“Faireness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need” Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid”

Rick Riordan in The Red Pyramid presents a high-level definition of what fairness besides equality is. The quote stipulates the difference in meaning between equality and equity; while equality is treating everyone equally regardless of circumstance, equity deals with meeting individual needs for equal opportunity to succeed. Such a perspective acknowledges that separate starting points and issues raise the potential that fairness may well involve extra support, which is sensitive to these particular needs. In practice, this would amount to custom resources and opportunities in contexts such as education, the workplace, and social services with the intent to level the playing field and thus produce equitable outcomes. What Riordan is getting at with this quote is that the real meaning of equity requires the practice of empathy and situations understood in depth; not just a ‘same treatment for all’ concept, but rather an abiding thoughtfulness and responsiveness. In a nutshell, it calls for a sensitive, complex look at fairness, which takes needs as a first order of priority if equity is ever to be achieved.

Though students, faculty and members of New York City have assisted in the biggest 180 turnaround for CUNY, there is still a long way to go. Students have fought for inclusivity throughout their campuses, ensuring diversity, representation and community are present in the environment they spend over 8 hours a day in. This included continuing the long traditions of historical clubs and organization but also taking initiative to incorporate their own clubs in which students felt their campus lacked. Over 250 clubs and organizations, students have the ability to join and lead at their CUNY campuses, in which they inform the ignorant and connection which students who identify which the specific organizations value, ethnicity and passion.  

On top of inclusivity and student leadership on campus, CUNY has taken the initiative in recognizing the call-out to help students with academic support. Tutoring, Mentorship programs, writing centers are here to aid students towards academic success and allow them to walk across the stage with increasingly high GPA’s. The City College of New York, my home campus, has developed the Office of Student Success which provides students with mentorship programs, fellowships, internships and the resources needed to excel in an academic and professional setting. Programs targeted towards first generation and minority students, which are most of the CUNY population. The faculty clearly care for their students and want to be part of the solution. 

However, if we want to get into the real talk…. How can CUNY truly be equitable if it is uneconomical? Students enrolled at CUNY often come from low-income households and need access to financial assistance to pay tuition, transportation and other fees which aren’t clear. But to be frank, CUNY does not do a great job of informing students of scholarship opportunities, grants, or guiding students through The’s FAFSA rigorous process. This not only makes education inaccessible to students within the CUNY community but also discourages them from pursuing higher education. Ultimately, CUNY needs to make education more affordable or ELIMINATE the cost of higher education all together. If we are streamlining financial assistance, it should be open to all students without gatekeeping this tremendous resource that students search aimlessly for. 

CUNY MAKE MOVE! 

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.