their routines were disrupted by a water pipe burst. City Tech students encounter moldy rooms and disheveled ceiling tiles, and Baruch College students must deal with faulty elevators. CUNY campuses are not up to standards, and New York state must approve the funding for these urgent repairs.
According to CUNY officials, only a third of CUNY buildings are in good condition, out of a system that includes over 300 buildings. Many of these buildings were built over 50 years ago, plagued with structural issues that have not yet been addressed.
“The HVAC in the West Building is beyond broken,” a Hunter student said. “In some rooms, it gets hot enough to require short sleeves and fans in the dead of winter, and in some others it’s freezing cold.”
They also added that there have been rats, bedbugs and cockroaches spotted in the East and West Buildings, showcasing the building’s poor state. Better care must be taken to prevent unsanitary conditions students are unable to thrive in.
Despite CUNY’s efforts to request about $600 million a year in capital funding to combat these structural issues, the colleges have a deferred maintenance backlog of $7 billion.
Currently, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget reserves $595 million for both CUNY and SUNY schools.
CUNY has invested $850 million in the past two years to improve infrastructure and plans to invest $400 million more this year. However, this amount does not suffice.
“A lot of the problems we have are things we’ve known about and complained about for decades, and yet we’ve never received adequate funding to address them,” the Hunter student said. “Whatever improvements we do see are only temporary and partially effective, but this isn’t sustainable in the long term.”
Legislators pushing to gain more funding for CUNY and SUNY campuses found that there has been a “200% surge in campus emergencies and almost 600% increase in costs over the past five years” due to a lack of adequate repairs.
If the state approved more funding for CUNY, it could solve many of the problems students and faculty face. Repairs could be done when campuses are less busy, such as winter or summer semesters.
Approving additional funding could help generate more jobs through construction work. Sen. Jeremy Zellner said campus renovations can empower local economies and workforces.
The pressure on the state by legislators and CUNY should be doubled down to push repairs that keep students safe.
Whether it be Brooklyn College students dealing with leaks and HVAC issues or Medgar Evers College students facing air quality concerns and flooding, the state should direct its attention to the decaying facilities across CUNY campuses.
