CUNY Receives More than $12 Million in Federal Funding to Support Campus Programs

Over $12 million in federal funding includes the following services and initiatives throughout CUNY:

• $2.2 million from Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and Congress Member Espaillat, for the Charles B. Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Initiative, to enhance workforce training programs that address the lack of modern infrastructure jobs. The programs will equip historically underserved communities with analytical and operational skills for those jobs through innovative curricula, simulation-based training and experiential learning.
• They also secured $809,000 for CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at City College to create the CUNY Cultural/Historical Legacy Initiative (CUNY CHLI), which will generate culturally and historically rich curricula and enrichment programs for K-12 students in partnership with New York City Public Schools.

Queens College received over $2.2 million:

• $1.46 million from Congress Member Meng for its Small Business Development Initiative to strengthen partnerships between its recently established business school and local companies by providing internship opportunities to students, expanding the College’s curriculum as part of the small business management certificate program and encouraging employees of local small businesses to enhance their career growth by pursuing a Queens College degree.
• $750,000 also from Congress Member Meng for improvements to the College’s Colden Auditorium. The funding will be used for the installation of equipment to enable high-quality audiovisual production and live streaming capability. The funds will also support the upgrade of technical production systems, making them compatible with theatrical industry standards to ensure technical and safety compliance.

York College received over $2.1 million:

• $ 1.27 million from Congress Member Meeks for geology and environmental science programs, including student stipends and equipment. This will include computational tools to analyze geophysical data and will pilot a mentoring program for new geology majors, the majority of whom come from Southeast Queens and are often first-generation Americans.
• $ 850,000 also from Congress Member Meeks for the development of a pharmaceutical sciences workforce training program. This funding will support the establishment of a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical analytical laboratory, which will enable students to be trained on emerging trends in drug identification, analysis and discovery.

Lehman College received $1.75 million:

• $1.25 million from Congress Member Espaillat for a literacy and language skills program for the Mexican Studies Institute. The project will focus on accessing the power of multiple literacies to drive academic success while collaborating with community-based organizations and public institutions to support and empower the local community in the Bronx.
• $5 00,000 from Congress Member Torres for a digital equity initiative that includes computer technology and equipment.

Hostos Community College received $ 1 million from Senators Schumer, Gillibrand and Congress Member Torres to support students in joint degree programs with Columbia University (NextGen Health Scholars Program), Queens College (Arts Administration) and City College (Engineering Program). Students in these programs will automatically move onto the senior college once they complete coursework at Hostos.

Medgar Evers College received $726,000:

• $191,000 from Congress Member Clarke for the Re-Envisioning Our Lives through Literature (ROLL) Program at the Center for Black Literature. The ROLL Program partners with elementary, middle and high schools to help students use texts written by writers of the African Diaspora as a basis for re-seeing and re-imagining their lives while improving critical reading, writing and communication skills.
• $535,000 from Congress Member Clarke for the Center for Law and Social Justice’s Esmeralda Simmons Pre-Law Program, which works closely with 10 juniors seeking to enter the legal field. Students will receive mentorship and guidance, access to LSAT preparation and hands-on experience applying the law to meet the needs of the community.

A poster commemorates Puerto Rican Pioneers at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro).

Hunter College received $792,000 from Senators Schumer, Gillibrand and Congress Member Espaillat to develop an accessible learning and creative hub for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro) to include educational workshops for local school districts and public libraries. It will provide the community with direct access to Centro’s library, archives, historical and scholarly resources, and educational programs.

LaGuardia Community College received $ 405,000, secured by Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Congress Member Velázquez and former Congress Member Maloney, to expand vocational education for the underemployed and unemployed. The new funding will allow LaGuardia’s Division of Adult Continuing Education and Workforce Development to provide workforce training in electrical, plumbing, HVAC and other construction fields on campus.

Bronx Community College received $150,000 from Congress Member Torres to develop the College’s Allied Health Workforce training programs, which will fully subsidize workforce development and continuing education for 100 residents of the South Bronx.

The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving over 243,000 undergraduate and graduate students and awarding 55,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “Genius” Grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background.