The PSC fully supports the right of CUNY faculty to elect their department chairs, as established in the CUNY bylaws. When faculty vote to make a change in their department leadership, as happened recently with the English department at Queensborough Community College (QCC), the college president should accept the results of the vote and honor the wishes of the faculty.
Diane Call, the president of QCC, has informed the English department on that campus that she will reject their near three-fourths majority vote to elect a new chair and instead appoint a temporary chair while a new chair is recruited in a national search. The struggles of the QCC English department made headlines recently when faculty members were threatened with mass firings after the department voted against reducing classroom hours for Pathways-compliant composition courses.
Hundreds of CUNY faculty have signed a petition from the QCC English department faculty urging President Call to reconsider her decision to deny their vote for chair. Please add your name to the petition.
