CUNY Board of Trustees Hearing at John Jay College
Before disrupting the Monday, October 21st CUNY Board of Trustees hearing, PSC-CUNY members testified to the Trustees about the severe, persistent, and toxic spread of mold in libraries across the university system. Repeated and escalating mold outbreaks in recent years have caused evacuations, health problems, and the destruction of books and archival materials at several CUNY campuses. Administrators have responded dismissively, failing to address or even fully acknowledge the mold problem, sacrificing library infrastructure, and doubling down on staff cuts. “Mold remediation is expensive,” testified library faculty member Mariana Regalado. “It is much cheaper to prevent mold blooms through proper maintenance of our spaces. But CUNY librarians have been ignored, dismissed, and even blocked from managing our own collections. This is a structural problem.”
Professor Nora Almeida testified on the spread of mold in the City Tech library. “People entering current spaces overtaken by mold, even for short assessment walkthroughs, have reported difficulty breathing, headaches, eye and skin irritation, and sinus pain,” Prof. Almeida explained, but City Tech administrators continue to “maintain that there is no mold and do not support mold remediation or testing”. And as City Tech chapter chair Carole Harris underscored, “every mold story leads to another story of neglect and decay”.
CUNY administrators are refusing to invest in safe, healthy, library spaces, just as they have refused for years to invest in the library workers who make such spaces possible. Medgar Evers has seen cuts of nearly half their library staff positions, with service hours – and mold prevention efforts – suffering as a result. The tragedy of CUNY’s moldy libraries is part of the same story of disinvestment, austerity, and mismanagement that has defined the PSC’s ongoing contract campaign. CUNY Trustees must stop seeing demands for our members’ wellbeing as a nuisance to be avoided and undermined, and instead understand that the conditions of our workspaces– and budget lines– are the conditions in which our students live and work. Investing in the PSC’s demands is investing in every member of the CUNY community, and indeed all of New York.
Testimony
Mariana Regalado – Overview of issue “Mold remediation is expensive.
“Mold remediation is expensive. It is much cheaper to prevent mold blooms through proper maintenance of our spaces. But CUNY librarians have been ignored, dismissed, and even blocked from managing our own collections. This is a structural problem…For the safety of our faculty, staff, and students, and for the safety of our collections, we need a stable environment within set ranges of temperature and humidity…. And we need to staff the libraries with trained professionals who are given the necessary resources to do their jobs.”
Frans Albarillo – on behalf of Medgar Evers College faculty
“Since 2014, when we moved into our beautiful, renovated library, we have experienced damage throughout the library due to multiple leaks and floods caused by rain, improper drainage, and faulty pipes…. Since then, mold has spread on all the three floors of the Library. Laptop bags, chairs, desks, and personal belongings at other locations and people’s offices in the library are moldy as well…. Mold has spread to the book stacks on the Lower Level of the Library. But this is not the only problem there. There have been no lights in the area for years, and staff and patrons need to use flashlights to be able to read call numbers. Mold has also spread to the reserved textbooks collection on the main floor…. Library faculty and staff are all worried about the effects of mold in our work environment on our health.”
Nora Almeida – City Tech
“People entering current spaces overtaken by mold, even for short assessment walkthroughs, have reported difficulty breathing, headaches, eye and skin irritation, and sinus pain… Campus administration… maintain that there is no mold and do not support mold remediation or testing… City Tech Library workers demand that campus administrators openly acknowledge the presence of mold and account for the literal toxic conditions of the physical plant and the human impact of their neglect.”
Carole Harris – City Tech
“Our library archive has closed its doors due to mold, and three librarians with offices adjacent to the archive have had to flee and find other offices because of a thick grey fuzz coating every chair… Every mold story leads to another story of neglect and decay.”
Alycia Sellie – City College
“The loss of books that will be discarded compounds because our library budgets remain stagnant and do not include extra funds or allocations for replacing moldy books. It is also likely that many of the books will be impossible to replace… We were told by our health and safety officer that the air in the library was tested, but we cannot see the results. He claimed that the humidity levels were safe for books; the amount of mold we have found shows otherwise. Many of us have had respiratory issues over the years; we don’t want to get sicker.”
Before disrupting the Monday, October 21st CUNY Board of Trustees hearing, PSC-CUNY members testified to the Trustees about the severe, persistent, and toxic spread of mold in libraries across the university system.
Published: October 25, 2024
