Low-income students will no longer have to pay tuition at NYU starting in the fall 2024 semester, according to an announcement made by university president Linda Mills at her inauguration Tuesday. The change will only apply to incoming students who live in households earning annual incomes of $100,000 or less.
During her speech, Mills also revealed that the university’s prison education program, which provides incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students with free college courses, will now allow students to earn bachelor’s degrees.
“The wisdom is in the room right here right now,” Mills said. “We need to build on this internal and untapped imagination to develop our capacity and do what NYU does best, seize the future.”
Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said he believes the announcement will help alleviate the economic burdens many students face while attending NYU.
“Part of why I came to NYU as an undergrad was I felt it represented something inclusive,” de Blasio said in an interview with WSN. “Often the greatest form of exclusion is economic and the idea that now families of more modest means can know their child is getting an education, this is the kind of thing you dream about when you think about how to make fundamental change.”
The ceremony, which took place at the Paulson Center, cemented Mills as the 17th president of NYU, the first to be a woman. Mills succeeds former president Andrew Hamilton, who attended the event alongside the university’s 15th president, John Sexton.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” Hamilton said in an interview with WSN. “There have been 16 presidents before Linda and each one of us builds on the achievements of the predecessor. I had the great good fortune of following John Sexton, and Linda, I know, will build on the achievements of her predecessors and NYU will be in good hands.”
Evan Chesler, the recently appointed chair of the university’s board of trustees, said that he thinks Mills’ announcement will expand academic opportunities for low-income students.
“Our story is all about access, giving students an education that they might not otherwise have received — that’s what I got from this university,” Chesler said in an interview with WSN. “Everything that President Mills is focused on is giving access to a world class education for students who might not otherwise get it.”
Toward the end of the ceremony, around 40 students and faculty gathered outside of Paulson to protest recent changes to adjunct professors’ course assignments. Other on-campus unions, including Contract Faculty United, which represents contract faculty at NYU, and ACT-UAW Local 7902, which represents part-time faculty at the university, held signs outside of the building.
Since February, the contract faculty union has been demanding recognition from NYU, asking for fair collective bargaining with the administration, the assurance of due process for faculty terminations and the implementation of annual raises that match inflation rates.
The adjunct union has also recently become unhappy with the university’s administration. On Sept. 19, members of ACT-UAW Local 7902 wrote an open letter to Mills, garnering over 2,000 signatures. In the letter, the union demanded that NYU restore any jobs adjuncts lost this year to what the university has said were pandemic-related enrollment and budget changes.
In an email interview with WSN in March, Mills said she believes that all employees of NYU, regardless of union status, should be “treated with dignity” and that the university’s goal in bargaining efforts is to come to an agreement that respects and honors the contributions of these employees.
Stephen Rechner, the president of the union of clerical, administrative and technical staff at NYU, said adequate benefits for university workers are a necessity for employees to be able to continue to work there.
“We have to be able to afford to live in this city,” Rechner said. “We’re here to talk to Linda Mills today directly and tell her that workers need to be paid, workers deserve a good contract that protects their benefits and their wages and their working conditions, so that NYU is a place where people can stay.”
The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the rally.
Maisie Zipfel contributed reporting.
Contact Bruna Horvath at [email protected].
