Tabeling Statement: In support of CUNY Student Strikers
Item
Historically, the City University of New York has served a unique role in
New York and In the nation by providing the poor with access to higher
education. Founded in 1847, its original mandate was to serve the
“children of the people" and in keeping with this mission, provided free
higher education to New York residents.
The past 15 years have witnessed a drastic decline in state and city
support for CUNY. This year, Governor Cuomo proposes a $92 million cut in
state aid to CUNY; a $500 tuition hike in addition to an already authorized
$200 increase; and massive cuts In financial aid. Students at the 19 CUNY
Campuses have resorted to strikes as a last ditch effort to protest cuts
that will devasate their campuses, and price thousands of financially
strapped students out of higher education.
Please sign in support of the CUNY student strikers who have seized
academic buildings across the city in protest of these cuts.
We, the unde , support CUNY student strikers who protest a proposed
$92 million cut in state aid to CUNY; a $500 tuition hike; and massive cuts
in financial aid. We understand that their seizure of academic bunldings
across the city expresses their outrage over the seriousness of the
proposed cuts, and their desperation over the failure of other methods to
draw attention to their plight.
Name achool Address = —s_ Phone
New York and In the nation by providing the poor with access to higher
education. Founded in 1847, its original mandate was to serve the
“children of the people" and in keeping with this mission, provided free
higher education to New York residents.
The past 15 years have witnessed a drastic decline in state and city
support for CUNY. This year, Governor Cuomo proposes a $92 million cut in
state aid to CUNY; a $500 tuition hike in addition to an already authorized
$200 increase; and massive cuts In financial aid. Students at the 19 CUNY
Campuses have resorted to strikes as a last ditch effort to protest cuts
that will devasate their campuses, and price thousands of financially
strapped students out of higher education.
Please sign in support of the CUNY student strikers who have seized
academic buildings across the city in protest of these cuts.
We, the unde , support CUNY student strikers who protest a proposed
$92 million cut in state aid to CUNY; a $500 tuition hike; and massive cuts
in financial aid. We understand that their seizure of academic bunldings
across the city expresses their outrage over the seriousness of the
proposed cuts, and their desperation over the failure of other methods to
draw attention to their plight.
Name achool Address = —s_ Phone
Title
Tabeling Statement: In support of CUNY Student Strikers
Description
This statement, accompanied by a petition, was used at a tabling event held by City University of New York (CUNY) graduate students during the 1991 occupations of CUNY academic buildings. In protest of the $92 million cut in state aid, the $500 tuition hike, and student financial aid reductions, the signatories pledged support for the CUNY student strikers.
The 1991 CUNY strikes were part of the larger story of austerity measures imposed on New York City and the community efforts to resist those measures. On April 16th, students mainly from the Graduate Center Anthropology PhD program occupied the Graduate Center in solidarity with a broader undergraduate mobilization across CUNY against the threat of steep tuition hikes, massive budget cuts, and faculty layoffs. What began as a one-day strike turned into a ten-day take-over in which students and faculty practiced forms of participatory democracy, discussed the root causes of the austerity problems being faced, and debated actions for change. Students often drew on CUNY’s history as the premier urban, public institution of higher education in the United States to argue that education was a right and that the proposed measures threatened working-class New Yorkers' ability to receive an education.
Contributor
McCaffrey, Katherine
Creator
Graduate Center Students
Date
April 1991 (Circa)
Language
English
Rights
Copyrighted
Source
McCaffrey, Katherine
Graduate Center Students. Letter. 1991. “Tabeling Statement: In Support of CUNY Student Strikers”, 1991, CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, accessed March 10, 2026, https://stephenz.tailc22a4b.ts.net/s/cdha/item/1716