More than half of CUNY community college students drop out within three years without a degree and struggle with hefty nontuition costs, a new report found. These are long-standing problems system leaders have tried combat.
Few people were surprised by a recent report highlighting how heavy nontuition costs were driving low graduation rates among community college students attending City University of New York institutions. The financial burden of paying for such things as transportation and textbooks are well-known by many people at CUNY.
“It just confirmed what I’ve been hearing over and over,” said Alexandra Logue, research professor at the Center for Advanced Study in Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. She said the findings were a valuable and stark reminder of what CUNY community college students go through but also “terrible, old news.”
The report released earlier this week by the Center for an Urban Future, a policy research organization focused on economic mobility in New York City, noted that 27 percent of first-time, full-time CUNY community college students graduate within three years, and more than half drop out within that time.
“That means that the vast majority of students that enroll aren’t getting the full benefit of CUNY,” said Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future.