In 4 months, the Queens College SEEK has suffered a 58.3% cut in academic support 75.8% cut in supplies and materials, between its Fiscal Year 19 and Fiscal Year 20 budgets, when our student population only decreased in 7.5% in 2020. SEEK will be unable to continue to staff any supplemental Instructors (S.I) or Tutors and will need to close its STEM and Writing Centers starting in April - before finals and before the semester is over.

The SEEK program's additional academic support has guaranteed the success of its students. Without our dedicated S.I's, Tutors, STEM and Writing Centers, many of us would not have the academic support we need in and out of the classroom. The SEEK academic resources offer us needed dedicated and unlimited time for support.

 These services are what make the SEEK program different from other programs. These services not only help SEEK students to succeed academically but also provide mentorship and guidance to students.

95% of our tutors are SEEK students with stellar GPA's who help to tutor their peers to become successful. 90% of our supplemental instructors were once SEEK undergraduate students themselves, who are now pursuing their masters and Ph.D degrees. They are invaluable to the program. Through their own experiences as SEEK students, they provide great mentorship and model further possibilities of success for SEEK students.  

Historically, the SEEK program has provided the type of wrap-around services that go beyond financial support, but also academic, mental, and social support. By design, the SEEK program's inclusion of its summer program, tutors, Supplemental Instructors, Counselors, faculty and SEEK administrators, provides a holistic approach to student success. The reason that the SEEK program is successful because students and their holistic success are a priority. Many other programs have stolen ideas to try to recreate this model but SEEK remains unequaled. 

In 1966, in the time of racial injustice, a time that mirrors the day and age that we are currently living in as racial injustice was once again brought to the limelight after the death of George Floyd, Breonna Tayler, and the victims of racial bigotry in Atlanta just this month. The cutting of the SEEK program itself is also an act of systemic violence.

Now more than ever in the 21s century, we need the SEEK program. The SEEK Program provides low-income students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds a chance to thrive, a chance to be equal to their counterparts through the intentional services provided by the program to close the gaps and inequities due to systemic racial disparities, gender disparities, and income inequalities.

 The Queens College SEEK program is what Percy Ellis Sutton, along with Shirley Chisholm, Charles B. Rangel, Basil A. Paterson, David Dinkins, and Allen B. Ballard, fought for. To protect their legacy, we have to protect this program. The purpose of the creation of the program as a New York State legislated mandate in 1966 was to ensure that the SEEK program remained a pillar of change for CUNY, New York City, New York State, and beyond. 

We need to continue to add to the legacy of this great program, by continuing to support the program's holistic approach. Coming out of a global pandemic and the economic disparities it has created, let us continue to provide every high school student in New York with the support they need to be the change that they want to be in our society. To foster this change we need to expand the SEEK program and its holistic approach, not cut its budget.
 
We, the SEEK students of Queens College, stand in solidarity with the SEEK program. We, the students of Queens College, stand in solidarity with the SEEK program. We, the students of the City University of New York, stand in solidarity with the SEEK Program.