CUNY Rates Analysis

This essay examines faculty per 1,000 FTE student rates across CUNY, providing an internal CUNY perspective about the rates presented in the comparative report.

F18 FTE Students F18 Faculty F18 Rate F20 FTE Students F20 Faculty F20 Rate
Senior                132,471                   4,544                       34                  134,385                   4,447                  33
Community                  68,368                   2,270                       33                    57,613                   2,224                  39
Graduate Professional                    5,982                      423                       71                      6,491                      431                  66

The first chart and table (above) presents the rates/1,000 for the three categories of CUNY campuses, using CUNY’s financial report dashboards. Including the Fall 2020 data, which is not available from IPEDS, allows for examination of some COVID pandemic effects on enrollments. Senior colleges and graduate and professional school rates declined between Fall 2018 and Fall 2020. The community college rate increased primarily because enrollments declined.

The next charts present specific CUNY senior and community colleges over the 17 years of the primary comparative study, because of the unique pathways of each campus to the average CUNY rates.

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
SUNY        43        44        44        45        45        44        43        42        42        44        45        45        46        48        47        48        49
CUNY        43        42        41        40        41        41        39        39        37        38        39        38        38        37        35        34        34
City          60          61          59          54          50          49          46          49          47          48          51          52          51          48          46        41        44
Queens          48          49          46          45          46          44          41          41          39          41          43          42          41          41          38        38        37
Brooklyn          47          47          46          44          44          43          44          42          42          44          43          43          40          41          38        36        36
Hunter          41          43          42          42          44          44          43          43          43          42          43          43          42          39          37        36        35
Lehman          46          47          45          45          47          45          44          45          43          46          45          44          42          40          36        35        35
Staten Island          36          36          36          34          35          33          31          32          31          31          32          32          34          34          33        33        34

The above chart and table shows the rates over the 17 years for the senior college campuses that ended with rates equal to or above the averages. The thick lines are the SUNY and CUNY averages.

The most pronounced decline is the rate for City College, which started 40% above the SUNY rate and ended 10% below. Queens and Brooklyn Colleges started slightly above SUNY and ended about 25% below. All of the campuses except for Staten Island started above SUNY and ended substantially below. Staten Island started low, moved dramatically lower and then recovered to reach the CUNY average.

Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
SUNY         43         44         44         45         45         44         43         42         42         44         45         45         46         48         47         48         49
CUNY         43         42         41         40         41         41         39         39         37         38         39         38         38         37         35         34         34
Medgar Evers         48         39         41         39         40         40         34         34         32         35         34         34         33         32         31         29         33
Baruch         40         40         38         39         40         40         40         39         34         36         38         37         35         35         33         34         32
John Jay         31         30         29         31         33         35         35         31         32         32         33         34         34         34         32         31         30
NYCTC         34         34         33         32         34         36         35         36         32         32         32         33         32         31         30         30         30
York         38         38         38         37         35         37         36         38         33         31         31         30         31         29         30         28         29

The above chart and table presents the campuses that ended with below-average rates for CUNY. Medgar Evers experienced a dramatic decline. Baruch and York also experienced significant declines, while NYC Tech and John Jay started comparatively low and remained low.

Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
SUNY        43        44        44        45        45        44        43        42        42        44        45        45        46        48        47        48        49
CUNY        43        42        41        40        41        41        39        39        37        38        39        38        38        37        35        34        34
GCC 50 60 56 53 56 60 54
QCC 31 35 35 33 33 32 28 32 32 28 31 32 34 35 35 35 38
BCC 38 41 43 42 42 43 37 39 39 36 37 37 38 38 37 38 38
HCC 51 49 47 48 48 43 39 39 39 33 39 36 36 36 34 34 37
KCC 26 29 29 30 28 28 24 25 25 25 26 27 29 30 32 32 32
LCC 27 30 29 28 28 27 24 26 26 25 26 26 29 28 27 26 28
BMCC 27 28 28 28 28 24 26 25 25 23 25 29 26 27 26 27 27

The final chart and table, above, presents the community colleges, compared to the SUNY and CUNY senior college averages. Guttman Community College has high rates because it is a small start-up campus. Hostos Community College experienced a significant decline. The other community colleges retained relatively stable rates.

But what is striking is that the resource allocation model for the community colleges is primarily based on enrollment, so, unlike the senior colleges that have historical disparities in base level funding that influence how many full-time faculty members they employ, the community colleges have disparities in rates that cannot be directly explained by historical funding inequities.

These charts and tables help to explain the unique histories for each CUNY campus, for rates of full-time faculty per 1,000 FTE students. The Faculty Gap did not exist in 2003. It gradually and consistently developed in the past 17 years. The current situation is educationally and morally unacceptable, and there is no historical explanation or excuse that can justify it. The UFS comparative study recommends that a first step toward remediation is honor the commitment to fully fund the Tuition Assistance Program. However,  an additional Faculty Gap funding initiative will also be needed to directly increase the number of professors at SUNY and CUNY campuses to meet a minimum target for faculty per 1,000 FTE students.