By Niko Balkaran
President Berenecea Johnson Eanes requested $6 million from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards in a community budget request hearing.
The $6 million would be divided between two projects. The first of these would be $500,000 for replacing kitchen equipment from 1986, which President Eanes termed “beyond useless,” according to a Queens Chronicle article.
The president is also looking for $5.5 million to upgrade the campus, making things ADA-compliant. The money would also be used to renovate two 100-seat lecture halls and landscape the main plaza.
York College has been without a cafeteria since 2019 after health inspectors found parasitic insects and mice. Additionally, health department records said inspectors found 51 violations for mice, vermin, poor plumbing, and food left at unsafe temperatures.
Interim Vice President of Finance and Administration, Charles Bozian, announced that he was looking to assemble a committee comprised of students, faculty and administration to discuss the request for proposals in a bid to reopen the cafeteria by the Fall ‘23 semester.
The cafeteria was written off earlier in the Fall ‘22 semester with plans for repurposing the space. According to Bozian, in that first senate plenary meeting of the fall semester, there was the possibility that a food court would have been built in the Academic Village and Conference Center (AVCC). CUNY has sent a request to the legislature in Albany for $300 million to construct the AVCC.
