Developed to Engage Students who Started College but Did Not Graduate, ‘CUNY Reconnect’ Continues to Surpass Enrollment Targets
More Than 10% Have Completed a Degree or Will Graduate this Spring
CUNY Reconnect, a city-funded program designed to engage New Yorkers who earned college credits but stopped short of getting a degree, has helped the City University of New York re-enroll 16,319 students during the 2023-2024 academic year, bringing to 33,378 the number of students who have returned to college at CUNY since Reconnect was launched in 2022. More than 10% of them – 3,375 – have already completed a degree or are on track to do so this spring. Of those students, the majority were attending part time.
CUNY Reconnect pairs prospective students with trained advisers who help them navigate the enrollment process, choose an academic program and create a class schedule that accommodates employment, caregiving and other obligations. Reconnect advisers also support students as they apply for financial aid — work that has been crucial with this year’s chaotic rollout of the revised FAFSA application. The Reconnect team will reinforce CUNY’s ongoing efforts to ensure that students are informed and able to take full advantage of their federal and state financial aid options.
Conceived and championed by New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, CUNY Reconnect was established with an initial $4.4 million investment from the city, which increased program funding to $5.8 million in the current fiscal year. CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez will highlight the effectiveness of CUNY Reconnect in testimony before the New York City Council this Wednesday about the University’s budget request for FY 2025. CUNY has asked the city to sustain its $5.8 million investment, along with $2.9 million in additional funding proposed by the City Council to expand its impact, and to baseline the funding, meaning it will be included in each fiscal year moving forward.
“Helping working New Yorkers access educational and economic opportunities has been a consistent priority for this Council,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “I am thrilled that CUNY Reconnect has now supported more than 33,000 students in their return to college, and nearly 4,000 students have graduated or are on track to complete their degrees this spring. The success of this signature initiative underscores the importance of expanding and baselining its funding in the city budget, which the Council called for in its Preliminary Budget Response. This vital program opens new doors of opportunity for New Yorkers to fulfill their dreams by overcoming barriers, and our city must continue supporting it through crucial investments.“
“CUNY Reconnect is integral to the University’s mission to engage more New Yorkers and make it easier for them to access the many long-term benefits of higher education,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We thank our partners in government for helping CUNY make good on its mission to lift New York, and we welcome the students who have taken this important step toward improving their future. We congratulate those who returned to college through CUNY Reconnect, completed a degree and moved forward, better equipped to pursue their dreams.”
Transformational Impact
Karina Castro
CUNY Reconnect graduates include Karina Castro, a psychology major at Hunter College who paused her education in 2020 after having a child soon after the COVID-19 lockdowns began. She returned in 2022 after receiving an email from a Reconnect adviser and earned her bachelor’s this January.
“If I had not received that email, I probably would still be struggling to find my way back to school,” said Castro, who is now pursuing a master’s degree in industrial psychology. “[The adviser] provided me with the solution to each and every ‘but’ I had. I communicated to him what schedule would work for me; he connected with [Hunter] and we found the perfect schedule.”
Charlene Batts
Charlene Batts, who is currently studying criminal justice at Kingsborough Community College, enrolled at John Jay College in 1980. Her education was interrupted when she relocated for her former husband’s military work. She returned to CUNY this spring after seeing an online ad for CUNY Reconnect.
“I love my work, but as time has gone on it has become obvious that having a degree would definitely contribute to my success,” said Batts, who is director of strategic initiatives and public affairs for Council Member Justin Brannan. She describes her Reconnect coach as “calm, patient and understanding.”
“My self confidence has gone through the roof. My children are now looking to follow suit and even my husband wants to go back to school,” Batts added. “It’s changed not only my life, but my family’s as well.”
The Work Continues
To make more New Yorkers aware of Reconnect and encourage them to take advantage, CUNY launched a multimedia ad campaign this spring featuring some of those who have recently returned to college. The ads can be seen on subways, buses, billboards, the Staten Island Ferry and in the Staten Island Mall, and heard on Hot 97 and iHeartRadio.
To launch the initiative, CUNY Reconnect identified more than 100,000 students who left CUNY colleges without graduating in the past five years. It has surpassed enrollment targets in each of the two academic years since its launch. CUNY estimates that there are approximately 700,000 working-age New Yorkers who have earned credits and could return to finish their degrees or earn certificates that would help them enhance their careers. This includes students who left college during the pandemic, as well as those who withdrew years or even decades ago.
The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving more than 225,000 undergraduate and graduate students and awarding 50,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “Genius” Grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background.
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