Hunter College looms large in my family's life. Hunter is where my wife got her undergrad degree and my step-daughter is attending Hunter High School. So I take notice when I hear "Hunter."

This comes from Norman Siegel's campaign:

The opening of the Children’s Learning Center at Hunter College was a true innovation, providing campus-based childcare to students with children. For almost three decades, the CLC has been an important resource for the student-parents of Hunter College, offering quality, accredited, affordable childcare for both preschoolers and school aged children. This program has made the pursuit of a college degree an attainable reality for many New Yorkers.

Education is the path to true social and economic justice. At a time when we should be expanding educational opportunity, President Raab’s decision to cut the facilities of the CLC by 25% is extremely troubling. The Hunter tradition is about inclusion, providing options and opportunity to a widely diverse student population. Cutbacks to the Children’s Leaning Center run counter to that wonderful tradition and endanger the ability of Hunter’s parent-students to continue to seek a brighter, more secure future for their families.

I am heartened to see that President Raab has reversed her previous stance and will now meet with concerned members of the Hunter community. I urge her to carefully consider the impact of cutbacks to the Children’s Learning Center. As a leader in opening educational horizons to non-traditional students, Hunter College has been in the forefront of making a college education accessible to under-served populations. Cutbacks to the Children’s Leaning Center run counter to this tradition, putting the educational future of many Hunter students at risk. I urge President Raab to keep the Children’s Leaning Center at full capacity. In these troubled economic times, making education accessible to all is the soundest, surest investment we can make in our future.