{"id":358989,"date":"2026-09-28T17:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358989\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T17:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:40:08","slug":"city-council-distributes-free-unlimited-omny-cards-to-first-700-cuny-students-under-pilot-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358989\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council distributes free unlimited OMNY cards to first 700 CUNY students under pilot program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of City University of New York (CUNY) students now have access to free, unlimited OMNY cards under a new City Council pilot program<\/a> launched Monday.<\/p>\n

The 700 students who make up the pilot\u2019s first cohort were notified last week that they were selected to receive OMNY cards under the program, which was established through a $700,000 commitment in the latest city budget. The students were instructed to pick them up at physical locations on their campuses.<\/p>\n

The cards will be activated next week, according to City Council Speaker Julie Menin\u2019s office. It will offer free unlimited rides on subways and buses between Oct. 5 and Dec. 25 for the fall semester, and a full 120 days for the spring semester beginning Jan. 28, 2027, the speaker\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

The pilot is designed to make it easier for CUNY students, who are often low-income and largely rely on public transit, to stay engaged and enrolled in college by eliminating one of the most significant cost barriers to getting to class.<\/p>\n

Menin, during a news conference celebrating the program\u2019s launch at the City College of New York in West Harlem on Monday morning, said that thousands of CUNY students drop out each year \u2014 with many citing the cost of transportation as a \u201ckey contributor\u201d to that outcome. She said 90% of CUNY students use public transportation, which runs them roughly spending $1,000 annually just to get to and from class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe high cost discourages students from attending class and continued absences obviously accelerate the path to dropping out,\u201d Menin said. \u201cThe cost also forces out students to unfortunately confront almost unthinkable questions, such as should I buy my lunch or should I head to my lecture?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut soon, 700 students will no longer have to answer those very difficult questions,\u201d she continued. \u201cBecause today we are announcing that 700 students will receive free OMNY cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

How some CUNY students received free OMNY cards
\n\"HundredsHundreds of City University of New York (CUNY) students now have access to free unlimited OMNY cards under a new City Council pilot program launched Monday.Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n

The council initially aimed to distribute unlimited OMNY cards to a first cohort of roughly 1,250 CUNY students, a number it floated when it first announced the program in June. However, that figure assumed an additional $700,000 in funding from the state that it did not end up contributing, according to council spokesperson Jack Lobel.<\/p>\n

City Council Transportation Chair Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan), speaking at the same event, noted that commuting is central to the experience of being a CUNY student.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk a student where they get their reading done and a lot of them will say the train,\u201d Abreu said. \u201cThe chapter they meant to finish last night, read somewhere between stops. That essay due at noon, type that on a phone on the bus. For a CUNY student, the classroom doesn\u2019t end with the campus. It follows them onto the subway and out into the city in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OMNY cards are being distributed to CUNY students who meet certain criteria.\n<\/p>\n

Those include enrollment as a full-time student (taking at least 12 course credits) in both the fall and spring semesters, participation in a minimum of two in-person classes, and eligibility for Pell grants, according to the speaker\u2019s office. Students receiving other forms of financial transportation assistance are not eligible for the pilot.<\/p>\n

The students in the fall group will be reevaluated to determine if they are still eligible for the spring semester, the speaker\u2019s office said.\n<\/p>\n

On top of the 700 students selected for the program, another 300 were placed on a waitlist.\n<\/p>\n

Moreover, 28,500 of CUNY\u2019s 54,000 students found eligible for the benefit completed a form showing their interest. Menin said that level of interest shows there is room for the program to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese 700 students are just the start,\u201d Menin said. \u201cWe know that this is something that we want to expand. \u2026 I would just say, more to come on that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Akkeem Polack, chair of the CUNY University Student Senate, which led the campaign for the program, said he hopes every student will at some point be able to get to class for free.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to more than 700, we\u2019re actually looking forward to every single CUNY student getting free transportation,\u201d Polack said. \u201cThanks so much for one step closer to achieving a barrier-free education.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of City University of New York (CUNY) students now have access to free, unlimited OMNY cards under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133615,14927,37503,90474,2397,133616,23798,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-358989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-akkeem-polack","tag-city-budget","tag-city-council-speaker-julie-menin","tag-council-member-shaun-abreu","tag-cuny","tag-cuny-university-student-senate","tag-free-omny-cards","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}