CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative
The John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity facilitates pathways to higher education and satisfying careers for people with conviction histories. The Institute provides support for students and policy expertise across the 25-campus City University of New York system. In 2020, the Institute launched the CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative, a community of faculty, staff, and students from across CUNY who share a common purpose: to create a more equitable and accessible university system for students impacted by the criminal legal system.
The CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative:
- Taps the experience and expertise at CUNY in supporting system-impacted students
- Surfaces opportunities for CUNY to do more in practice and policy to create access to higher education opportunities
- Provides resources to colleagues across the University who are committed to better supporting system-impacted students at their campuses
- Creates a space for directly impacted people to share their experiences at CUNY and inform decision-making related to improving campus and University policy and practice
- Fosters partnerships across campuses so that our efforts complement, rather than compete with, one another
- Facilitates peer-to-peer learning and information sharing among colleagues
- Pursues collectively created priorities to reduce barriers to opportunity for system-impacted students
View CUNY’s Supports for Students with Conviction Records webpage, developed by the CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative.
Origin of the CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative
The Institute embarked on a project to map CUNY’s resources, programs, and services in support of students with criminal legal system involvement in 2018. The project resulted in a report, Mapping the City University of New York: The University’s Commitment to Students Impacted by the Criminal Legal System. The report outlines the scope of programs across the University that support students with conviction records and offers recommendations for CUNY to further its commitment to system-impacted students. Former Vice Chancellor and University Provost José Luis Cruz lauded the findings of the report both in the report’s foreword and in this video accompanying the report’s release.
The CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative seeks to pursue the recommendations outlined in the report, and ultimately, to ensure a welcoming environment across the University that embraces the lived experiences of people impacted by the criminal legal system.
To learn more about the CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative or to join the CUNY Justice Learning Collaborative listserv <cuny-justice-learning-collab@jj.listserv.cuny.edu>, contact Tommasina Faratro, Director of Special Projects tfaratro@jjay.cuny.edu