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Governance
New York has 45 public four-year institutions, 35 public two-year community colleges,
and 182 private institutions (119 independent four-year, 22 independent two-year, 9
proprietary four-year, and 32 proprietary two-year institutions). The governance structure
is segmental, with most responsibility for planning, policy, data collection, and oversight
residing in the two public governing boards—SUNY and CUNY—and statewide
coordination by the New York State Board of Regents. All of the public community
colleges have been governed as part of the CUNY or SUNY systems since the 1960s:
SUNY has 32 four-year and 29 two-year institutions, and CUNY has 13 four-year and 6
two-year institutions. The SUNY and CUNY governing boards are responsible for
statewide oversight for the community colleges within their respective jurisdictions. The
Board of Regents performs a largely coordinating function, although it exercises degree
review and approval authority and is the only state accrediting agency in the United
States. The New York State Education Department is the administrative arm of the Board
of Regents. The Board of Regents has no budget authority for higher education; budgets
are negotiated individually between SUNY and CUNY with the governor’s office and the
state legislature.
Enrollment Planning
Demand for postsecondary education in New York is projected to grow very slightly, at a
statewide rate of approximately 1% a year. Most of the enrollment growth is in the
metropolitan New York region and will be highest in the CUNY institutions; between
1990 and 2001, enrollment in New York City increased by 8%. Enrollments in the rest of
the state declined by 2.6%, although three upstate regions had increases between 2.5%
and 8%. Enrollment planning is decentralized within SUNY and CUNY. Campus-level
plans within each of those systems show that most are expecting very modest growth in
the next 10 years, with no sustained state or sector plan to increase enrollment access
through growth in the community colleges. Nonetheless, the community colleges have
been the fastest-growing sector in New York over the last decade.
Academic Policies Affecting Transfer
All the CUNY and SUNY community colleges, in contrast, remain open access
institutions. Both systems require students who enter without ACT or SAT scores to take
standardized tests to assess their preparedness for college-level coursework. Students
failing to score high enough are directed to remedial courses, for which they receive
college-enrollment credit but not degree credit.
Within both CUNY and SUNY, the community colleges have historically played a
transfer role, and policies on articulation and acceptance of transfer credit within both
institutions clearly state expectations for associate degree obtainment and transferability
of credits. Within CUNY and SUNY there are separate core curriculum requirements for
the associate degree. Articulation agreements must be individually negotiated between
the campuses. There is no common course numbering system for either SUNY or CUNY.
CUNY has in the last five years implemented a version of an electronic course catalogue
for prospective transfer students, the Transfer Information and Program Planning System
(TIPPS).
There is also some evidence that the private four-year colleges play a major role in the
baccalaureate transfer function in New York. Many of the private colleges maintain
strong partnership programs with community colleges in their region, promising tuition
assistance and other forms of aid for transfer students. The Bundy aid program, while not
reimbursing the institutions for their costs of educating transfer students, nonetheless
provides a positive incentive for them to pursue transfer students and encourage them to
complete the baccalaureate degree.
Data Collection and Accountability
New York has no statewide “report card” or accountability report for higher education,
although the Board of Regents requires reporting on some performance issues, such as
graduation rates. Most of the data reporting on transfer, degree production, and other
performance measures come from the SUNY and CUNY systems. The Board of Regents
prepares an annual report on transfer activity for full-time students only; information
about part-time transfer students must be obtained at the institutional level. The statewide
transfer report was discontinued entirely between 1993 and 1999, so trend information
for the 1990s must be obtained from the institutions. The statewide report shows data for
sending and receiving institutions separately for CUNY and SUNY two- and four-year
institutions, independent two- and four-year institutions, proprietary two- and four-year
institutions, and out-of-state institutions. Data are shown separately for students who
transferred from two-year institutions both with and without a degree. In 1999 out-of-
state transfers constituted roughly a third of all transfer activity. Among in-state transfers,
58% went from two- to four-year institutions, and the majority of these 2/4 transfers did
not obtain a two-year degree. Almost 35% of all 2/4 transfers moved to independent four-
year institutions.
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New York is the most heavily “private” of the six sample states: private four-year
colleges are the single largest sector in terms of enrollments (about 36% of total
undergraduate enrollments) and numbers of institutions (National Center for Public
Policy and Higher Education, 2000). Of the sample states, New York also has the
smallest percentage of enrollments in public community colleges. The state’s pricing,
subsidy, and financial aid policies reflect this strong private presence: public sector
tuitions in New York, particularly in the community colleges, are among the highest in
the country, with average tuition in the community colleges around $2,500 annually in
2000, compared with $3,850 for the four-year institutions. New York has one of the
largest need-based state financial aid programs, the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP),
which awards over $600 million annually. Only full-time students are eligible for TAP
and eligibility is limited to eight enrolled semesters, restrictions that significantly limit
TAP assistance to low-income community college students, who are more likely to be
enrolled part-time and take longer to complete degrees. The much smaller state grant
program targeted to community college students, Aid to Part-Time Study (APTS), limits
its awards to tuition costs only and is only for students who are enrolled at least half-time
(more than six units). The State University of New York (SUNY) has some tuition
waivers for transfer students, and students at the City University of New York (CUNY)
may also be eligible for an award from CCTWP (City College Tuition Waiver Program),
designed for New York residents who attend one of CUNY’s six community colleges.
New York also has the Bundy aid program, which provides funds to private colleges
based on degrees awarded: $600 to two-year institutions for associate degrees, $1,500 for
bachelor’s degrees to four-year institutions, $950 for master’s degrees, and $4,550 for
doctoral degrees. The Bundy program is currently funded at approximately $45 million
annually.
Responsibility for development and oversight of transfer policies affecting the two-year
institutions resides with the SUNY and CUNY Boards; the Board of Education’s primary
involvement is approval of degree programs and statewide data collection. SUNY has
historically been the institution with the most selective admissions requirements of the
four-year institutions. Admissions standards for many of the CUNY institutions had,
during the 1970s, changed from selective to open access, but the four-year institutions are
now moving back toward greater selectivity in response to the CUNY Board’s
elimination of remedial education within baccalaureate programs in 2000. The Board of
Regents has approved this change through 2002; at that time the Regents will consider
extending CUNY’s authority to eliminate remedial courses in baccalaureate programs.
The Board of Regents is closely monitoring the implementation of the new admissions
requirements.
Within both systems, policies on the transfer of credits require that community
college students who complete the transfer core curriculum will have their units accepted
for degree credit transfer at either a SUNY or CUNY campus, depending on where the
community college is located. Students who are denied credits upon transfer have appeal
rights to the SUNY and CUNY Boards. While students are not guaranteed enrollment at
their first-choice campus or degree program, the relatively soft enrollment demand in
many parts of the state has made four-year institutions eager to accept qualified transfer
students.
