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Full-timers working at the CUNY community colleges are due to receive the $3000 ratification bonus this Friday, May 23. Contact the HR office on your campus if you do not receive your bonus. Part-time faculty and staff at the Senior and Community colleges are due their bonuses on July 24 and August 1, respectively. Read more.

On Saturday, June 14th at 2pm, New York City will march from Bryant Park to Madison Square Park to defy the authoritarian power grabs and billionaire-first priorities of Donald Trump and his enablers. The action is part of a national NO KINGS mobilization. Sign up at this link to march with the PSC contingent.

Trump is spending tens of millions in taxpayer dollars to celebrate his birthday with a military parade—6,000 soldiers, fighter jets, and 150 tanks and armored vehicles rolling through the nation’s capital to glorify his image and silence dissent. All while Republicans claim there’s “no money” for Social Security, SNAP, Medicaid, Pell Grants, or public education.

Trump has talked repeatedly about a third term and ignored court orders, while the Republican majority in Congress has allowed him to usurp their power. He’s a wannabe king, but the American people don’t put up with kings. Tell us you’ll be there June 14th to march for dignity, democracy, and a government that serves the people—not a king.

NO KINGS: JUNE 14 RSVP

PSC First Vice President Jen Gaboury testified alongside Legislative Representative Heather James-Zuckerman and Queen College Professor John Dennehy at a May 15th City Council hearing on New York City funding for CUNY. In their testimony to members of the Council’s Finance and Higher Education Committees, Gaboury and James-Zuckerman urged the Council to send a clear message to CUNY administration: the restored operating money in this year’s budget ($96M) must be used for hiring. They also called for additional funding for the college completion programs ASAP and ACE, expansion of CUNY Reconnect, free MetroCards/OMNY Cards for more CUNY students, and other investments. Full testimony here.

Professor Dennehy joined the PSC leaders in warning the Council about the Trump Administration’s ideological suppression of research and cuts to grant funding. Dennehy is a part of a team of CUNY faculty whose grant funding for the CUNY Wastewater Epidemiology Student Training Laboratory was cancelled because it “no longer aligned with current NSF priorities. “These cancellations represent more than just lost funding—they are a direct attack on the health and wellbeing of all city residents, particularly those in underserved communities who would benefit most from these programs,” he testified. Full testimony here.

CUNY has received more than 70 stop work orders from federal grant agencies, representing $17 million funding. The union is urging the Council and the CUNY administration to provide bridge funding to keep professional researchers and support staff employed and help keep more student researchers on track to complete their studies.

PSC members testified about a range of issues at the recent Queens Borough Hearing of the Board of Trustees held May 12 at LaGuardia Community College. Click here to read testimony protesting the police violence inflicted on non-violent student protestors at Brooklyn College on Thursday, May 8. On the website, you can also read testimony about CUNY research that has been defunded by the Trump administration, management’s misrepresentation of the multi-year appointment for teaching adjuncts, and mold in the Medgar Evers College library.

PSC members working with the Immigrant Solidarity Working Group will deliver the No ICE/DHS on CUNY Campuses petition to CUNY Central (205 E. 42nd St) next Tuesday, May 27th at 12:30 PM. Well over 6,000 members of the CUNY community have already signed. If you haven’t signed the petition yet, please add your name now by clicking this link. Union members who can participate in the petition delivery action should complete the webform at this link to let us know you will be there.

The PSC has been compiling resources for immigrant and non-citizen members on our Immigrant Solidarity Working Group page. Materials and links from CUNY CLEAR, Citizenship Now!, our national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, and other sources are posted here.

New items added to the page this week:

• AFT Summer Travel Guide for International Faculty, Staff and Students in the United States
• AFT Know Your Rights Guide: Academic Freedom and Campus Free Speech for Scholars and Students on Visas

Citizenship Now! and CUNY CLEAR have been reliable sources of accurate and timely information while the federal government’s policy of mass deportation has sowed fear and chaos. Citizenship Now! is providing emergency legal advice and consultation for students, faculty and staff. CUNY CLEAR is providing legal representation and consultation; know-your-rights workshops, and support for community organizing and social movements. Representatives of both organizations have spoken at recent meetings of the PSC’s Immigrant Solidarity Working Group.

PSC members can donate to support Citizenship Now! at this link and can donate to CUNY CLEAR at this link.

The multi-year adjunct appointment is a hard-won provision of the PSC-CUNY contract that provides two-year appointments for eligible adjuncts with a third year at the college’s discretion. While CUNY’s flawed implementation of certain aspects of the agreement are the subject of a PSC grievance, the multi-year appointment is in effect, and eligible adjuncts should be aware of an important upcoming deadline.

An adjunct who is eligible for the multi-year appointment may voluntarily decline the appointment one time. Departmental consideration of an eligible adjunct is mandatory under the contract. But an eligible adjunct may voluntarily waive consideration for or decline an offer of a two-year appointment one time by providing written notice to their department chair, the college’s Office of Human Resources, and the PSC Department of Contract Enforcement prior to May 31st. An adjunct who declines the two-year appointment will be eligible for consideration for up to two successive 2-semester appointments. If given two successive 2-semester appointments and assigned 6 contact hours each semester of each appointment, the adjunct will then be eligible for consideration for a 2-year appointment. They must accept the two-year appointment the second time they are eligible to maintain their appointment.

This year, persons in adjunct titles hired for any adjunct appointment are required to receive written notice of reappointment or non-reappointment on or before June 21 in the Spring semester. If you are due notice of reappointment/non-reappointment by the June 21 deadline and do not receive it, please notify your PSC adjunct grievance counselor. If you are notified that you have been denied reappointment, contact a grievance counselor immediately. Under the terms of the PSC contract, grievances relating to reappointment must be filed within 30 days, excluding Saturday, Sundays and legal holidays.

Next year and thereafter, the spring deadline for notification of reappointment/ non-reappointment deadline will be May 31st. This is a change from prior PSC-CUNY contract, which named May 15th as the spring notification for reappointment/non-reappointment.

On Tuesday, May 20th, members of the PSC’s Research Foundation Field Units chapter delivered a “care package” to LaGuardia Community College President Kenneth Adams, who serves on the Research Foundation board. The delivery coincided with the shipping of similar packages to the other RF board members.

The packages included letters to each board member outlining our urgent, common sense demands: fair raises, a commitment that no RF employee makes less than $20/hour, and longevity increases for long-serving RF employees in recognition of their experience and dedication. The package also included messages of support from elected officials across New York, a copy of a petition and letter writing campaign that each garnered hundreds of signatures, a bag of circus peanuts with a sticker reading “Don’t Pay Us Peanuts!”, and a connect-the-dots that lays out some of the numbers behind the RF management’s unfair negotiating tactics.

President Adams thanked the PSC members who participated in the delivery for their engagement and thoroughness, and promised to pass along our demands to the rest of the board and other members of RF management. PSC members will keep fighting until we win the fair contract that our colleagues at the RF deserve!

Watch a video of the package delivery here.

PSC-represented adjuncts may be eligible for unemployment benefits between semesters depending on their individual circumstances. The PSC’s Committee for Adjuncts and Part-timers (CAP) hosted an online session with Jon Bloom of the Workers Defense League on May 9th to review Unemployment Benefits for Adjuncts and answer questions. The recording of that session is posted here on the PSC website. Teaching adjuncts with general questions about Unemployment Insurance can contact Pamela Stemberg, PSC Officer for Part-Time Personnel, at [email protected]. The Workers Defense League is a union-supported nonprofit organization that specializes in helping people who have been denied unemployment insurance. Call them at (212) 627-1931.