Editing City University of New York (section)

==History==

===Founding===
In 1960, [[John R. Everett]] became the first [[Chancellor (education)|chancellor]] of the [[Municipal college|Municipal College]] System of the City of New York, later renamed CUNY, for a salary of $25,000 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|25000|1960|r=-3}}}} in current dollar terms).<ref name="auto">{{cite web|first=Alex|last=Seitz-Wald|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/rep-joe-crowley-loses-28-year-old-newcomer-alexandria-ocasio-n886851|title=High-ranking Democrat ousted in stunning primary loss to newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez|work=[[NBC News]]|date=June 26, 2018|access-date=September 20, 2018}}</ref><ref name="encyclopediavirginia.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Everett_John_R_1918-1992#start_entry|title=Everett, John R. (1918–1992)|website=encyclopediavirginia.org}}</ref><ref name="aut">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/22/obituaries/john-everett-cuny-chancellor-and-new-school-head-dies-at-73.html|title=John Everett, CUNY Chancellor And New School Head, Dies at 73|first=James|last=Barron|date=January 22, 1992|work=The New York Times}}</ref> CUNY was created in 1961,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Amendment to New York State Education Law (1961) {{*}} CUNY Digital History Archive |url=https://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/6902 |access-date=2022-07-21 |website=cdha.cuny.edu}}</ref> by [[New York State]] legislation, signed into law by Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]]. The legislation integrated existing institutions and a new graduate school into a coordinated system of higher education for the city, under the control of the "Board of Higher Education of the City of New York", which had been created by New York State legislation in 1926. By 1979, the Board of Higher Education had become the "Board of Trustees of the CUNY".<ref name=fitzp />

The institutions that were merged to create CUNY were:<ref name=fitzp />

* The Free Academy – Founded in 1847 by [[Townsend Harris]], it was fashioned as "a Free Academy for the purpose of extending the benefits of education gratuitously to persons who have been pupils in the common schools of the city and county of New York." The Free Academy later became the [[City College of New York]].
* The Female Normal and High School – Founded in 1870, and later renamed [[Normal school|the Normal College]]. It would be renamed again in 1914 to [[Hunter College]]. During the early 20th century, Hunter College expanded into the Bronx, with what became [[Lehman College|Herbert Lehman College]].<ref name=fitzp>Fitzpatrick, John. [http://www.answers.com/topic/city-university-of-new-york "City University of New York"] ''U.S. History Encyclopedia''</ref>
* [[Brooklyn College]] – Founded in 1930.
* [[Queens College]] – Founded in 1937.

===Accessible education===
CUNY has served a diverse student body, especially those excluded from or unable to afford private universities. Its four-year colleges offered a high-quality, [[Free education|tuition-free education]] to the poor, the [[working class]], and the [[Demographics of New York City|immigrants of New York City]] who met the grade requirements for matriculated status. During the post-[[World War I]] era, when some [[Ivy League]] universities, such as [[Yale University|Yale]] and [[Columbia University|Columbia]], discriminated against Jews, many Jewish academics and intellectuals studied and taught at CUNY.<ref>{{cite book|last=Oren|first=Dan A.|title=Joining the Club: A History of Jews at Yale|url=https://archive.org/details/joiningclubhist00oren|url-access=registration|year=1985|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300033304}}</ref> The City College of New York developed a reputation of being "the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] of the proletariat."<ref>{{cite book |last=Fullinwider |first=Robert K. |title=Leveling the Playing Field: Justice, Politics, and College Admissions |author2=[[Judith Lichtenberg]] |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2004}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1992-09-25 |title=Opinion {{!}} CUNY Was Known as 'Proletarian Harvard' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/25/opinion/l-cuny-was-known-as-proletarian-harvard-991892.html |access-date=2025-03-29 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Weiss |first=Gary |date=November 21, 1994 |title=Hard Times for the Harvard of the Masses |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1994-11-20/hard-times-for-the-harvard-of-the-masses |work=Bloomberg}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Egginton |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zeWDwAAQBAJ&dq=the+%22Harvard+of+the+proletariat%22&pg=PA9 |title=The Splintering of the American Mind: Identity Politics, Inequality, and Community on Today's College Campuses |date=2018-08-28 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-63557-133-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Levine |first=David O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmjxDwAAQBAJ&dq=the+%22Harvard+of+the+proletariat%22&pg=PA85 |title=The American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 1915–1940 |date=2019-06-30 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-4415-0 |language=en}}</ref> 

As New York City's population and public college enrollment grew during the early 20th century and the city struggled for resources, the municipal colleges slowly began adopting selective tuition, also known as instructional fees, for a handful of courses and programs. During the [[Great Depression]], with funding for public colleges severely constrained, limits were imposed on the size of the colleges' free Day Sessions, and tuition was imposed upon students deemed "competent" but not academically qualified for the day program. Most of these "limited matriculation" students enrolled in the Evening Sessions, and paid tuition.<ref>{{cite book|last=Neumann|first=Florence Margaret|title=Access to Free Public Higher Education in New York City: 1847–1961|year=1984|publisher=PhD Dissertation, Graduate Faculty in Sociology, The City University of New York}}</ref> Additionally, as the population of New York grew, CUNY was not able to accommodate the demand for higher education. Higher and higher requirements for admission were imposed; in 1965, a student seeking admission to CUNY needed an average grade of 92 or A−.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Brier|first=Stephen|date=May 3, 2017|title=Why the History of CUNY Matters: Using the CUNY Digital History Archive to Teach CUNY's Past|url=http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/radicalteacher/article/download/357/273|journal=Radical Teacher|language=en|volume=108|issue=1|pages=28–35|doi=10.5195/rt.2017.357|issn=1941-0832|doi-access=free}}</ref> This helped to ensure that the student population of CUNY remained largely white and middle-class.<ref name=":0" />

Demand in the United States for higher education rapidly grew after [[World War II]], and during the mid-1940s a movement began to create [[community college]]s to provide accessible education and training. In New York City, however, the community college movement was constrained by many factors including "financial problems, narrow perceptions of responsibility, organizational weaknesses, adverse political factors, and other competing priorities."<ref name="Gordon 1975"/>

Community colleges would have drawn from the same city coffers that were funding the senior colleges, and city higher education officials were of the view that the state should finance them. It was not until 1955, under a shared-funding arrangement with New York State, that New York City established its first community college, on [[Staten Island]]. Unlike the day college students attending the city's public baccalaureate colleges for free, community college students had to pay tuition fees under the state-city funding formula. Community college students paid tuition fees for approximately 10 years.<ref name="Gordon 1975"/>

Over time, tuition fees for limited-matriculated students became an important source of system revenues. In fall 1957, for example, nearly 36,000 attended Hunter, Brooklyn, Queens and City Colleges for free, but another 24,000 paid tuition fees of up to $300 a year (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|300|1957|r=-2}}}} in current dollar terms).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm|title=CPI Inflation Calculator|website=www.bls.gov|accessdate=February 25, 2024}}</ref> Undergraduate tuition and other student fees in 1957 comprised 17 percent of the colleges' $46.8 million in revenues, about $7.74 million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|7740000|1957|r=-4}}}} in current dollar terms).<ref>{{citation |last=Board of Higher Education of the City of New York|title=Report of the Chairman|year=1959|issue=1957–1959|pages=86–87}}</ref>

Three community colleges had been established by early 1961 when New York City's public colleges were codified by the state as a single university with a chancellor at the helm and an infusion of state funds. But the city's slowness in creating the community colleges as demand for college seats was intensifying and had resulted in mounting frustration, particularly on the part of minorities, that college opportunities were not available to them.

In 1964, as New York City's Board of Higher Education moved to take full responsibility for the community colleges, city officials extended the senior colleges' free tuition policy to them, a change that was included by Mayor [[Robert F. Wagner Jr.]] in his budget plans and took effect with the 1964–65 academic year.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Board of Higher Education of the City of New York|title=Board of Higher Education Minutes of Proceedings|date= April 20, 1964}}</ref>

Calls for greater access to public higher education from the [[African Americans in New York City|black]] and [[Puerto Ricans in New York City|Puerto Rican]] communities in New York, especially in Brooklyn, led to the founding of "Community College Number 7," later Medgar Evers College, in 1966–1967.<ref name=":0" /> In 1969, a group of black and Puerto Rican students occupied City College and demanded the [[racial integration]] of CUNY, which at the time had an overwhelmingly [[white people|white]] student body.<ref name="Gordon 1975">{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Sheila|title=The Transformation of the City University of New York, 1945–1970|year=1975|publisher=PhD Dissertation, Columbia University|location=New York}}</ref>

===Student protests===
There is a long tradition of student activism at CUNY. Eastern European Jewish refugees made City College a "hotbed of antifascism" in the early 20th century.<ref>Reed, C.T. (2023). ''New York Liberation School.'' Common Notions.</ref> On April 13, 1934, City and Hunter Colleges were sites of a National Student Strike Against War, organized by the [[Student League for Industrial Democracy (1946–1959)|Student League for Industrial Democracy]] and the [[National Student League]]. At City College, approximately 600 students gathered at the flagpole on campus to protest the war, as well as demand the reinstatement of twenty-one students<ref>CCNY Student League for Industrial Democracy, CCNY National Student League. (1934). ''21 Students Expelled - Strike Robbie Out!'' [Documents]. The City College Libraries, New York, New York. <nowiki>https://jstor.org/stable/community.9285626</nowiki></ref> who had been expelled for refusing to answer Dean Morton Gottschall's questions regarding their actions in a prior protest against a visiting delegation of soldiers from fascist Italy on October 9.<ref>13 ARE REINSTATED AT CITY COLLEGE. (October 30, 1934). ''New York Times.'' https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/10/30/118006499.html?pageNumber=21</ref> At Hunter College, the students demonstrated against then-president Dr. Eugene A. Colligan for his refusal to cooperate with the nationwide anti-war strike "and especially his attempt to call a halt to an anti-war convention at Hunter College on mere technicalities."<ref>NATION"S STUDENTS 'STRIKE' FOR HOUR IN PROTEST ON WAR. (April 14, 1934). ''New York Times, Vol. LXXXIII.'' https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/04/14/95481794.html?pageNumber=1</ref> On November 20, 1934, nearly 1,500 gathered at the CCNY Quad to protest the expulsion, culminating in the burning of a two-headed effigy of CCNY President Robinson and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini.<ref>Unknown, "Rally on CCNY Quad, November, 20, 1934," ''CUNY Digital History Archive'', accessed April 23, 2025, <nowiki>https://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/4032</nowiki>.</ref> After the rally, more than 2,000 City College students voted to reinstate the twenty-one students, this time advocating "a 'legal method' of struggle...as opposed to the holding of unauthorized demonstrations."<ref>2,000 AT RALLY ASK CITY COLLEGE TRUCE (November 23, 1934). ''New York Times.'' https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/11/23/94581705.html?pageNumber=21</ref>

Students at some campuses became increasingly frustrated with the university's and Board of Higher Education's handling of university administration. At [[Baruch College]] in 1967, over a thousand students protested the plan to make the college an upper-division school limited to junior, senior, and graduate students.<ref>{{cite news|title=1,000 C.C.N.Y. Students Protest Division Plan for Baruch School|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 31, 1967}}</ref> At [[Brooklyn College]] in 1968, students attempted a sit-in to demand the admission of more black and Puerto Rican students and additional black studies curriculum.<ref>{{cite news|last=Farber|first=M.A.|title=Brooklyn vs. Columbia: Failure of the Sit-In at One School Laid To Type of Student, Location and Policy|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 24, 1968}}</ref> Students at [[Hunter College]] also demanded a [[Africana studies|Black studies]] program.<ref>{{cite news|title=Negro Students Press Demands: Ask Stony Brook and Hunter for Black-Studies Program|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 8, 1969}}</ref> Members of the SEEK program, which provided academic support for underprepared and underprivileged students, staged a building takeover at [[Queens College]] in 1969 to protest the decisions of the program's director, who would later be replaced by a black professor.<ref>{{cite news|last=Lissner|first=Will|title=City U. Examines College Dispute: Advisory Unit Weighs SEEK Protests at Queens|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 11, 1969}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Negro Chosen Head of SEEK Program at Queens College|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 4, 1969}}</ref> [[Puerto Ricans in the United States|Puerto Rican]] students at [[Bronx Community College]] filed a report with the [[New York State Division of Human Rights]] in 1970, contending that the intellectual level of the college was inferior and discriminatory.<ref>{{cite news|title=Students Protest College Teaching|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 25, 1970|page=36}}</ref> Hunter College was crippled for several days by a protest of 2,000 students who had a list of demands focusing on more student representation in college administration.<ref>{{cite news|last=Fried|first=Joseph P.|title=Disruption at Hunter Is Ended After 200 Policemen Are Called|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 3, 1970|page=20}}</ref> Across CUNY, students boycotted their campuses in 1970 to protest a rise in student fees and other issues, including the proposed (and later implemented) open admissions plan.<ref>{{cite news|last=Fosburgh|first=Lacey|title=City U. Boycotted by Students Protesting Proposed Fee Rise|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 30, 1970|page=36}}</ref>

Like many college campuses in 1970, CUNY faced a number of [[Student Strike of 1970|protests and demonstrations]] after the [[Kent State shootings|Kent State massacre]] and [[Cambodian Campaign]]. The Administrative Council of the City University of New York sent U.S. president [[Richard Nixon]] a telegram in 1970 stating, "No nation can long endure the alienation of the best of its young people."<ref>{{cite news|last=Lelyveld|first=Joseph|title=Protests on Cambodia and Kent State Are Joined by Many Local Schools|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/06/archives/protests-on-cambodia-and-kent-state-are-joined-by-many-local.html|access-date=May 23, 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 6, 1970}}</ref> Some colleges, including [[John Jay College of Criminal Justice]], historically the "college for cops," held teach-ins in addition to student and faculty protests.<ref>{{cite news|last=Montgomery|first=Paul L.|title=John Jay College Gets Protests Too: Activity Unusual at School Attended by Policemen|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/10/archives/john-jay-college-gets-protests-too-activity-unusual-at-school.html|access-date=May 23, 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 10, 1970}}</ref>

In April 2024, CUNY students joined [[List of pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses in the United States in 2024|other campuses across the United States]] in protests against the Israel–Hamas war.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Land |first=Olivia |date=April 25, 2024 |title=Anti-Israel protesters who set up 'intifada' tent camp at state-funded NYC college seen pushing school security in dramatic video |url=https://nypost.com/2024/04/25/us-news/anti-israel-protesters-set-up-city-college-encampment/ |access-date=April 29, 2024 |work=New York Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bullaro |first=Grace Russo |date=April 26, 2024 |title=Student Protests Spread to CUNY Where Many Identify with the Marginalized Gazans |url=https://lavocedinewyork.com/en/new-york/2024/04/26/student-protests-spread-to-cuny-where-many-identify-with-the-marginalized-gazans/ |access-date=April 29, 2024 |work=VNY}}</ref> The student protestors demanded that CUNY divest from companies with ties to Israel and that CUNY officials cancel any upcoming trips to Israel and protect students involved in the demonstrations.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kriegstein |first=Brittany |date=April 25, 2024 |title=City College students form 3rd major campus encampment to demand divestment from Israel |url=https://gothamist.com/news/city-college-students-form-3rd-major-campus-encampment-to-demand-divestment-from-israel |access-date=April 29, 2024 |work=Gothamist}}</ref>

===Open admissions===
Under pressure from community activists and CUNY Chancellor [[Albert H. Bowker|Albert Bowker]], the Board of Higher Education (BHE) approved an [[open admissions]] plan in 1966, but it was not scheduled to be fully implemented until 1975.<ref name=":0" /> In 1969, students and faculty across CUNY participated in rallies, student strikes, and class boycotts demanding an end to CUNY's restrictive admissions policies. CUNY administrators and Mayor [[John Lindsay]] expressed support for these demands, and the BHE voted to implement the plan immediately in the fall of 1970.<ref name=":0" />

All high school graduates were guaranteed entrance to the university without having to fulfill traditional requirements such as exams or grades. The policy nearly doubled the number of students enrolled in the CUNY system to 35,000 (compared to 20,000 the year before). Black and Hispanic student enrollment increased threefold.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Robert K. |last=Fullinwider |journal=Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly |title=Open Admissions and Remedial Education at CUNY |url=http://journals.gmu.edu/PPPQ/article/download/310/238 |issue=1 |volume=19 |year=1999}}</ref> [[Remedial education]], to supplement the training of under-prepared students, became a significant part of CUNY's offerings.<ref>{{cite book|last=Suri|first=Duitch|title=Open Admissions and Remediation: A Case Study of Policymaking by the City University of New York Board|year=2010|publisher=PhD Dissertation, The City University of New York|location=New York}}</ref> Additionally, ethnic and Black Studies programs and centers were instituted on many CUNY campuses, contributing to the growth of similar programs nationwide.<ref name=":0" />

Retention of students in CUNY during this period was low; two-thirds of students enrolled in the early 1970s left within four years without graduating.<ref name=":0" />

===Financial crisis of 1976===
In fall 1976, during [[New York City fiscal crisis of 1975|New York City's fiscal crisis]], the free tuition policy was discontinued under pressure from the federal government, the financial community that had a role in rescuing the city from bankruptcy, and New York State, which would take over the funding of CUNY's senior colleges.<ref>{{cite journal|title=When Tuition at CUNY Was Free, Sort of, CUNY Matters|journal=CUNY Matters|date=October 2011|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2011/10/12/when-tuition-at-cuny-was-free-sort-of/|access-date=December 11, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115105813/http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2011/10/12/when-tuition-at-cuny-was-free-sort-of/|archive-date=January 15, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> Tuition, which had been in place in the State University of New York system since 1963, was instituted at all CUNY colleges.<ref>{{cite news|last=Applebome|first=Peter|title=The Accidental Giant of Higher Education|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/education/25suny-t.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/education/25suny-t.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|access-date=July 17, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 23, 2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=When CUNY Was Free, Sort Of|journal=CUNY Matters|date=October 2011|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2011/10/12/when-tuition-at-cuny-was-free-sort-of/|access-date=December 11, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115105813/http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2011/10/12/when-tuition-at-cuny-was-free-sort-of/|archive-date=January 15, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Meanwhile, CUNY students were added to the state's need-based Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), which had been created to help private colleges.<ref name="www1.cuny.edu">{{cite journal|title=When Tuition at CUNY Was Free, Sort of|journal=CUNY Matters|date=October 2011|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2011/10/12/when-tuition-at-cuny-was-free-sort-of/|access-date=December 11, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115105813/http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2011/10/12/when-tuition-at-cuny-was-free-sort-of/|archive-date=January 15, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> Full-time students who met the income eligibility criteria were permitted to receive TAP, ensuring for the first time that financial hardship would deprive no CUNY student of a college education.<ref name="www1.cuny.edu"/> Within a few years, the federal government would create its own need-based program, known as [[Pell Grant]]s, providing the neediest students with a tuition-free college education. [[Joseph S. Murphy]] was Chancellor of the City University of New York from 1982 to 1990, when he resigned.<ref name="auto8x">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_gNeCymykIIC&q=%22joseph+s.+murphy%22+cuny&pg=PA227|title=In Memoriam: Joseph S. Murphy|work=Radical History Review: Volume 71, Liberalism and the Left|first=Rhr|last=Collective|date=February 13, 1999|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=9780521644709|via=Google Books}}</ref> CUNY at the time was the third-largest university in the United States, with over 180,000 students.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-01-mn-131-story.html|title=Reynolds May Go From Cal State to Top Job at CUNY|date=June 1, 1990|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

By 2011, nearly six of ten full-time undergraduates qualified for a tuition-free education at CUNY due in large measure to state, federal and CUNY financial aid programs.<ref>{{cite web|last=The City University of New York|title=CUNY Value|url=http://cuny.edu/about/resources/value.html|publisher=The City University of New York|access-date=July 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705143433/http://www.cuny.edu/about/resources/value.html|archive-date=July 5, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> CUNY's enrollment dipped after tuition was re-established, and there were further enrollment declines through the 1980s and into the 1990s.<ref>{{cite news|access-date=2022-11-23|language=en|newspaper=Empire Center|title=New York public school enrollment: back to early 1990s, and still falling|url=https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/new-york-public-school-enrollment-back-to-early-1990s-and-still-falling/}}</ref>

===Financial crisis of 1995===
In 1995, CUNY suffered another fiscal crisis when Governor [[George Pataki]] proposed a drastic cut in state financing.<ref>{{cite news|last=Honan|first=William|title=CUNY Professors, Fearing Worst, Rush Out Their Resumes: With a financial emergency declared, many on the CUNY faculties could go|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/28/nyregion/cuny-professors-fearing-worst-rush-out-their-resumes.html|access-date=April 17, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 28, 1995}}</ref> Faculty cancelled classes and students staged protests. By May, CUNY adopted deep cuts to college budgets and class offerings.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hevesi|first=Dennis|title=CUNY Campuses Prepare to Reduce Faculty and Classes|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/14/nyregion/cuny-campuses-prepare-to-reduce-faculty-and-classes.html|access-date=April 17, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 14, 1995}}</ref> By June, to save money spent on remedial programs, CUNY adopted a stricter admissions policy for its senior colleges: students deemed unprepared for college would not be admitted, this a departure from the 1970 [[#Open_admissions|Open Admissions]] program.<ref>{{cite news|last=Jones|first=Charisse|title=CUNY Adopts Stricter Policy on Admissions|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/27/nyregion/cuny-adopts-stricter-policy-on-admissions.html|access-date=April 17, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 27, 1995}}</ref> That year's final state budget cut funding by $102&nbsp;million, which CUNY absorbed by increasing tuition by $750 and offering a retirement incentive plan for faculty.

In 1999, a task force appointed by Mayor [[Rudolph Giuliani]] issued a report that described CUNY as "an institution adrift" and called for an improved, more cohesive university structure and management, as well as more consistent academic standards. Following the report, [[Matthew Goldstein]], a mathematician and City College graduate who had led CUNY's Baruch College and briefly, [[Adelphi University]], was appointed chancellor. CUNY ended its policy of open admissions to its four-year colleges, raised its admissions standards at its most selective four-year colleges (Baruch, Brooklyn, City, Hunter and Queens), and required new enrollees who needed remediation to begin their studies at a CUNY open-admissions community college.<ref name="Kaminer">{{cite news|last=Kaminer|first=Ariel|title=Longtime CUNY Chancellor to Step Down After Pushing Higher Standards|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/education/matthew-goldstein-announces-resignation-as-cuny-chancellor.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/education/matthew-goldstein-announces-resignation-as-cuny-chancellor.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|access-date=July 8, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 13, 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===2010 onward===
CUNY's enrollment of degree-credit students reached 220,727 in 2005 and 262,321 in 2010 as the university broadened its academic offerings.<ref>{{cite web|title=CUNY Value|url=http://cuny.edu/about/resources/value.html|publisher=The City University of New York|access-date=July 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705143433/http://www.cuny.edu/about/resources/value.html|archive-date=July 5, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> The university added more than 2,000 full-time faculty positions, opened new schools and programs, and expanded the university's fundraising efforts to help pay for them.<ref name="Kaminer"/> Fundraising increased from $35&nbsp;million in 2000 to more than $200&nbsp;million in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|title=CUNY Mater Plan 2012 – 2016|url=http://www.cuny.edu/about/masterplan.html|publisher=The City University of New York|access-date=July 8, 2013|pages=11–12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727122751/http://cuny.edu/about/masterplan.html|archive-date=July 27, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

By autumn 2013, all CUNY undergraduates were required to take an administration-dictated common core of courses that have been claimed to meet specific "learning outcomes" or standards. Since the courses are accepted university-wide, the administration claims it will be easier for students to transfer course credits between CUNY colleges. It also reduced the number of core courses some CUNY colleges had required, to a level below national norms, particularly in the sciences.<ref>{{cite web|title=CUNY Pathways initiative|url=http://www.cuny.edu/academics/initiatives/pathways.html|publisher=The City University of New York|access-date=July 10, 2013|archive-date=July 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723070435/http://www.cuny.edu/academics/initiatives/pathways.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Pathways Open, New Choices|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/03/06/pathways-open-new-choices/|publisher=The City University of New York|access-date=July 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516013225/http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/03/06/pathways-open-new-choices/|archive-date=May 16, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> The program is the target of several lawsuits by students and faculty, and was the subject of a "no confidence" vote by the faculty, who rejected it by an overwhelming 92% margin.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pathways No Confidence|url=http://psc-cuny.org/latest-news/92-vote-no-confidence-pathways-cunys-new-curriculum|publisher=Professional Staff Congress-CUNY|access-date=September 1, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105114509/http://www.psc-cuny.org/latest-news/92-vote-no-confidence-pathways-cunys-new-curriculum|archive-date=November 5, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Chancellor Goldstein retired on July 1, 2013, and was replaced on June 1, 2014, by [[James Milliken (academic administrator)|James Milliken]], president of the [[University of Nebraska]], and a graduate of the University of Nebraska and [[New York University School of Law]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Nationally Prominent Higher Education Leader James B. Milliken Appointed Chancellor of The City University of New York|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2014/01/15/nationally-prominent-higher-education-leader-james-b-milliken-appointed-chancellor-of-the-city-university-of-new-york/|publisher=The City University of New York|access-date=May 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103457/http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2014/01/15/nationally-prominent-higher-education-leader-james-b-milliken-appointed-chancellor-of-the-city-university-of-new-york/|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Milliken retired at the end of the 2018 academic year and moved on to become the chancellor for the University of Texas system.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2018/02/07/cuny-trustees-launch-search-for-new-chancellor/|title=CUNY TRUSTEES LAUNCH SEARCH FOR NEW CHANCELLOR – CUNY Newswire|website=1.cuny.edu|access-date=September 22, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.utsystem.edu/chancellor/biography|title=James B. Milliken Biography|publisher=University of Texas System|language=en|access-date=January 30, 2020}}</ref>

In 2018, CUNY opened its 25th campus, the [[CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies]], named after former president [[Joseph S. Murphy]] and combining some forms and functions of the [[Murphy Institute (CUNY)|Murphy Institute]] that were housed at the [[CUNY School of Professional Studies]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slu.cuny.edu/about/|title=– AboutCUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies|accessdate=February 25, 2024}}</ref>

On February 13, 2019, the board of trustees voted to appoint Queens College president [[Felix V. Matos Rodriguez]] as the chancellor of the City University of New York.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://politi.co/2SRrk75|title=CUNY appoints first Latino, and minority, chancellor|first=Madina|last=Touré|website=Politico PRO|access-date=February 14, 2019}}</ref> Matos became both the first Latino and minority educator to head the university. He assumed the post May 1.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2019/02/13/queens-college-president-felix-v-matos-rodriguez-to-be-named-chancellor-of-city-university-of-new-york/|title=Queens College President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez To Be Named Chancellor Of City University Of New York – CUNY Newswire|language=en|access-date=February 13, 2019}}</ref>