Students and advocates press council for free transit pilot and expanded CUNY basic-needs supports

Student leaders, unions and service providers used public testimony at the City Council hearing to press for immediate, practical measures to reduce barriers to attendance and degree completion at the City University of New York.

One central ask was a $700,000 pilot to provide free OmniCards to CUNY students. Student leaders described cases in which transit costs force learners to skip single classes or limit their campus participation.

"Transportation support increases persistence, improves graduation rates, and expands access to internships and career pathways," Akeem, chair of the University Student Senate, told the committee as he urged the council to back the transit pilot.

Other student and community testimony focused on basic needs and campus services:
- Food and housing: CUNY reported 5% of students indicated housing insecurity in a biannual student survey (CUNY staff estimated about 7,871 students reported housing insecurity in the last year); public testimony cited CUNY CARES data showing 51.5% of surveyed students reported housing insecurity and 5.9% reported homelessness in one recent survey sample for certain campuses.
- CUNY Cares and emergency aid: Witnesses described CUNY Cares as a crucial intervention, with the program reporting early results in SNAP enrollment increases (Bronx example cited: more than 1,000 additional SNAP enrollees compared with 2022) and emergency grant aid used to remove small financial holds that block re-enrollment.
- Food pantries: CUNY said campuses distributed 33,736 food bags in fiscal 2025 and saw 177,564 pantry visits, but testified that central funding ($880,000 cited as the city allocation) varies by campus and philanthropic support influences availability.
- Child care and early childhood workforce: CUNY described licensed capacity for 1,389 child-care slots across 17 campus centers; officials said per-seat cost estimates vary by age (infant/toddler ~$2,000; preschool ~$1,500; school-age ~$1,000 annually as a budgetary reference point) and that additional funding is needed to expand slots and extended hours.

Mental health and advisors
Speakers urged more campus mental-health counselors and lower advisor-to-student ratios. CUNY told the committee it currently has roughly 611 academic advisors systemwide and an average university advisor ratio of about 1:281, with senior colleges the highest. CUNY asked for $15.2 million in city funding for academic and career advisement in FY27, including $3.7 million to hire additional, diverse academic and career advisors.

Why it matters
Advocates argued that modest, targeted investments — transit support, emergency grants, food pantry funding, child-care slots and additional counselors — remove attendance barriers that directly affect retention and graduation, particularly for low-income, immigrant and working students.

What the committee did
The hearing provided a public record of multiple student and community requests. Council members acknowledged the testimony and requested more precise cost estimates and program-level breakdowns from CUNY to evaluate funding priorities during the city budget process.

Ending
Student advocates left the hearing with commitments from staff for follow-up data. The transit pilot and emergency-support requests will be evaluated alongside the Council’s budget priorities in the weeks before adoption.