What does the future hold for Bronx CUNYs as enrollment plummets and cuts loom?

Three Bronx CUNY schools — Bronx Community College (BCC), Hostos Community College and Lehman College — have different unique origin stories prior to become longstanding education institutions in the borough.

First came Lehman — once a national World War I training ground for women as the Bronx Branch of Hunter College, until it became an independent college within the CUNY system in September 1967. BCC was established in 1957 through the efforts of civic-minded groups who felt that there was a growing need for higher education facilities in the Bronx.

And once the site of a former tire factory in the South Bronx, Eugenio de María Hostos Community College was created by an act of the Board of Higher Education in 1968 thanks to demands and mobilization of the borough’s Puerto Rican community, who clamored for a local educational facility.

Current Hostos president Daisy Cocco DeFilippis was a young mother who, through free CUNY schooling at Queens College, attained social and educational mobility as a first-generation Dominican immigrant. In her role at Hostos College, she’s aiming for similar outcomes for a college that serves low-income, non-traditional students in the nation’s poorest congressional district.

“All my degrees, Master’s and Ph.D., came without spending a penny, which was important for my husband and I who were both immigrants,” said DeFilippis. “For our community college students, from all over, to succeed here. I have high hopes.”

As enrollment at the three colleges continues year-after-year declines dating back to 2020 and campuses face major cuts in the years ahead, students and faculty of Bronx CUNY colleges are expressing apprehension, and at times, dissatisfaction with the school network.

Officials and faculty at Bronx CUNY told the Bronx Times that retaining students has been a challenge stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.