The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest urban college system in the United States, with a total of 23 schools.  The graduation rate, however, is the lower than the average graduation rate in the United States.  In four-year colleges, 25 percent of first-year students do not proceed to a second year.  In two-year colleges, about half of the first-year students do not go on to a second year.  On October 21, the New York City Council held a town hall meeting to discuss graduation rate issues at CUNY.  

Representatives from Asian-American communities said that new Asian immigrant students not only have to deal with academic challenges, but also face societal and cultural obstacles, along with changes in their personal lives. They stated that CUNY needs to be aware of these challenges. 

According to CUNY statistics, in the fall of 2005 only 83 percent of first-year students at four-year schools continued to their second year, and only 44 percent of students in the second year of college proceeded to a third year. The graduation rate after four years of study was only 22 percent. For two-year colleges, in the fall of 2007, only half of the students continued to their second year of study, and only 3.1 percent of the students finished their two-year study. 

The City Council considers the low graduation rate to be a serious problem.  

Most students at CUNY graduate within six years; the school with the best graduation rate is Baruch College, at 57 percent. The lowest performing among the CUNY schools is York College with a graduation rate of only 28 percent.  CUNY explained the huge difference is reflected in the disparities in student resources.  In York College, 62 percent of the students are full time students.  Students who are 25 or older make up 29 percent of the student population and 41 percent of all students hold jobs and work more than 20 hours a week.

Ailin Chen, Education Policy Manager at the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF), and Peter Chu, from Asian Americans for Equality, gave a joint testimony to the City Council.  The two organizations work on Project College Bound, at Flushing International High School and Flushing High School, and shared their experience working on the project and provided the City Council and CUNY with strategies to increase the graduation rate of Asian-American students. 

According to their joint testimonies, 25 percent of Asian-American high-school students do not graduate on time; and 25 percent of the Asian-American students need to learn more English.  Both organizations urged CUNY and the Department of Education (DOE) to make available academic and career resources for new immigrant students and their families, such as providing Chinese-language information regarding admissions and financial aid processes.  They also recommended that CUNY and the DOE require their staff to receive multicultural training to help them to better understand the lives of new immigrants and to help them to transition into the American educational system. They also suggested that the curriculum be modified to meet the learning needs of the new immigrant students in order to help them graduate on time and prepare for the future.  

Many parents and educational organizations testified that high school is an important time to reach out to students about college.  They also want to see high-quality teachers and administrators.  Finally, they want to have a say in the formulation of school policies.