An Open Letter: Columbia Must Make Tompkins Hall Affordable
Dear Provost Olinto, Associate Provost Rabinowitz, and Interim President Armstrong,
We are writing to you to demand a reduction in the tuition fees of Tompkins Hall, a childcare center owned by Columbia University.
Columbia’s eviction of Red Balloon, a beloved and essential early childhood education center, underscored the University’s shortcomings in sourcing low-income community childcare needs. Red Balloon charged the second-lowest monthly tuition rate for toddlers among all university-affiliated, full-time childcare centers. Nearly half of enrolled students received need-based financial aid, and notably, the center accepted Administration for Children’s Services vouchers, which subsidized tuition for eligible low-income families. The eviction of this neighborhood pillar leaves the greater Harlem and Morningside Heights community with one less affordable, high-quality childcare option in the midst of a national childcare crisis. As students of Columbia University and leaders in the Morningside Heights community, we are writing to demand that the University decrease the tuition of Tompkins Hall as a first step toward addressing the disparities in childcare access exacerbated by the University’s eviction of Red Balloon.
The closure of Red Balloon and subsequent deprivation of a vital community resource is not an isolated incident. Instead, the eviction reflects a larger historical pattern: Columbia’s fraught encounters with its West Harlem and Morningside Heights neighbors. Despite statements by the University that affirm its commitment to the welfare of the local community, Columbia has gentrified West Harlem and Morningside Heights for over 70 years, displacing primarily low-income residents of color through aggressive acquisition of private housing stock and construction projects. By leveraging legal strategies and institutional power, Columbia has systematically reshaped neighborhood demographics, prioritizing its own interests over the economic security of community residents. In recent years, Columbia has weaponized eminent domain to expand into Manhattanville, converting affordable housing units into university spaces and further displacing low-income tenants. The eviction of an affordable preschool is emblematic of a wider university policy: Columbia will extract, but it will not provide. Within this context, the University has a unique institutional obligation to provide a vast array of community services—childcare among them—not as a rectification for past institutional violence, but as a stepping stone for future racial and economic justice commitments.
Our demand is not without precedent; rather, it builds upon a pre-existing obligation acknowledged by the University to provide affordable, high-quality childcare for the community. We applaud the University’s commitment to opening a center with tuition comparable to the rates of Red Balloon for the 2024-25 academic year. However, the University has already delayed the opening of the new center past the original target month of September. Parents in the Harlem and Morningside Heights community are left in the dark, not knowing when—or even if—Columbia will fulfill its promise. Because Red Balloon was one of the most financially-accessible centers to service the greater Morningside Heights community on a full-time basis, 59% of the center’s students were Black, Latine, or Asian, and 36% of families were non-Columbia affiliated Harlem and Morningside Heights residents. Meanwhile, in the 2024-25 academic year, the monthly tuition of Tompkins Hall will surpass $3,500, a fee that exceeds Red Balloon’s by $1,000 and covers the care of toddlers during parents’ work hours for only 10 months and four days a week. Now, more than ever, the University must make Tompkins Hall affordable for local parents and fill the childcare gap it has created.
We also stress that broader action—exceeding a singular commitment to opening a Red Balloon-like center—is necessary to truly address the childcare needs of the Harlem and Morningside Heights community. Publicly funded and universal 3-K programs have been rolled back at the city level when more than 80% of families with children below the age of five are unable to afford childcare in New York City. Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and West Harlem are childcare deserts—that is, there are three or more children under the age of five per available childcare slot. Additionally, childcare is gendered and racialized labor and the predominantly women of color providing care endure some of the lowest wages in New York state. In other words, early childhood learning centers lack sufficient revenue streams: to increase employee compensation and improve the quality of education, centers must raise tuition, rendering the already-inaccessible care they provide more unaffordable. Columbia-affiliated centers, put plainly, are in dire need of a larger university investment if they are to offer affordable, quality childcare and fair wages to the West Harlem community. As Tompkins Hall is the sole childcare center owned by Columbia, the University can directly increase funds now to lower tuition without a decrease in the wages of educators.
With an endowment of $13.6 billion and property tax exemptions which exceed its Community Benefits Agreement and local infrastructure investments by more than $150 million each year, Columbia is well-positioned to increase the funding of Tompkins Hall. Access to quality childcare improves the social and emotional development of children while simultaneously expanding their potential for future socioeconomic advancement. Moreover, access to affordable, full-time care means that parents, especially mothers, will not have to cut back on work hours to care for their children. If Columbia commits to a sustained investment in Tompkins Hall, offering lower tuition and high-quality education, Black and brown mothers in the West Harlem and Morningside Heights area would likely benefit most. It is for the aforementioned reasons that we, Columbia students and leaders of Morningside Heights, demand that the University boost investments in Tompkins Hall. An increase in funding must be sufficient to:
Extend the center’s operating hours year-round, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., aligning with the former schedule of Red Balloon;
Decrease the monthly tuition of the childcare center to $2,500, matching the tuition rate of Red Balloon;
Guarantee that the wages and benefits of current employees remain unaffected by the reduction in monthly tuition fees;
Provide ample financial aid to applicants to ensure that a minimum of 50% of Tompkins Hall families are non-Columbia affiliated Harlem and Morningside Heights residents, 70% are families of color, and 70% of families qualify for Administration of Children’s Services vouchers based on income.
The ball is in the University’s court to offer what it recently took away from Harlem and Morningside Heights parents: an affordable, high-quality childcare center with operating hours that align with typical work schedules.
Sincerely,
The Education Center of the Columbia Policy Institute
Co-signers:
Sunrise Columbia
Housing Equity Project
Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America
Asian American Alliance
ChicanX Caucus
Columbia Policy Institute
The Remedy Project
Alianza
Student Organization of Latines
Columbia University Students for Human Rights
Columbia Women in Medicine Society
Columbia Latinx Professional and Education Network
Double Discovery Student Organization
The Columbia University Journal of Global Health
Columbia Sci-Inspire
Barnard College and Columbia University Chapter of Project Sunshine
Jorge Hernandez-Perez, Director of the Education Center of the Columbia Policy Institute, along with members Roselyn Rojas Rodriguez, Katherine Grivkov, Lily Ouellet, Erin Torres, Viviana Rebekah Flores, Cora Lee Cole, Rebeca Lopez-Anzures, Shanthi Ashok, Ruby Arline Perez, Gersely Dubraska Rios Carmona, Yunseo Kim, Spencer Davimos, Drew Reetz, Tara Dechen Lohani, and Sarah Saehyun Park, all contributed to the research and drafting of the Tompkins Hall Open Letter.
The Columbia Political Review editorial board neither endorses nor condemns the content of this letter.