A pair of research reports published by the Center for an Urban Future helped spark a major new city effort to expand the critically important CUNY 2X Tech initiative, which will help many more students at the City University of New York (CUNY) prepare for high-wage careers in technology. 

This significant expansion—announced on December 11 as part of Mayor Adams’s “Pathways to an Inclusive Economy: An Action Plan for Young Adult Career Success” initiative—allocates $10 million in funding to bring the program to five new CUNY campuses: Baruch College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City Tech, Guttman Community College, and LaGuardia Community College. CUF applauds Mayor Adams for making this strategic investment in boosting CUNY’s effectiveness as a springboard into technology-powered careers.

Mayor Adams first proposed an expansion of CUNY 2X Tech in his 2022 State of the City address, shortly after the November 2021 publication of the Center for an Urban Future’s report on Harnessing CUNY as a Launchpad Into Tech Careers, which received in-depth coverage in the New York Times and inspired an editorial in the New York Daily News. Our report featured a prominent recommendation to scale up CUNY 2X Tech, with a specific focus on bringing the initiative’s innovative programs and supports to “City Tech and CUNY’s community colleges.”

The December announcement arrived just six weeks after the publication of the Center’s follow-up report, Boosting Tech Career Success for CUNY Students: Doubling Down on CUNY 2X Tech, which called on the Adams administration to “renew funding for the CUNY 2X Tech initiative” and expand to “City Tech and at least three community colleges” in the year ahead.

As our research has shown, since its launch in 2018, CUNY 2X Tech has helped colleges across the CUNY system to increase enrollment in technology degree-granting programs, boost the number of students graduating with technology credentials, and help far more students land paid internships and job offers in the tech sector. Up until now, however, the initiative was serving fewer than 1,400 students a year across all CUNY campuses.

This plan is the latest in a series of recent policy changes and new investments spearheaded by the Mayor's Office of Talent and Workforce Development, with the goal of helping every New Yorker develop the skills, credentials, and experiences needed to thrive in the city's fast-changing economy.