New Initiatives

Highlights

The Executive Budget includes:

• The requirement of all SUNY and CUNY campuses to either provide physical food pantries on campus or enable students to receive food through a separate arrangement that is stigma-free so that all students on college campuses have access to healthy food options. As part of the Governor’s “No Student Goes Hungry Initiative,” New York State would be the first state to enact this requirement. We are trying to find out if UAlbany’s arrangement with St. Vincent’s food pantry, a model for other campuses, meets the requirements of this proposal to have a food pantry on campus.
• A series of new reforms is included to combat exploding student loan debt. The plan creates a student loan ombudsman and increases consumer protection standards and transparency for the student loan industry, among other changes.