Op-Ed | A year of milestones and momentum

This year, when we announced that Hostos Community College will open a new center for its life sciences and allied health programs in the historic Bronx General Post Office building, it was a vivid symbol of CUNY’s trajectory over the past year.

The expansion is just one example of the story of 2025 at CUNY , a year defined by growth and innovation to meet the evolving needs of our students and city.

In 2025, CUNY enrollment grew for the third straight year. The rise — 4% this fall, contributing to a three-year increase of about 21,000 students — reflects the impact of our expanding partnership with New York City Public Schools as well as the launch of Governor Hochul’s free community college initiative , which has bolstered our CUNY Reconnect program for adult learners returning to college.

Going Places

We matched that momentum with major investments in our campuses and students. We unveiled CUNY Beyond , the nation’s most ambitious plan to embed career learning into every student’s academic journey and ensure they graduate not only with a degree, but ready to launch careers. At Lehman College, a historic $50 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott will help bring this vision to life

by expanding pathways to high-demand fields.

In addition, we continued our work to build industry partnerships that help students get jobs. Nearly 10,000 CUNY students have now been hired by the city’s largest private-sector employers through our five-year collaboration with the New York Jobs CEO Council.

Our students continued to inspire us. Students like Stephanie Pacheco of Borough of Manhattan Community College, the 2024-25 National Youth Poet Laureate, who honored us with a poem that captured the spirit of our University:

“Dear CUNY,
I don’t know of any other school that runs its city like you
That paints its town with its face
like you
Everywhere I turn, every building is a student
Every train car is a classroom”

That spirit is sustained by the faculty and staff who open doors for our students every day of the year. Employees like Charlotte Henson-Butler , a 1978 graduate of Hunter College who has guided generations of CUNY students as a staff member in admissions for 44 years. Even now, she says, CUNY graduates recognize her on the street and thank her for helping them achieve their dreams. “It brings tears to my eyes to see how successful they have been,” she says.

Stephanie and Charlotte remind us that CUNY’s impact is built person by person, reaching far beyond our campuses, expanding opportunity and connecting communities across the city.

This year, that connection became more visible in another way when the MTA renamed one of the city’s original subway stations as 23 St–Baruch College . It’s the seventh station to be named for a CUNY college and a reminder of how deeply CUNY is woven into the fabric of New York City and its neighborhoods. I like to say that CUNY is as essential to our city as the subway system — we both take New Yorkers where they want to go.

Matos Rodríguez is the chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban public university system in the United States.