CM Epstein on OmniCards, dropout reasons, and housing insecurity

Councilmember Epstein followed by Wilson.

Hi.

You doing, Chancellor?

This is new.

Thank you.

I'm used to seeing you in Albany.

I know.

It's good seeing you here as well.

Same, yes.

Hey, can we just check in about the OmniCards for students, what the $700,000 will get you, how many additional students you'll give cards to for that additional funding?

Do what?

It's in the...

You mean with the pilot that we recommended?

Yeah, you asked to confirm another 700,000.

I'll get you that number.

Okay.

Give me your next.

Yeah.

So I'm concerned about students who can't continue in school.

What are the top three reasons you hear students are leaving school?

Is it because of transportation?

Is it housing security?

Is it cost of tuition?

What are we hearing from students that are reasons that they are not be able to finish their degree?

So the most common reasons tend to be non-academic reasons, right?

They have to do with either medical emergencies in their families is a big category.

Situations about employment, right?

Many of our students work part-time and full-time, and that has impacted their capacity to be able to stay focused.

Those tend to be sort of the highest categories.

I mean, food insecurity and housing insecurity are also big categories for students, too.

So economics plays a role in the percentage of students who are dropping out?

Absolutely.

And so just on the economic side, so Omnicard's one.

I know you're doing well with getting food pantries on campuses.

So on the housing and security, I know for ASAP and other programs there are potential funding.

Do you see that as a bucket where we could solve for the housing and security?

Well, I mean, I think one of the main, in the CUNY CARES model, right, and those are just,

a pilot with the schools in the Bronx.

What we have learned there is that we can be good providers with the navigators of information to the students about what their options are.

Sometimes they're not aware of housing options that might be available to them.

So that would be a model for us since we don't have

really a housing stock, right, huge number of dorms.

We need to rely on partnerships, and the CUNY CARES model has been a way in which we've seen many students refer and dealt with those issues, and I think...

I know two years ago we talked about tracking students who had dropped out of CUNY and come back in and that you were following up with them to try to get them back in the program.

How successful has that been in the last two years?

Well, so we can get you some numbers on that from the Reconnect.

I don't have those with those, but those have been a key.

And for us also, not only is the joy of having them back and now seeing them being in track to succeed, is learning about what led you to leave so that we prevent it in the future.

Yeah, I mean, we've talked a lot about that, especially students.

Obviously, this is, you've said it from the beginning, that CUNY is a pathway out of poverty for many New Yorkers.

This is a pathway to get people to have successful education.

And if we can really target our energy of people who wanted to get into a CUNY.

But how to drop out and figure out what those economics are, we can really kind of protect them and support them in that process.

And I think that's what we're trying to get to here.

And the baselining of Reconnect will be indispensable to get that done.

And the demand is clear.

Yeah, and the data, I'd love to be able to share that data so we can look at it.

Thank you, Chairs.

Thank you.

Okay, we've also been joined by Councilmember Maloney, as well as Mealy, who I saw.

There she is.

And next we have Councilmember Wilson, followed by Aviles.