CUNY Chancellor explains why his schools are still a good investment for students

CUNY Chancellor Felix V Matos Rodriguez joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the Class of 2021 and the future of high education.

Video transcript

- Let's talk about what's happening with the Class of 2021. Graduation season is upon us. We bring into the stream the City University of New York Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez, as well as our education correspondent, Aarthi Swaminathan. Good to have both of you here.

Chancellor Rodriguez, let me just ask you real quick. There's a lot of discussion about return on investment when it comes to higher education. When you go to something like City University of New York, it's less expensive than other universities, but the degrees are just as good. How is placement for your graduates when they enter the job market?

FELIX V. MATOS RODRIGUEZ: Well, they've been doing fairly well. I mean, last year's group faced one of the toughest markets that any group faced because of the pandemic. But one of the things that we are trying to do is to increase the formula of success that we've had at the City University is we're doubling down in our commitment to work with the private sector and to work on the career enhancement and engagement of our students, to make sure that they have an affordable education that has great quality, but we have them thinking about what's next from the moment they step on the campus.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Chancellor, holding that ROI, that's so difficult, keeping costs low, but can you also speak to broader tuition inflation? I mean, what is happening at CUNY? Why can't other schools sort of keep that cost of education, low and also deliver for students?

FELIX V. MATOS RODRIGUEZ: Well, I mean-- again, we've been very proud. I've been chancellor for two years now, and it's been two years in which we have not raised the tuition for our students. And we understand the population that we serve. We're very proud of our track record of having about 2/3 of our students graduate debt free, and which then allows them to pursue graduate degrees, to pursue additional education, to go on and buy an apartment, buy a house, and end up being in a much more solid financial footing.

So we're trying to keep the cost down. It's a difficult thing. We're in New York City, which can be an expensive city. But again, the other part, too, is-- and we'll be seeing a surge of interest from our employers in connecting with our students. We also have an incredible diverse talent. There's more students of color in one of our campuses, the Borough of Manhattan Community College, than in the entire Ivy League combined. So as companies are also looking for that diverse talent, they're also looking to us. And we're trying to make sure that our curricular offerings, that the programs that we develop also are consistent with what the private sector needs in New York, particularly at this time now that we're so focused on the economic recovery of the city.

- Chancellor, another thing that colleges have been extremely focused on, especially over the past year, is keeping students enrolled, really lowering that dropout rate. How do you cut that, especially at a time like this when so many students, maybe after spending a year at home, are deciding not to return to college?

FELIX V. MATOS RODRIGUEZ: So one of the things that we're trying to do-- and I think this Fall is going to be a particularly tricky one, because there's a lot of anxiety. One of the things that we have learned is that the rules that we have today, which are the best practices either by the CDC or any kind of guidelines, in three months, they change because we're learning to deal with the variants from this virus.

So what we're trying to do is to provide the most flexible kind of environment for the students, that we have a robust number of online courses for those students who might not feel comfortable coming to the classroom, particularly in the Fall, but also an equally robust number of in-person and hybrid courses, so that for those students who are really hungry for that in-person classroom experience who have not fared that well with the online experience, that we can meet the students where they are.

And so one of the things that we'll be working our 25 campuses, having that really good mix of both the online, the hybrid, and the in-person, so that you as a student can determine how do you feel safe, how do you learn better, and then allow you to come back and continue your education.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Chancellor, CUNY has a very interesting take on preparing students to get to college, with, for instance, CUNY starts. Can you speak a little bit about priming a student to make sure that they can graduate and how you can scale that across the CUNY system?

FELIX V. MATOS RODRIGUEZ: Well, one of the advantages we have is a profound partnership with the city's Department of Education. About 60% of all our students come from the Department of Education, so we have a deep partnership that allows us to begin working with many of those students, offering early college courses and experiences that prepare them to think about going to college, to know what they need to know so they can be ready, and then to transition in a smooth fashion to our system.

One of the things that we're doing now is doubling down on mentoring programs, on working with the students that might not have done as well with the online instruction in the DOE, so that they can maybe recover some of what they have not learned over the past year as they get ready for college. So that is a unique advantage that we have as one large system in New York City, and one single system in the Department of Education. It is one of the things where we have been very intentional.

The other one is you mentioned programs like CUNY start and CUNY prep, which are programs that allow you to get college ready without using your financial aid, because you're not technically in college but you're in the pipeline.

We decided, for example, in this new batch of stimulus money that we're giving out to our students to include them, right? Because we wanted to send them a clear signal that even though they're in a program which is prior to coming to CUNY that we have every expectation that once they do that, they'll be joining one of our colleges. So that's one way, also, to encourage enrollment and to encourage individuals to continue to pursue their educational dreams.

- All right, Felix Matos Rodriguez, the City University of New York's Chancellor. We appreciate your being here. Aarthi Swaminathan, always good to see you.