Instead of spending the final weeks of summer preparing for her freshman year at Howard University, Yasmine Payano had to scramble after she was told weeks before the semester was to begin that she no longer had a spot in the incoming class.
“I really didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I didn’t know how to enroll in another school.”
Ms. Payano, 19, of the Bronx, was one of the 502 soon-to-be freshmen who the historically Black university in Washington said had missed a July 10 deadline to enroll in a payment plan for the first semester. As a result, Howard told them that their enrollment in the class of 2030 was being withdrawn.
Now, Ms. Payano will attend the University at Albany in the fall, a last-minute switch made possible after Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York offered to give disenrolled Howard students expedited late admission to certain campuses that are part of the State University of New York system and the City University of New York.
“They earned their acceptance, made their plans and should be counting down the days until move-in,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement. “Instead, they’re being forced to start over.”
Students whose Howard enrollment was canceled and who are New York State residents will be automatically accepted into one of the SUNY campuses that have availability. In addition to the University at Albany, participating campuses include SUNY Stony Brook and the University at Buffalo, among others. Out-of-state students will receive an expedited admissions process.
CUNY is offering a similar program.
Tuition at Howard for a semester is $37,996, according to its website, compared with $7,070 at SUNY for state residents and an average of $17,730 for out-of-staters, with the university centers like Albany, Stony Brook and Buffalo averaging $29,200.
“The Howard students have an opportunity to thrive with us at SUNY, and hopefully they will take advantage of that,” John B. King Jr., the SUNY chancellor, said in an interview.
Holly Liapis, a SUNY spokeswoman, said that the participating campuses are making special accommodations for the newly enrolled students so that they won’t be disenrolled a second time.
“Given the challenges these students have faced, we guarantee these students will not be unenrolled for the fall semester due to unresolved financial aid issues,” she said in an email.
Wayne A.I. Frederick, Howard’s interim president, said in an interview on Thursday that the university was able to re-enroll about 200 of the students who were able to pay their tuition or provide financial aid documents.
“We felt that it was appropriate since those students were able to make the payment and demonstrate that they had external scholarships,” Dr. Frederick said.
In a statement posted to its website on July 23, Howard had said that it had warned students of the looming financial deadline through “multiple detailed communications throughout March, April, May, June and July to first-time-in-college students and families on steps needed to secure enrollment for the fall 2026 semester.”
Ms. Payano said that she had spent the summer on the phone with the school’s financial aid and bursar offices trying to figure out when her financial aid and scholarships would apply to her tuition balance.
As the deadline loomed, she said that she was told to wait until her aid and loans were applied before enrolling in the tuition payment plan. So she did. Nearly two weeks later, she discovered she was disenrolled.
Ms. Payano had originally applied to Howard and the University at Albany but chose Howard. She was excited about immersing herself in the historically Black school’s culture. Now, she feels differently.
“My counselors have told me multiple times, ‘If it isn’t meant to be, it isn’t meant to be,’” she said. “But obviously, I still saw my future in Howard. So I continued going through all the hardship and all the struggles. But this just showed that they just lack professionalism, and it isn’t a school I exactly dreamed of still attending.”
SUNY and CUNY aren’t the only options for the freshmen; some schools in the Washington area have also offered a last-minute reprieve.
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland announced that the students disenrolled by Howard were being given expedited admission to the state’s university system. Maryland and New York offered to reimburse students who paid Howard an $800 nonrefundable housing and enrollment fee.
Dr. Frederick said that he was happy the students could enroll elsewhere before the semester began. He took exception with comments that Ms. Hochul had made about Howard’s actions and said they had not spoken.
“I think I know what is happening at my university,” he said.
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