PSC President James Davis is urging faculty members to know their rights when it comes to defending themselves against complaints lodged against them through the discrimination and retaliation reporting portal.
“The CUNY Portal is publicly available and complaints may be submitted anonymously or even orchestrated through outside actors, making it susceptible to abuse,” he said in a message to members. “Despite the stated intention to protect members of our academic community from harassment and a hostile work and learning environment, portal complaints can operate to chill constitutionally protected speech.”
The Trump administration, he said, is using the same tools meant to preserve inclusivity to create a repressive sense of fear on college campuses to intimidate faculty members.
In his message, Davis advised that:
“If your college administration requests a meeting to discuss a complaint lodged against you through the CUNY Discrimination and Retaliation Reporting Portal, you have rights under the law and CUNY policy.
- If you are a faculty member or a member of the instructional staff engaged in teaching, research, or the selection of instructional materials, you have academic freedom.
- The University’s Policy on Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination affirms, “This policy shall not be interpreted so as to constitute interference with academic freedom” (Section III).
- The Preamble to the PSC-CUNY collective bargaining agreement expresses the shared commitment of the parties to academic freedom.
- The CUNY administration and Board of Trustees have upheld the AAUP principles of academic freedom on multiple occasions, starting in 1946.
- You are entitled to receive a summary of a complaint filed against you prior to a meeting with the administration about the complaint.
- New York State public employees have “Weingarten rights” – that is the right to representation by the union whenever it reasonably appears that the employee may be the subject of a potential disciplinary action.
- This includes formal disciplinary proceedings, as well as any other meeting, such as a fact-finding or investigatory meeting, where the result of such a meeting could be the issuance of discipline.
- This includes when any supervisor asks you questions to obtain information which could be used as a basis for discipline; or asks an employee to defend or explain her or his conduct. You are advised to request union representation.
- You are responsible for asserting your right to union representation. Management is under no legal requirement to inform you of your rights or to provide notice to the PSC without you asking.
- Not every complaint submitted through the CUNY Discrimination and Retaliation Reporting Portal is investigated as a violation of Title VI (or of another provision of the Civil Rights Act). The fact of a complaint does not in itself substantiate an alleged Title VI violation.”
