Our Mission
NYCUS envisions a world where higher education is not a privilege but a right. We fight to transform a bifurcated system. On one hand, we have giant wealthy private corporations/universities—including, but not limited to Columbia and NYU—educate disproportionately wealthy students while gobbling up property and paying nothing back to the city. On the other hand, we have the City University of New York (CUNY), the public higher education system of NYC, which educates disproportionately working-class students of color and has been systematically underfunded for decades. While Columbia and NYU grow richer, CUNY students suffer under broken buildings, cancelled classes, and overworked and underpaid professors. We believe that all students have a right to a quality education, not just those who can afford it. More than that, these education policies are developed by those most directly impacted.
We believe those most impacted by policy should be the ones writing it and organizing it. Students—who have learned, grown, and struggled on these campuses—know best what their schools need to thrive. We are motivated to take leadership in NYCUS because we know the empowerment of students is vital to enable all those who wish to attend university the ability not just to receive a higher education, but to receive a great one. Through a deep commitment to bottom-up organizing, community building, and leadership development, we build power that aims to provide students with autonomy and control over our lives.
Five fundamental tasks guide us in our organizing:
1. Shared Governance in Higher Education
We have the right to know where our tuition and tax dollars are spent. Our institutions must disclose their budget, budget proposals, and investments to students, staff, and faculty.
2. The right for everyone to have free high quality higher education.
We have the right to decide how our colleges and universities spend our tuition and tax dollars. We demand that students, community members, and union and nonunion staff, including contracted and in-house labor, have veto and allocation power over investments.
The spending of money obtained through the passing of REPAIR must be democratically decided by students, staff, and faculty. This includes, but is not limited to, students having democratic control over the companies and contracts that our universities are affiliated with. Students will have the right to invoke a general complaint to re-negotiate contracts and companies we affiliate with.
3. COMMUNITY AND ACCESS
We have the right to have access to all higher education spaces in New York City. Our institutions rely on us being isolated from each other in order to divide us. We reject this notion and know that we are stronger when we are together, across class lines. We demand the opening up of NYU and Columbia’s campuses to CUNY students, which includes, but is not limited to, CUNY students, staff, and faculty having access to NYU and Columbia’s classrooms, libraries, community spaces, and dorms.
4. LABOR.
We have the right and responsibility to stand in solidarity with our staff and faculty. Any expense incurred by NYU and Columbia through REPAIR or a PILOT agreement will not come at the expense of the educational mission of these institutions, including but not limited to staff and faculty salaries, benefits, working/learning conditions, and courseloads. NYU and Columbia may pay for these expenses by cutting administration’s salaries, ending or limiting the schools’ expansionism, and quitting conspicuous consumption.
We also demand campuses hire union-based labor and allow workers to organize freely and unhindered.
5. REDISTRUCTION
We have the right to demand that our institutions, both academic and government, support REPAIR. Beyond merely words, we demand our academic institutions take action. They must exert pressure on the New York State Legislature to pass REPAIR to ensure that NYU and Columbia repair their relationship with NYC and pay their fair share back to our city and our students.
NYC UNION of STUDENTS 