rest of your day. [ latin music plays ] >> buenos d^as y bienvenidos. good morning, and welcome once again to "tiempo." i'm joe torres. cuny, the city university of new york, is the "big apple's" public university system that serves more than half a million students, mostly from low-income families. well, cuny now faces devastating cuts in state funding. we will tell you what advocates are doing to stop these cuts from taking effect. that's coming up in just a few minutes. pero en este momento, we're talking about cuba once again, more specifically,

to the communist nation -- the first visit by a u.s. president to cuba in 88 years. mr. obama met with cuban president ra`l castro, dissidents, as well, and he attended a baseball game between the tampa bay rays and the cuban national team. will the president's visit trigger a cascade of new commerce between the two nations? here to answer that question and so many others -- our good friend vito echevarr^a, consultant for travelucion.com, and ben greenzweig, from momentum events, the organizer of the cuba opportunity summit that just wrapped up here in new york city. welcome to you both. good to see you, my friend. quite a visit from the president, yeah? >> yeah. >> historic -- 88 years. took a long time. i've got a bunch of questions. >> sure. >> first one -- let's start with the one we just asked there. do you anticipate, as a result of this visit, that the floodgates are open now in terms of commerce between the two countries? >> most definitely. you have a lot of companies

everybody from starwood to marriott, to independent outfits such as travelucion, for example, which is the largest cuba digital-media source out there, with 432 websites dedicated to basically shifting traffic to a major website called cubaplus.net, which is gearing itself up for the onslaught of american travelers that are gonna be booking their flights and hotels to cuba. >> so, "the horse is out of the barn," as they say, and it's time to get on board. and perhaps that's why you saw an opportunity to have this summit, is it not, ben? >> that is correct. my business partner and i are event entrepreneurs. we saw an opportunity on december 17th, about 15 months ago, and we seized it. >> what happened at your summit? tell me. how it'd go? >> the summit was phenomenally successful. we had over 250 people, more than 30 international media outlets, and a phenomenal response from both the investor and the corporate community. >> with the goal of the summit

people in the same room? >> that's exactly right. the goal of the summit was to bring together those that had a cuban entry plan, those that wanted a cuban entry plan, and put them together with the decision-makers, those that have been there before, and those that knew how to guide them, and allow them to learn and figure out how they're gonna navigate what still is a pretty challenging web of entering the marketplace. >> understood. we can show you a photo of a little bit of the summit here. attendance? real quick. >> we had over 250 the last iteration. >> yeah, there we go. i wanted to ask you, vito -- and this question, we can ask the same question three different ways. >> yeah. >> what does the cuban government get out of this visit from president obama and the resulting commerce that is to come? >> well, yeah, two things. the first thing is credibility. it's gonna be enjoying a certain amount of prestige diplomatically that it hasn't before. and then, number two, of course, commercial, there's gonna be a virtual tsunami of business, especially from the united states because, you got to remember, cuba still has a deal with geography.

south florida. so they can't escape that reality, so the fact that there's that economic opening between the two countries, cuba can only stand to benefit from it. >> all right, well, cuba -- that's the cuban government. let me narrow it down further. what do the cuban people get out of this renewed relationship and the result of more commerce flooding the island? >> right. this is why there's this jockeying for position, if you will, of the travel companies, including not just travelucion, but there's also booking.com, as well. they're gonna have their own cuba hotel bookings, as well. what's gonna happen basically is obama's new changes now include individuals being able to book their own travel to cuba. before, it was all groups. now it's individuals. so there's gonna be direct interaction, if you will, between individual travelers and those that provide taxis, as well as casa pariculares, you know, rooms for rental. >> yes, for sure. >> so there's gonna be more direct transactions between the tourists and these providers. >> were many of the people at the summit travel-related, in that industry?

significant representation from the travel community. norwegian cruise lines has been a strong supporter for a long time. but we saw a significant bump in the investment community, specifically the community that cares about the sharing economy, where investors see there's a lot of opportunity in cuba. >> sharing community -- define it -- would be the ubers and the -- >> the ubers, the airbnb's, which, as you know, are already there on the island. we have the co-founders of revolico.com, fonoma.com, just to say a few. >> yeah, it's a lot of e-commerce transactions happening 'cause revolico is cuba's answer to craigslist. >> okay. >> so the fact that they were even there is sort of a big deal. and like i said, you know, you have the situation, for example, with travelucion. from june 2014 to '15, they tripled the amount of transactions and also people going on the website. >> we got about 30 seconds left before we take our first break. the sharing economy means you really kind of need an internet that works, and in cuba right now, that's pretty much

>> do you see one impacting the other, where these companies say, "yeah, i want to get it going, but if that means getting your telecommunications up and running, we'll help you do that, as well"? are you seeing that? >> yeah, exactly. much of what's happening is basically commerce from the outside, so especially the situation with the online transactions. it's basically cuba-driven, but it's still happening outside the island. it's gonna take some time before you start seeing more transactions within cuba because of the very poor internet infrastructure. >> okay. there was opposition to the president's visit. we'll talk about that when we come back. sit tight -- a few more questions for you guys. we'll continue our breakdown of the president's historic visit to cuba. still ahead on "tiempo" -- almost half a million students, mostly from low-income families, depend on cuny for an affordable, quality education. now those families and students face a major tuition increase. we'll tell you what advocates are doing to stop that hike from

>> welcome back to "tiempo." we're talking this morning about president obama's historic trip to cuba, the first visit by a u.s. president to the caribbean island in 88 years. here with us this morning -- vito echevarr^a, consultant for travelucion.com, and ben greenzweig from momentum events, the organizer of the second, actually, cuba opportunity summit that just wrapped up here in the city. we've managed to get through this interview without talking about the embargo, which, by the way, still in place. >> still very much in place. >> president obama, towards the end of his visit, did say that he thinks the embargo ultimately will be lifted but perhaps not during his administration. do you agree with him? >> that's very correct. the situation with republicans right now is that they don't want to give him the credit for lifting the trade embargo against cuba. they would rather wait until he's out of office before there's any serious action there. it's not to say that there are no republicans that are doing something on the situation. there's a congressman in minnesota by the name of

in congress to lift the embargo entirely. so, yeah, there's definitely traction there from those circles, as well as the business lobby. >> sure. >> yeah. >> nonetheless, there are still many people -- cuban american exiles, many of them in new jersey -- who want the embargo to remain in place. and they've lived through the horrors of the regime and were out protesting during the president's visit. will their opinions, will their feelings still come into play? >> well, yeah, people have to bear in mind that it's been 50 years since we've had this trade embargo, which has been ineffective in making any real changes on the ground, in terms of the political situation in cuba. this is why obama is doing what he's doing in the first place. he wants to try a new approach to see if that'll trigger the changes that'll bring in a democratization process. obviously, you do have the protests going on, but as a number of surveys have done -- have shown, rather -- we're seeing that those numbers are decreasing -- the number of

to any opening with cuba itself. >> was that a big topic of conversation at the summit amongst the people there -- either worried, concerned, talking about the embargo and the future in that regard? >> it actually wasn't. there's a time and a place for the politics, but the reason why momentum partnered with the wharton school to deliver this event was this was about business. this was about assessing opportunity, developing a strategy, and navigating the landscape, and that's where the dialogue mainly focused. >> mm-hmm. but if the embargo is lifted, does that business, does that opportunity flower even more? >> i still think it will always be a measured flowering, to your point, but certainly, a lot of the impediments that stand in the way, if those are lifted, you'll see a tremendous surge in not only interest but actual deals. >> mm-hmm. there was a big difference between summit number one, right -- which was when? -- and summit number two. walk me through the differences between the two and what that represents. >> absolutely. summit number one took place on april 1, 2015, a mere 14 weeks after the president made his

in that sold-out audience, we had over $12 billion in investable assets represented by the audience. 11 months later, with another sold-out audience, we had more than $20 billion in investable assets that were represented. but more importantly, the quality of the questions, the quality of the responses, and the general dialogue were a lot more sophisticated. people were taking this seriously and thought this was a true reality for their opportunities. >> go ahead, vito. >> the fact that you had high-caliber c.e.o.s from the major companies, from the cruise lines, to marriott itself, i mean, indicates that there's a lot of hunger on the american side to do trade, to do business. that's why it was very interesting to see donald trump, his view on this whole situation with cuba. we would imagine that his family would want to build hotels at some point in havana. >> and summit number three is already in the organizational process? >> we just started working. the third summit will take place in havana, winter 2016-2017. >> what does that tell you right there?

strong demand, and the conversation, the dialogue, has advanced so much that now it's time to bring this audience into the country, onto the island, so they can see it firsthand. >> editor, writer -- i'm gonna make you prognosticator. >> yeah. >> cuba, five years from now, does it look like the cuba that we know today? >> we won't repaco >> really? >> it's gonna be a completely different place because we have this whole process toward a market economy. that's what we're working to see with cuba. you know, once the market economy is entrenched more in cuba, then you're going to see more changes happening there. because the state-controlled system that they've had there, obviously, you know, people want to see a change. they want to see more -- a dynamic change in terms of people's lives being improved. >> do you think -- pretty safe to say that the castros probably won't be in power five years from now. therefore, the question becomes, will things change positively for the cuban people -- let's

they're not making $20 a month on average? the better? >> well, yeah, most definitely. i mean, western union was one of the participants of the summit, and, obviously, they're also jockeying to position in terms of seeing more transactions happening, in terms of more funds being sent over because, you know, cuba is gonna remain a so-called "remittance economy" for years to come, in the same way that we've seen in the dominican republic, for example, el salvador, mexico. you know, these are countries that depend on remittances for their economies to be going and to keep up with the market economy that's only gonna thrive there. >> 10 seconds. go ahead. >> it's already changing. we were there in november. you see the explosion of private restaurants, you see the companies that are there. it's already changing. >> yeah, it's gonna keep going. >> absolutely. >> vito, been a pleasure. thank you guys for being here and enlightening us, as always. >> thank you. >> when we come back on "tiempo," cuny students are facing a major tuition increase. we'll tell you what advocates are doing to stop that hike from

>> cuny, new york city's public university system, consists of a large network of community colleges and four-year institutions. cuny faces devastating funding cuts from the state. governor andrew cuomo proposed shifting part of the cost of running the city's public colleges from the state back to city hall, and if the city doesn't pick up the tab, the cuny system will face a $485 million shortfall. time is running out, by the way.

couple of days. so here to enlighten us further on the tense situation -- renata pumarol from the new york communities for change and george emilio sanchez from the college of staten island. welcome to you both. i think the governor's -- it was in january -- right? -- that he announced that the state funding would be cut. but i think i read at the same time that he goes on to say that the cuny system will be fully funded and that it will not impact the city? can you have it both ways? >> this will definitely have an impact in the city, and it will definitely have an impact on students. students are facing a 50% increase in tuition. that means that many people won't have access to attend university if these cuts go forward. >> many of those students latinos, right? >> many latinos, and, also, you know, the 50% is what the administration said if the $485 million gets cut. so that's where the -- nobody's thinking it's gonna be that much. but more importantly, the $485 million cut that cuomo did -- or proposes -- even then

we're looking not only to get the $485 million back, but to increase it to meet the needs of cuny. >> okay. to increase to what sort of level? i mean, is there a number out there that everyone's trying to hammer at or get to? >> well, the $1.6 billion that they say doesn't take into account their wanting to reposition or to set that budget to the city, okay? but we're looking at -- the comptroller has said that, if we really had the funding in accordance with the surplus of the state, we would have $600 to $700 million in our budget. >> uh-huh. yes, and you don't. >> we don't. >> renata, part of the governor's argument is the city controls 30% of appointments to the cuny board of trustees. it should also therefore pay 30% of its expenses. why doesn't that wash with you? >> well, i mean, the state has been funding a big chunk of cuny's budget, right? half a billion dollars, right?

that away and claim that that is not a cut. that is a significant cut that is gonna pass on to cuny staff and to cuny students. i went to cuny. it represented a huge opportunity for me, and it represents a huge opportunity for many latinos to get an education, to get a better-paying job, and if you are cutting cuny's budget, you are cutting access for tens of thousands of people. >> but the same question 'cause i'm not sure i heard an answer in there, the argument -- and some people would hold it up and say, "well, it makes sense to me. if the city controls 30% of the board, they should cover 30% of the expenses." why is that unreasonable? >> well, it's unreasonable in the big picture. i don't get want to get into a debate between city and state. >> sure. >> what i want to look at is public education. public education should be free, and we've lost funding across the nation, so cuny's going through something that's happening across the nation. we want to insist and really make clear that we have to invest because we're talking about lower-income families. we're talking about latinos, african-americans, students of color -- predominantly students of color.

most students in higher education come from socioeconomic backgrounds that are much higher. so this is an unbelievable opportunity that we are negating, possibly, thousands and thousands of new yorkers. >> yeah, and a tuition increase, i would assume, for many of those low-income students and families, is not an option for them, correct? >> absolutely not. >> and this is the only really educational opportunity -- which is why it's such a success, by the way -- that many of those students have. >> yes, absolutely. i mean, the majority of cuny students come from a family background with an income of $30,000 or less, so meaning that, if you are raising the tuition by $50,000, means that you will probably not be able to attend. >> and the reason cuny students are so incredibly transformative is because they do this against the odds, and most of the students at cuny work. they work part time or full time. so our students, when they graduate, are incredibly skilled, highly knowledgeable, and we need them in the workforce. >> did either of you attend the rally recently? i know students and faculty members traveled to albany. there was a rally.

legislators. did you go, and what was the result of that? dime. >> many of our members attended because many of our members do send their kids to cuny and hope for their kids to have a better opportunity, a better-paying job, so we did support that rally, and we continue to support the cuny rising alliance. >> you see more rallies in the not-too-distant future coming? >> more rallies with students, with community groups. the alliance is growing with other unions like dc 37, which works within cuny. so it's growing. >> okay, sit tight -- a few more questions for you guys. more when we come back on the possible cuts to the cuny budget and the impact it could have in the lives of many students and

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>> welcome back to "tiempo." cuny, new york city's public university system, faces major cuts from state funding. the budget deadline is only a few days away. we've been discussing this tense situation with renata pumarol from new york communities for change. george emilio sanchez is from the college of staten island. thank you both for being here. is this issue, in your opinion, driving a wedge between the city and the state in terms of who should provide the funding for so many students throughout new york? >> sure. i mean, it is. and what we're seeing is that they need to invest more. the state needs to invest more, not less, in cuny. >> and you don't want to hold kids in the middle of a bitter negotiation such as this. >> of course not. >> one of the things we haven't mentioned -- you're a professor by trade, right? >> yes, i am. >> yeah, a teacher of... >> of theater, in the theater department, but i'm the chair of my performing and creative arts department.

out is because professors -- if my research was correct -- haven't had a pay raise in, what is it, six years? >> in six years, and i work for -- my union is the professional staff congress, which covers professors and staff, and we haven't had a raise in six years. and that affects us deeply -- besides the sense of morale, that everybody's demoralized, but also retention. so we have incredible faculty. i can't tell you how talented and skilled our faculty are. we haven't had a pay raise. we can't keep up with the rate of inflation just to live in new york city. >> yeah, the cost of living alone. >> and then when you talk about adjuncts, who can barely survive, it's really, really -- it's so aggressively hostile against us that people are really at a very -- it's a breaking point. we really don't know if we have the support we need. >> well, are you less hopeful that you'll ever get that pay raise if this funding doesn't come through? >> i'm not less hopeful, because our campaign is so strong. we have come together so beautifully that i see students and faculty and staff working together. my goal is to get more

have to do it. so right now, no, i'm not. but i can tell you people are very, very disappointed, very -- there's a lot of frustration. >> yeah, i mean, demoralizing is the word that you used. you know, here it is sunday. april 1st, i think, is when the state-budget deadline comes. i know you've had rallies already. are there any more in the works? can we expect to see perhaps a little bit more of an outcry as we get closer to the deadline? >> yeah, absolutely. there will be rallies throughout campuses, cuny campuses. i think both staff and students are really outraged that they're facing these cuts, that their tuition will be raised by 50%. and we'll be raising our voices to stop these cuts. >> what is tuition now for a student? do we know off the top -- >> tuition now, it depends on if they're full time or not, but let's say they're full time -- somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000 a year. which somebody's gonna say, "oh, that's really cheap compared to columbia and nyu." but it's not -- cuny used to be free. and we want to go back to free public education.

and compared to [laughs] nyu and columbia, that is very, very reasonable. but the quality of the education, "a," is primo, and, "b," for many students, it's the only opportunity that they can afford to get a four-year degree. >> that's the big point. it's the only opportunity, and that's really key -- where cuny used to be for free. we have professors that have been there for -- they want to go back to free education because the mission of public education is one of the highest ideals of this country. >> mm-hmm. and we should point out that it's not just -- right? -- city schools. >> right. >> you're the professor. tell me where your students come from. >> basically from new york city, but we get out-of-state. we have a lot of foreign students now. and so we have students from all over the world. it's not just city, but, of course, predominantly from new york city, yes. >> but the reason i point that out is, if the state's argument is that the city should do all the funding, but the state gets the benefit in the form of the graduates who come out of there and probably pay taxes and work -- correct? >> right. >> absolutely.

pay new york city taxes and city taxes, right? so it comes to a benefit to both the city and the state to have people set in a path to get better jobs, better-paying jobs, that... >> that are a result of a good cuny education. un placer. thank you guys very much. continued success, and i hope you get a pay raise, my friend, >> [ laughs ] >> much^simas gracias to you at home. your sunday with us. if you missed any part of our show, here's your chance to catch up. you can watch "tiempo" at abc7ny on the web, on your tableta, even on your smartphone. how great is that? i'm joe torres. we thank you for watching. we will see you next time on

[ latin music plays ] >> "here and now," the program featuring the news and interests of the african-american community. here's your host -- sandra bookman. >> coming up, the continuing search for a missing flight attendant. sierra shields disappeared after leaving laguardia airport. family members share their mounting concerns. as we commemorate black history month, we'll introduce you to an order of black nuns in harlem marking 100 years of service with a call for 100 days of kindness. plus, daymond john, the founder of fubu and one of the stars of the hit abc show "shark tank" on why the power of broke can be the key to success.