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Hunter College sophomore Molly Gardiner pays one of the lowest rates for a dorm room in New York City — just $7,500 a year for a single room at the Brookdale dormitories. An out-of-state student from New Jersey, Gardiner says she turned to Hunter after Boston University proved too expensive, and the affordable housing it offered her in Manhattan was a big part of the appeal.
“I feel like if it wasn’t this, I don’t know what I would’ve done,” she told THE CITY.
But at the end of the next academic year, Gardiner and about 600 other Hunter College students who dorm at Brookdale will have to find somewhere else to live. The City University of New York is preparing to shut down the dormitory at 425 E. 25th St. at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, replacing it with a 2-million-square-foot science and research campus.
Gardiner said that she’ll still need dorm housing next school year, and said about the looming Brookdale closure: “Hopefully, it’ll be by the time I’m not here.”
In the year and half since the school and elected officials announced the plan, CUNY has yet to outline what they will do to replace the rooms.
Hunter’s other dorm options start around $12,000 a year.
CUNY spokesperson Noah Gardy said the science campus is a “first-of-its kind investment in CUNY’s students,” bringing three CUNY schools into a single campus while also offering open spaces for the public, an ambulatory care center and new high school.
“As this transformative project comes to life we’re committed to supporting students who may be impacted, including transition to CUNY dorms in Manhattan,” Gardy said, but did not share further details.
Those who lived at the Brookdale dorms prior to the project announcement will be guaranteed housing at their existing rate, according to a CUNY official. Those students who moved to Brookdale after the announcement who want to remain within CUNY housing will have housing options at other CUNY dorms elsewhere in Manhattan, the official said.
The Brookdale change comes as available housing is more and more rare, especially in Manhattan. Students in New York have often turned to dorms as a cheaper option, but, as Nerdwallet reports, dorm costs have also risen over the past decades.
Nearby CUNY school, Baruch College charges $14,500 for the academic year for its most affordable housing option, while the cheapest option at New York University, a private institution, starts just shy of $5,000 a semester.
Housing isn’t part of the science campus project despite persistent calls from Hunter students, elected officials and the community. Students interviewed said they’ve not yet heard of alternative housing options at a similar price point.
The Science Park and Research Campus in Kips Bay, Manhattan is expected to generate billions of dollars and create thousands of permanent jobs, Mayor Eric Adams has said. The city and the state have committed $1.6 billion to the project, expected to begin construction in late 2025.
CUNY and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) are among the partners for the project. They are currently going through a solicitation process for the campus, with $2 billion in private investment expected.
The campus will house several CUNY institutions, including Hunter College’s School of Nursing, several Borough of Manhattan Community College programs, and the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, as well as several research labs. It will also feature a new public high school, facilities for both Health + Hospitals and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, cutting-edge research labs and public space.
Hunter College President Ann Kirschner created a task force to tackle the housing issue and a spokesperson for Hunter said the college’s student affairs office has held two meetings with students so far. However, students and others have continued to call for Hunter to maintain an affordable option for students on site or elsewhere in Manhattan.
EDC spokesperson Adrien Lesser said in a statement that, “no student will lose housing, and NYCEDC will continue to support CUNY, an essential partner in this project, as they work on long-term plans for operations and programming in advance of this work.”
Colleen Denmon, a senior at Hunter and member of the undergraduate student government, was among those who testified at an EDC virtual meeting in March, and called on the university to build a replacement with similarly priced rooms.
“I’ve lived in the Brookdale campus dorms for the past four years, which is actually the only reason why I attended Hunter,” Denmon said in her testimony. “Not only was it affordable, but it was also the only option for me to attend as an out-of-city student.”
Housing Push on Public Land
Back in October 2022 when the mayor announced the plan to transform the Brookdale Campus, the backlash from Hunter and CUNY students was fairly immediate.
A petition that has garnered hundreds of signatures criticized CUNY for its lack of communication with students and demanded an alternative housing plan.
“While CUNY celebrates this initiative of revitalizing the area with ‘labs, office spaces, classrooms, and business incubators,’ nearly 700 students worry about the fate of affordable housing,” the petition reads.
Manhattan Community Board 6 passed a resolution back in February calling on the city to include affordable housing in the campus. At a committee meeting earlier this month, members drafted another resolution that specifies that New York State and CUNY should also replace the units with housing at the same site or elsewhere in Manhattan, while also prioritizing CUNY students and staff.
State Assemblymember Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) also called into the March meeting, arguing that the project should include housing because it’s on public land.
“This is something where since we do have government land is a clear opportunity for us to think about housing in this site,” Epstein said during the meeting, “and would encourage us all as we go through this process to have a plan that includes housing for our community.”