By Victoria Keraj
New York State (NYS) Governor Kathy Hochul announced a conceptual 2026 Fiscal Year budget for NY on April 28.
Alan Gilbert, senior VP for Finance and Administration for Brooklyn College (BC), sent out a campus-wide email sharing this recent update on the state budget.
The email informed the community that BC is awaiting updates on the state’s budget to see how much money has been allotted to CUNY. CUNY Central would then be responsible for distributing the funds to BC. The BC specific budget is generally released sometime in June.
When asked for comment, the office of Finance and Administration stated, “Once the NYS and NYC budgets are finalized and analyzed by CUNY Central, we will receive our FY2026 allocation. At that point, we will know specifically what is available to fund the PSC contract and other programmatic initiatives.”
After BC’s low enrollment following the pandemic, the school was given a high concern designation. BC’s new balanced budget allowed for the designation to be removed; however, “BC still has approximately $17M less in tuition revenues than [the school] had prior to 2020,” according to the office.
In the March open forum, Gilbert stated that in budget projections, CUNY was down $34M, but there have been efforts to decrease the amount.
CUNY receives the majority of its funding from NYS, but “The City of New York [also] finances a portion of the operating costs.”
NYC Mayor Eric Adams released a budget proposal for NYC, which allotted $96M to CUNY, with the intent of “restoring CUNY savings in full.”
In her speech announcing the conceptual budget, Hochul raised concern over recent budget cuts to NYS and stated, “We can only devise a budget based on the information we have at this time. There’s a possibility that we’ll have to come back later this year and update our budget in response to federal actions.”
The office expressed a similar sentiment when asked how recent news may affect budget expectations.
“Brooklyn College is constantly balancing the needs of the college with the funding realities. While unexpected events can occur, our college has a strong strategic plan that guides all decisions, and we have worked hard as a community to overcome budget challenges.”