CUNY's President on the Job Market and More

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
Brian Lehrer on WNYC.
Now at the end of the school year, we're going to spend a few minutes with the CUNY Chancellor, just by way of background. For those of you who don't have a connection to CUNY these days, or don't think much about the demographics there, it's the largest urban public university in the country, no surprise there. And in many ways, a snapshot of the city itself. Here are some stats. More than three quarters of CUNY students are students of color.
Sixty percent are the first in their family to finish college. About a third were born outside the US mainland. Thirteen percent are parents. About a quarter are over 25 So this isn't just your, you know, go to college at 18, get out at 22 A third are over 25
That's how much opportunity for different kinds of people CUNY is there to offer. And a lot of them worked a job. While they earned their degree, those stats come from the New York City Comptroller's Report in 2022 Now, of course, they're walking into a tough job market, these grads, and an uncertain moment for public higher education generally with Washington and New York pulling in opposite directions on funding, financial aid, who feels safe on campus, diversity itself. Here to talk about all of it is CUNY's chancellor, Félix Matos Rodríguez. Chancellor, welcome back to WNYC.

**Félix Matos Rodríguez** (1:39)
Great to be with you, Brian. Thank you for the opportunity and particularly given a long night last night to how I was talking about the success of our graduates.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:49)
I gave some of those basic stats. Who's in the class of 2026?

**Félix Matos Rodríguez** (1:53)
It's New York City. We are representative of all the great diversity that our city has to offer. We saw that at the 26th commencement that we had.
Students from every cultural, religious background, smart and ready to take on the world. Like you say, facing a challenging job market. That's what we've been doubling down in our efforts to make sure that our students, since they set foot on campus, are thinking about careers, connecting with internships, and learning opportunities so that they can have the networks to navigate a tough job market, and then also thrive and do extra well when the market changes.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:38)
Do you have any words for the job market this year's grads are facing compared to say last year or a few years ago?

**Félix Matos Rodríguez** (2:47)
I mean, persistence, and that's the only thing. And I have, you know, I live that at home with 23 and a 25-year-old who have been challenging and dealing with that market. So I see it in our students. And first, the degree is going to open you more doors. So completing you is going to create more opportunities for you. And the data is astounding in that component. Our students are also going there with less debt. You know, 75, 77% graduate debt-free. So they don't have that burden. If they want to continue to do additional work, like a master's program, they can do that because they don't have debt.
And we're creating a lot more opportunities to connect with employers. You might have seen ads that we put in social media and in the taxes letting employers know that there's great talent in CUNY and they should be employing our students.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:41)
Yes.
In addition, and I get it, I know from what I've read that this is the first class to graduate under your program called CUNY Beyond, which is your push to build career prep into the whole degree. But do you have any data or intelligence yet on just how much tougher it is for these grads this year compared to recent years?

**Félix Matos Rodríguez** (4:03)
Well, I mean, the data shows that the graduates in this last class, in the class before, sort of face the toughest job market nationally, right? And in New York City, we have that data too.
And what, you know, in this thing is, you know, we want to equip them with the tools to be able to, and you know, on the data on participating in a paid internship, your chances of getting a job faster are higher, or first-time pay are higher too. So the more that we bring in those networking opportunities for the students, no matter what the job market is, right? And now is a tough one and these are cycles. They're going to be ready to be able to pivot and do what it takes. And we have many examples of that success.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:51)
My guest is CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez, if you're just joining us. You know, so much of the national attention has gone to the wealthy private universities fighting the Trump administration in court. But last spring, the federal government also, I see, pulled millions in research funding out of CUNY, stop work orders were issued on dozens of grants. For a public university with your student body and your budget, is this moment landing harder or softer than it is for the ivies? Or how would you compare?