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On November 17, 2005, the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association (CEI-PEA) had the honor of hosting Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY), as speaker at its luncheon series. Matt has spoken at a number of its luncheons since he took leadership of CUNY approximately six years ago and began what can only be described as a radical transformation of CUNY from an "institution adrift" to one that is charting the future of both CUNY and other urban institutions of higher education around the country. On those occasions, he has introduced a number of the initiatives that have led to CUNY's transformation. This time, Matt discussed new initiatives again, but he did so with a concerted focus on the future funding patterns for CUNY. It seems that CUNY, along with public universities around the country, is at a major crossroads. State funding for public universities has declined precipitously over the past decade, and if public universities do not address this change now, they may become obsolete. This paper presents an edited transcript of Matt's remarks.