Hunter School is grappling with an enormous $14 million deficit, officers confirmed to The Submit — after the Metropolis College of New York’s board of trustees mentioned the flagship faculty’s dire monetary state of affairs throughout a secret “retreat.”
The trustees — with none public discover — held what sources referred to as a “retreat” or “summer season session” for two-and-a-half hours on the Roosevelt Home Public Coverage Institute at Hunter School on Aug. 17.
The board mentioned the funds at CUNY’s 26 faculties and establishments, revealing that Hunter was deep within the purple, and that a number of neighborhood faculties additionally had working deficits, based on the sources.
Marc Shaw, a senior advisor on the CUNY Institute for State & Native Governance, additionally gave a PowerPoint presentation to the board that addressed future enrollment and demographic tendencies — given declining highschool scholar inhabitants and stiff competitors from different faculties, together with the State College of New York campuses.
Hunter School officers confirmed the college was contending with having to shut $14 million in purple ink in a $399 million price range.
“Hunter School is implementing monetary financial savings measures to handle its projected structural deficit whereas guaranteeing our capacity to offer a high-quality schooling for our college students will not be impacted,” a college spokesperson mentioned in an announcement.
“Full-time school and workers and tutorial applications should not anticipated to be affected,” the assertion mentioned. “We may draw on reserves if essential to cowl any remaining deficit on the finish of the tutorial yr. These choices are being made with an intention towards minimal operational disruption.”
Past the college’s troubling monetary information, sources questioned if the trustees’ closed-door session violated New York’s Open Conferences Legislation.
One former CUNY trustee blasted the present management for holding a secret assembly on what seems to be official enterprise.
“I used to be on the board for 15 years. We by no means convened on this vogue. We by no means had a retreat like that,” mentioned Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, who served as a CUNY trustee appointed by former Gov. George Pataki
“That constitutes a gathering of the board,” Wiesenfeld mentioned of the matters mentioned.
The key powwow passed off earlier than the board held their common, public assembly, which lasted simply two minutes, passing one decision and shelving one other.
Underneath the Open Conferences Legislation, governing our bodies just like the CUNY board maintain public conferences for official enterprise however can go into government session or behind closed doorways to debate personnel issues or litigation, Wiesenfeld famous.
Rachel Fauss, senior coverage advisor to the federal government watchdog group Reinvent Albany, mentioned, “It’s obtuse. You’ll be able to’t do public enterprise in non-public, when you have a quorum. “
“These matters — faculty funds and demographic and enrollment tendencies — are actually essential data the general public ought to see. There ought to be nothing to cover.”
In the meantime, a CUNY official confirmed that its Institute for State & Native Governance gave a presentation on the “summer season session” targeted on projected demographic shifts amongst excessive school- and college-age populations and their potential impression on future enrollment.
College students on the metropolis’s public excessive colleges present a good portion of CUNY’s enrollment, so any inhabitants drop-off would pose a problem.
CUNY’s enrollment has not recovered to pre-pandemic ranges of 271,242 college students in fall 2019.
Enrollment has elevated 9.13% over the previous three years, rising from a post-pandemic low of 225,881 in Fall 2022 to 246,503 in Fall 2025.
Figures are but accessible for the upcoming fall semester however CUNY expects one other bump in enrollment.
Wiesenfeld, an alum of CUNY’s Queens School, mentioned he expects the variety of Jewish college students at CUNY campuses to plummet due to anti-Israel hostility and protests.
A CUNY official maintained the key “annual summer season schooling session” was authorized and acceptable as a result of “no official Board enterprise was carried out, and no votes had been taken.”
The CUNY trustees are appointed by the governor and and mayor to staggered seven yr phrases. Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed most of the members, however Mayor Zohran Mamdani should look ahead to vacancies to take action.
The board is chaired by former metropolis Comptroller Invoice Thompson, a Hochul appointee.
