The City University of New York is overhauling how it handles discrimination, harassment and campus conflict, rolling out an enhanced incident reporting system, mandatory civil rights training for all full-time faculty and staff, and what officials are calling the most ambitious constructive dialogue initiative in the country.
CUNY
The moves come as colleges and universities nationwide continue to grapple with rising tensions over race, identity and free expression — pressures that have tested the limits of campus leadership from coast to coast.
At CUNY, which enrolls 247,000 undergraduate and graduate students across New York City's five boroughs, the new measures are designed not only to respond to discrimination more effectively but to prevent it from taking root in the first place.
"Hate has no place at The City University of New York," said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. "We've instituted mandatory Title VI training and expanded programming to prepare our community for difficult conversations."
At the center of the effort is an upgraded, system-wide reporting platform overseen by the CUNY Center for Inclusivity and Equal Opportunity, which centralizes the submission, tracking and analysis of incidents involving discrimination, harassment and retaliation. The Center also serves as a clearinghouse for supportive services — including campus counseling centers, a 24/7 crisis text line and an anonymous peer-to-peer mental health platform called Togetherall.
The mandatory Title VI training, now required for all full-time employees, addresses the Civil Rights Act provision that prohibits institutions receiving federal funding from discriminating against students based on race, color or national origin. The requirement extends to current chief diversity officers and public safety officers, who will undergo refresher courses.
Perhaps the most far-reaching component of CUNY's initiative is its expanded partnership with the Constructive Dialogue Initiative, a national nonprofit that trains campus communities to navigate difficult conversations. Since 2024, more than 280 faculty members and 170 students have completed CDI's foundational training or earned facilitator certification, and more than 5,000 members of the CUNY community have completed "Perspectives," a six-session online course in civil discourse.
Now, backed by funding from the New York City Council, the Aronson Family Foundation and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, trained facilitators will be deployed across all 26 colleges — embedding constructive dialogue into classrooms, student engagement efforts and campus decision-making. CDI will also train presidents and senior administrators to model the approach from the top down.
The scope of the rollout is notable. Officials say it represents CDI's largest and most comprehensive university partnership in the nation.
For higher education observers, CUNY's initiative offers a potential model for large, diverse public university systems wrestling with how to balance open expression, civil rights protections and campus safety — challenges that show no signs of easing.
CUNY, founded in 1847 as the nation's first free public institution of higher education, has long positioned itself as a vehicle for economic mobility. More than 80 percent of its graduates remain in New York City, and the university propels nearly six times as many low-income students into the middle class as all Ivy League schools combined.
