OP-ED: Looking Back to Understand this Moment at CUNY
In 1968, when attending junior high school in Brooklyn, my friends and I would cut class to travel up to Columbia University to watch and participate in the student-led Vietnam War protests. A year later, in April 1969, when I was finishing my first year at the High School of…
Can Curbing CUNY’s Carbon Footprint Help Tackle Its Maintenance Problems?
More than half of CUNY’s buildings are 50 years old or older. That’s a problem for the environment: older buildings tend to consume larger quantities of energy, generating more of the greenhouse gasses that lead to climate change.
CUNY Rising Alliance Continues Advocacy at Board of Trustees Hearing
On April 1st, the CUNY stakeholders attended a hearing with the Board of Trustees to voice their grievances about the current state of CUNY, and to advocate for policy measures. One of these policies includes the New Deal for CUNY, which has received growing support among state representatives since its…
Transit union honcho to sue Columbia alleging mistreatment of staffers in building takeover
A prominent transit union leader plans to sue Columbia University over alleged mistreatment of school staffers during a building seizure last week — the latest labor group to wade into the debate surrounding campus unrest. John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union — which represents 155,000 workers across…
Actions at CUNY Central
National and State Labor Leaders Join Faculty and Staff at Protest to Demand ‘Hands Off CUNY Job Security!’ More than 100 leaders and activists representing 21 NYSUT locals and PSC members joined together on Thursday, May 2nd outside CUNY’s Midtown headquarters to demand that management back away from their attacks…
Bargaining Updates 15 & 16 | Budget Updates
Bargaining Updates 15 and 16 At the April 11th session, the PSC responded to the insufficiencies and problems with management’s comprehensive proposal, which works within the bounds set by other state and city unions in this bargaining round. President James Davis spoke to the problems with this approach. The proposed…
Adjuncts fight for job stability
Youngmin Seo was barely making ends meet on his adjunct faculty salary at the City University of New York. He and his then-wife both worked full time as they raised two children, and he took an extra job at the Korea Times to fill the gaps. For 20 years he…
CUNY leaders must fight harder against budget cuts
Earlier in April, the Professional Staff Congress provided scripts for students to call for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other legislators to secure more education funding from this year’s late state budget. CUNY students, the majority of whom are working-class, juggle jobs or caretaking alongside their studies and who…
Coalition of retirees demand stop to privatization of Medicare
A coalition of city retirees has drafted a letter to President Joe Biden calling for the federal government to put a halt to the privatization of Medicare and instead expand the public health program. A dozen of the retirees gathered Friday in front of a Federal Plaza building on Broadway…
“The Five Demands” Screening Spotlights SEEK and CUNY Activists
On March 20th in the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library auditorium, QC SEEK screened “The Five Demands” — a documentary about the 1969 student protests at the City College of New York (CCNY) for greater Afro-American and Puerto Rican representation in the student population — and discussed the possibility of the…
