(WNY News Now) In an effort to improve educational opportunities and address healthcare inequities in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that the CUNY School of Medicine will become an independent institution.
Yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul declared that the City University of New York is creating the CUNY School of Medicine as a distinct entity from the university itself. Through the change, the 50-year-old institution will be able to increase its influence, streamline accreditation, and further its dual mission of producing diverse medical professionals and offering high-quality healthcare services to underprivileged communities throughout New York City, where over half of the population identifies as Black or Latino and only 16% of those communities have doctors.
Every student should have the opportunity to receive a top-notch education without accruing enormous debt. According to Governor Hochul, public schools and universities in New York are an essential component of this opportunity ladder.Our first priority is making higher education more affordable, which is why we are investing more than ever before in SUNY and CUNY schools and have increased access to tuition assistance. The next phase in our goal to giving New Yorkers access to high-quality, reasonably priced education is the recently independent School of Medicine at CUNY.
The CUNY Graduate Center will now oversee CUNY Medicine, which is now a constituent institution of The City College of New York. By introducing master’s, doctorate, and post-graduate residency programs, this change will make the school a graduate-level institution and bring it into line with medical schools around the nation. Furthermore, the current holistic admissions procedure at CUNY Medicine, which does not require MCAT results, will keep expanding the range of options accessible to potential students.
“CUNY School of Medicine has been increasing the number of physicians from underrepresented communities and addressing long-standing inequities in the medical field for 50 years,” stated CUNY Chancellor Flix V. Matos Rodriguez. It’s time to broaden its scope. More people from all walks of life and every neighborhood in New York City will have access to medical careers and healthcare services if the CUNY School of Medicine is elevated to a stand-alone school.
Legacy of the Half Century
In order to increase primary care in underprivileged areas and attract minority students to the medical field, the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education was established at City College of New York in 1973. The school became the sole public medical school in Manhattan and the first new one to open in the city since 1860 when it changed its name to the CUNY School of Medicine in 2016.
With a 100% residency match rate—compared to 93% nationwide—and a comprehensive admissions procedure that does not consider MCAT scores, CUNY Medicine’s seven-year Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine degree program has since become a model of inclusive excellence. According to U.S. News & World Report, its M.S. in Physician Assistant Studies program, which was established at Harlem Hospital in 1973, is ranked third in New York State.
Over the years, this record has been reaffirmed, most recently when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a grant of $19.3 million. The university will establish a health equity center to address health disparities in Harlem and the South Bronx through scientific research and outreach thanks to this gift, the biggest the university has ever received from the NIH. It is the first federal agency center in New York specifically focused on this effort, which will include expanding the participation of minorities in biomedical research and addressing racial and ethnic health inequalities.
The funding comes after the CUNY School of Medicine received its first-ever dedicated budget item in 2024–2025, a historic $4 million commitment from New York State as part of the State Budget.
“The CUNY School of Medicine is honored to be recognized by New York State, City, the Chancellor, and the National Institutes of Health as we become a freestanding medical school,” stated Carmen Rene Green, dean of the CUNY School of Medicine and Sophie David Biomedical Education Program. Being a part of the Graduate School and University Center would allow us to carry out our purpose of promoting scientific research, scholarship, and medical education in an efficient and comprehensive manner. The CUNY School of Medicine is still dedicated to improving education for the underprivileged and historically underrepresented in medicine, as well as to eliminating health, healthcare, and educational inequalities in the City and State of New York. We are transforming academic medicine and establishing a model for public medical schools across the country.
Taking Care of Local Needs
While over 80% of medical students nationwide come from wealthy families—a quarter of them make up the top 5% of household incomes—the majority of CUNY Medicine students are immigrants or first-generation students, 86% of them are eligible for need-based financial aid, and 83% speak two or more languages. Additionally, about 70% of incoming students identify as Black or Latino, which is more than three times the percentage at medical schools across the country. One in five Black M.D. students in New York City are trained at the school, despite its small size.
Seventy-five percent of CUNY Medicine students work locally after graduation. Along with bringing a distinct cultural viewpoint, these students are more than twice as likely as doctors in the state to work in communities with limited access.
The announcement is made in the midst of a medical professional shortage in New York. Two million people in New York City reside in areas with a paucity of health professionals; this scarcity is not felt equally by all because racial, ethnic, and income gaps in access and outcomes are concentrated in these areas. In the Bronx, there are just nine primary care doctors per 10,000 residents, compared to 22 in Manhattan, according to Primary Care Development Corporation. Therefore, compared to their white counterparts, Black patients are 43% more likely to have no other source of care than emergency departments, according to NIH data.