New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on 27 July that residents affected by Howard University’s recent disenrollment can pursue expedited admission to public universities within the state. Howard University, a historically Black institution in Washington DC, withdrew more than 500 first-year students in late July after they failed to submit tuition payments by a 10 July deadline.
Hochul stated that affected New York residents can seek admission at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the State University of New York (SUNY) for the fall 2026 semester. Seven SUNY campuses—Buffalo, Albany, Buffalo State University, Binghamton, Oneonta, Stony Brook, and New Paltz—will offer expedited late admissions review, with other schools assessing their capacity to accommodate students. The governor framed the initiative as an opportunity for students to pursue their education at the state’s public higher education systems.
Howard University said that the 502 unenrolled students failed to meet the payment deadline despite notifications that began in March. However, some affected students have reported on social media that they did not receive these notifications. One student told the Associated Press that she only learned of her disenrollment through an email received the previous week.
The current situation mirrors a similar situation the prior year, when hundreds of students faced obstacles to fall 2025 registration due to outstanding balances. The university attributed some of those issues to a transition between the BisonWeb platform and a new BisonHub system, which delayed approximately 1,000 student account updates between January and June 2025. Howard University later stated that most accounts were resolved in subsequent months, with only about 150 students remaining unregistered by early September 2025. The university maintained that past due balances resulted from students not resolving their financial obligations by specified deadlines, though it acknowledged that the system transition may have caused some misunderstanding.
The disenrollments have drawn attention to ongoing financial aid challenges at the institution. Students previously organized a movement called “Whose Howard Is It” to advocate for improved financial aid support.
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