By Niko Balkaran
York President Berenecea Eanes and her administration used the first senate plenary of the Fall ‘22 semester to unveil their plans for the York campus. These include the hiring of new staff and security initiatives.
One significant change returning this semester is students will no longer be allowed to register for classes if they have an outstanding balance. This is the end of a CUNY-wide initiative that was put in place because of the pandemic. If a student has been contacted a few times without paying, the college will send their balance to collections. No interest will be added to the outstanding balance, according to Charles Bozian, the interim vice president of finance and administration.
During the faculty caucus report, course cancellations and the lack of modalities were stated as concerns by Dr. Donna Chirico, the new faculty caucus leader.
Nish-Hoa Mullings, the new student government president, brought up the lack of dining options and the library hours. Both issues were addressed by Bozian.
Bozian detailed a plan to expand cafe hours by hiring two additional workers. Additionally, there would be a food truck on campus two days a week with Halal options. Should the truck prove popular, Bozian said they would look into expanding the number of days it is available. Also being introduced are pizza ovens later in the semester.
The cafeteria located on the ground floor will not be reopening. Instead, Bozian said they are interested in repurposing the space. He continued that a food court would possibly be built in an as-of-yet incompletely funded building.
As for the library, it will be returned to pre-pandemic hours.
There was also an update to the football stadium to be built behind the athletic building. Since the New York City Football Club acquired the Queensboro Football Club, it will facilitate the final funding, according to Bozian. It is scheduled to be finished by the middle of next summer as they are going through the process of permits.
The campus security director, James Assmann, is looking into creating a new safe path to the train station from York. He also stressed that a daily crime log is located in the public safety office and is available for everyone to view.
At York, student enrollment is down by 2300 from 2018 to now. And while not at 100 percent capacity, this semester marks a change in how CUNY campuses are trying to return to normalcy after dealing with the pandemic for two and a half years.
