CUNY is a vast network consisting of 25 campuses including 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, one undergraduate honors college and seven post-graduate institutions. It enrolls more than 275,000 students, which requires an operating budget of $3.6 billion. Among its alumni, it has produced 13 Nobel Prize winners and 24 MacArthur Fellows.

It’s as vital to New York City as its complex subway system.  Every CUNY college provides a pathway for bright working class students to become doctors, attorneys, teachers, entrepreneurs, nurses and librarians—to name a few careers.

And CUNY’s student body is as diverse and multicultural as New York City itself, consisting of 30% White students, 26% Latino, 23% African American and 19% Asian. Of its student body, 35% were born outside the U.S., and 40% speak another language.

Matos Rodriguez knows the CUNY system thoroughly.  Prior to being named chancellor, he served as president of CUNY’s Queens College from 2014 to 2019, and before that, was president of CUNY’s Hostos Community College in the Bronx.  He’s 57-years-old, a native of Puerto Rico and was a professor of Black and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College and director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies.

But Matos Rodriguez faces quite an undertaking. An article in the Brklyner, a Brooklyn College newspaper on May 1, 2018, quoted Michael Fabricant, the vice president of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), as saying “We are basically a university in crisis.”  He was referring to state budget cuts, reduced hiring of tenured faculty and relying more on underpaid adjuncts.  At the same time, enrollment at CUNY is up 40% from 1999 to 2017.

Here’s what Matos Rodriguez told Hispanic Outlook about becoming the first Latino CUNY Chancellor and the challenges that he faces:

Hispanic Outlook: You were the first Latino named chancellor of the prestigious CUNY system. What message does that send?

Matos Rodriguez: I think it’s part of that long history of inclusion of the City University of New York. We’ve opened the doors of social mobility to so many of the different immigrant groups in New York City, though we still have more work to do. All those elements make my appointment consistent with the trajectory and history of inclusion in this city.

HO: How did serving as president of Queens College and Hostos Community College in the South Bronx prepare you to become chancellor?

Matos Rodriguez: One unique element of the City University is it’s a system that includes two-year and four-year colleges. In most parts of the U.S. those are segmented.  I have the vantage point of having seen both parts and know their individual strengths, their needs, and how they work, or don’t work, together as a system. That’s a great asset in thinking about policy that affects the entire system.

HO: Every chancellor identifies several mandates to accomplish.  What are yours?

Matos Rodriguez: The first mandate is, even though I’m an internal candidate that I take time to listen to the system to see what are the priorities that come from our stakeholders—including our faculty, our students, our alumni and the neighborhoods that anchor where the colleges are. It would be a terrible mistake and show hubris to say, ‘I’m the inside person. I don’t have to consult and I know what the issues are.’  But there’s one area in particular we can serve students better: the whole area of career engagement.  That is time where people think about what I want to become next, based on what they’re interested in or what they’re good at, and that often involves an open network that builds social capital. When half your population is first-generation college students, it has to be CUNY that provides these opportunities. We need to do more in this area and our students and alumni are expecting us to do more.

HO: CUNY serves New York City’s multiethnic, working class and middle class population.  What’s the major role it plays in New York?

Matos Rodriguez: I think we are New York City’s indispensable institution. We are the engine of social mobility and that has been documented. We are one of the main points of civic engagement as to what we teach students. And our campuses are hubs for panels, lectures, and it’s where people vote and get registered to vote. Our campuses are places of cultural enrichment. There are few institutions that play such as integral part of life for most New Yorkers.

HO: But it’s faced a variety of problems including budgetary reductions. What exactly can you do about that?

Matos Rodriguez:  I think that the task involves a three-pronged approach including:  1) There are assets that our campuses have such as air rights that our buildings can monetize. We haven’t fully explored that yet or more public/private partnerships. We need to explore what that would yield, and how that could give us additional resources, in a way that is consistent with our mission.  2) There are areas where we can be more efficient. Too often, you do things because you’ve done them all the time, and we need to take a fresh look at what could bring additional resources to our students. 3) We need to go back to our funding partners and say ‘We’re being entrepreneurial and efficient, but we need an injection of additional dollars.’

HO: Many of your students aren’t prepared to take college courses. What are you doing to address that?

Matos Rodriguez: I’d like to answer that in two ways. I had a conversation with Chancellor Richard Carranza about what we can do to increase the college readiness of students from the New York City Department of Education, and we’re exploring on a limited basis, earlier testing of students in their junior year to see where they are, identify who needs remediation and use part of their time in high school in more effective ways. The other thing is we have College Now where 22,000 students from 420 high schools are enrolled in courses that encourage going to college and increase readiness. We also have, in conjunction with the Department of Education, the CUNY Early College Initiative, which includes 17 Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH), which enroll a total of 9,500 students.

HO: Even though CUNY is less expensive than most private colleges, it can be difficult for a working-class student to afford it. How can CUNY assist them?

Matos Rodriguez: We’re very proud that over 65% to 70% of our students graduate debt-free. That still means there’s a group that needs loans. But one part of my role is to do fundraising. We have alumni that are helpful in providing scholarship money and money for Metro cards.  We’re working with elected officials and nonprofits in looking at issues of food and security.  The DOE provides many students with breakfast and lunch, and then they graduate and three months later, no one thinks it’s important to provide money for their food.  That’s why we’re looking into providing a network for food and security.

HO:  What key changes do you expect to see in the next few years?

Matos Rodriguez: I would hope that there’s a greater awareness in the city about the role CUNY plays.  And that will facilitate more partnerships, internships and fund-raising.  I’d like to see an increase in the culture of caring, that the student feels that the faculty and staff have their back, and they’re supported by the campus.

HO: Bottom-line, how can you maintain CUNY as a gateway to a better life when funding is diminishing?

Matos Rodriguez: We need to be good stewards of the funds we have, maximize them, and find additional dollars from philanthropy, alumni and elected officials. We need to continue to let people know what the mission of CUNY is, which is to bring a first-rate education in an accessible way to the majority of New York, who can’t afford private college education.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY CUNY