Contact: Sunny Mindel/Samantha I. Lugo (212) 788-2958
The Mayor's Advisory Task Force on the City University of New York submitted its findings and recommendations to Mayor Giuliani today after a year-long review of the university's governance structure, its remedial education programs and its budgeting, funding and financial management.
"The City University of New York is adrift," said Benno C. Schmidt, Jr., chairman of the Task Force and former president of Yale University. "Its graduation rates are low, and students who do graduate take a long time to earn their degrees. While enrollment in New York City's public schools and at other public universities is increasing, CUNY's senior colleges are losing enrollment. Accountability is largely ignored in its governance processes, and there is virtually no strategy or planning in the way it allocates its resources. Academic standards are loose and confused, and CUNY lacks the basic information necessary to make sound judgments about the quality and effectiveness of its programs. CUNY's full-time faculty is shrinking, aging and losing ground. Mistrust and confusion dominate CUNY's governance processes. There is a profound lack of leadership, so profound that even though the university is inundated by public school graduates who lack basic academic skills, it has not made a strong effort to get the schools to raise their standards.
"CUNY conducts remedial education on a huge scale: in 1997, 87% of CUNY's community college freshmen and 72% of senior college freshmen failed one or more of CUNY's basic skills assessment tests, and 55% of CUNY freshmen failed more than one. Yet we found that CUNY's remedial programs proceed haphazardly, and there are no objective measures of which remediation efforts are, or are not, succeeding," continued Chairman Schmidt. "Moreover, RAND has estimated that the average SAT scores of incoming bachelor's degree students at CUNY's Baruch, Hunter, Queens, Brooklyn, and City Colleges and the College of Staten Island were in the 30th to 40th percentile range in 1997, compared to SAT takers nationwide.
"The SAT data point to important conclusions about incoming CUNY freshmen. First, the academic level of CUNY entering freshmen entering the community colleges is very, very low. Second, the estimated mean SAT scores of entering freshmen at CUNY's John Jay, York, and Lehman Colleges is in the bottom quarter nationwide, which means that large fractions of students in those institutions -- probably one-third or more -- have preparedness at rock-bottom levels. Third, even CUNY's most selective college, Baruch - with an estimated mean SAT score of 968 -- attracts freshmen whose skills are well below the national average," said Mr. Schmidt.
"CUNY's current budgeting, funding and financial management processes are ineffective. There is no strategic planning, no effort to invest in excellence, no incentive for good performance or disincentives for bad, no focus on institutional mission.
"Simply put, CUNY, as a university system, has never surmounted its history as a group of separate institutions founded at different times for different purposes. When it became a system in 1961, there was no planning addressed to its system architecture or its system governance. Since then, CUNY's haphazard evolution -- characterized by rapid expansion and contraction, sudden change of academic direction, and frequent administrative turnover -- has resulted not in a coherent university, but in an amorphous confederation of individual colleges," said Mr. Schmidt.
"To meet its critical responsibilities in the 21st century, we believe that CUNY must first invent itself. Governance must be restructured based on accountability, financial resources allocated based on performance, leadership and lines of authority established, and trust restored. The university must establish a strategic vision for the future of public higher education in New York City, and for an integrated university system that is greater than the sum of its parts," continued Chairman Schmidt.
In its report, the Task Force recommended that the university organize itself and all its institutions and programs around clear, objective standards. Specifically:
The Task Force said that CUNY must reinvigorate its commitment to excellence, while maintaining its commitment to providing broad access. Specifically, CUNY must design a university system that includes top-tier senior colleges, first-rate graduate programs, and institutions that continue to provide broad access at both the associate and bachelor's levels. At the same time, CUNY's selective senior colleges must have admissions and recruitment policies that ensure diversity within the context of high standards.
Another key recommendation is that CUNY and the New York City public school system must forge a new relationship. In particular:
As New York City public schools make the transition to higher standards, the Task Force recommended that CUNY continue to offer open admissions and remedial education at the community college level - on the following conditions:
In addition, the Task Force recommended that CUNY convert to performance-based funding. In particular, they said that the university must define its priorities, promote systematic assessment of performance, and use resource allocation to reinforce campus accountability. Both the central administration and the individual campuses must be encouraged to develop new sources of revenues.
Finally, the Task Force said that CUNY must invest in a university-wide technology infrastructure and create integrated management information systems that can support rational planning and budgeting, track student progress and outcomes, and provide better and more accessible management information.
All of the Task Force's recommendations are contingent upon the establishment of dynamic leadership at all levels of university governance.
The Task Force called upon the Mayor and the Governor to work together and with the City and State legislatures to:
The Task Force based its conclusions and recommendations on a series of studies by conducted by Task Force consultants and professional staff. Consultants to the Task Force included PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ("PwC"); RAND Education ("RAND"); and Professor Bruce Cooper, Fordham University Graduate School of Education. The Task Force's professional staff included Sally Renfro and Allison Armour-Garb, on loan from the City's Department of Employment, and Miriam Cilo. Roger Benjamin, President of Council for Aid To Education, acted as Executive Director of the Task Force.
PwC undertook three separate studies for the Task Force: Report I: Financial Analysis of Remedial Education at the City University of New York; Report II: Planning and Budgeting at the City University of New York; and Report III: Review of the City University of New York's Revenues and Expenditures.
RAND conducted four studies: CUNY Statistical Profile, 1980-1998, Volumes I and II; The Governance of the City University of New York: A System at Odds With Itself; Financing Remediation at CUNY on a Performance Basis: A Proposal; and CUNY's Testing Program: Characteristics, Results, and Implications for Policy and Research.
Finally, the Task Force's professional staff undertook four studies: Open Admissions and Remedial Education at the City University of New York; Beyond Graduation Rates: Assessing the Outcomes of CUNY's Open Admissions and Remedial Education Policies; Bridging the Gap Between School and College; and Analysis of Remedial Education Outsourcing Alternatives," concluded Mr. Schmidt.
Also joining the Chairman Schmidt for today's announced were the other task force members. Herman Badillo, newly appointment chairman of the CUNY Board of Trustees; former New York State Senator and Democratic Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein; banker Jacqueline V. Brady; attorney and editor Heather Mac Donald; the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Richard T. Roberts; and Richard Schwartz, President and CEO of Opportunity America.