LIC College Struggling Amid COVID-Related Enrollment Drop: Report

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Cathleen Tan, a nursing student at LaGuardia Community College, told CBSNY that she's seen the impact of the pandemic on CUNY enrollment firsthand.

"It's hard," she says of online classes, citing the pandemic as the reason why CUNY's schools saw a 10,000-student drop in enrollment between 2019 and 2020, CBSNY reported.

The system's community colleges, like LaGuardia, saw the biggest drop, going from about 92,000 students in all to 69,000 in a year, according to the site.

Andrew Walker, who works at LaGuardia, told reporters that he thinks some people opted for jobs instead of education, working to keep families afloat during the pandemic.

University provost Daniel Lemons, though, hopes that CUNYs' efforts to keep schools accessible, with initiatives like free subway passes and food banks, will keep students in the classroom — which he says is the real place to create opportunities.

Read the full CBSNY report here.