March to Stop the Cuts, Sat, Mar 15 | Emergency Town Hall Tues, Mar 18

Register Here for the Zoom

Attend an urgent town hall meeting for PSC members this Tues. 3/18 at 7:00 PM about this perilous political moment. Hear about union and member-led initiatives to defend public higher education, science, academic freedom, civil liberties, and targeted communities. Ask questions and share what’s happening in your academic life. We want every member to know what your union is doing and we need to hear from you. Plan forward and join a working group as we build this coalition work. Register here for the 3/18 town hall.

Then, on Wed. 3/19 at 12:30 PM, log on ready to talk briefly and take political action by contacting those in the halls of power from City Hall to the U.S. Capitol. This will be the kick-off week to What We Want Wednesdays! Be there! Each week, we’ll be asking PSC members to give five minutes to make an advocacy call. Register here for the 3/19 What We Want Wednesday meet-up.

Send a letter TODAY to your state legislators and urge them to increase funding for CUNY. The letter calls for a $198 million increase in state funding for the senior and community colleges and for expansions to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). The bills we are supporting would increase TAP eligibility from 4 to 6 years of study, restore TAP for graduate students, and make TAP available to homeless students. Help us continue the progress we’ve made increasing state investment and ensure more students can afford CUNY.

SEND LETTER

PSC President James Davis sent a letter this week to CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez calling for swift and decisive action in response to federal agents’ arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card-holding permanent resident who had participated in protests against the war in Gaza while he was a student at Columbia. President Davis called for a public affirmation of the speech and assembly rights of CUNY community members with student visas, work visas, and with green cards. He also asked the Chancellor to affirm the prohibition against Department of Homeland Security agents, including ICE officers, entering CUNY facilities without a judicial warrant.

“The detention of Mr. Khalil is an act of intimidation that undermines our constitutional right to speak out, whether or not we are U.S. citizens,” reads the letter. “The deportation of a student protestor with permanent resident status and a green card is a travesty. Any number of CUNY’s international students, faculty and staff are at risk. It is critical that your administration make a public commitment to protecting the constitutional rights of members of the CUNY community.”

Read the full letter here.

An alarming number of PSC members are being called into meetings with their college’s Chief Diversity Officer because complaints against them have been filed through the CUNY-wide Discrimination and Retaliation Reporting Portal. Read this message from PSC President James Davis about your rights in relation to the portal and to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The PSC will host in-person forums TODAY, Thursday, March 13 and Tuesday, March 25 at 6:30 PM in the union hall to discuss academic freedom, Title VI, and free speech in the PSC-CUNY context and in the national context. Panelists from the union’s contract enforcement and legal departments and our Academic Freedom Committee will be at today’s forum. Guest speakers from the Cornell School for Industrial and Labor Relations and the American Association of University Professors will join us for the March 25th forum. RSVP for the events here.

Registration is now closed for this Friday’s CUNY Rising Alliance Mayoral Forum, but we’ll be live streaming it via the PSC’s YouTube. The link will be available when the forum begins at 5PM this Friday, March 14th. Email emilich@nycommunities.org if you would like to join a waiting list for seats in the Union Hall.

On Friday, March 7th, over 50 PSC members joined thousands of fellow academic unionists and scientists from across New York City at Washington Square Park for a “Stand Up for Science” protest. The event was part of a nationwide mobilization against the federal government’s aggressive attacks on public research funding, which included hundreds of other local events and a major rally on the national mall in Washington DC. We demanded an end to the attacks on our essential research, defended science and all academia as an indispensable public good, and called for the political mobilization of researchers and other academic workers. PSC President James Davis closed out the speaker program, which included Nobel Laureates, elected officials, and young scientist-activists, with a rousing call for solidarity:

The PSC is building a file of members’ stories that can help in our fightback against the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education and the communities we serve at CUNY. We’re asking for examples we might use in a lobby meeting with an elected official or share with the press, with your permission. And we’re looking for stories that could be featured in videos to motivate public support.

Cathy Savage-Dunn, PhD, an award winning biologist at Queens College, shared her own story with her local newspaper. In a recent Staten Island Advance article she explains how staff cuts at the National Institutes of Health will undermine research. She also explains why the indirect cost funding that the Trump administration wants to cut is critical to her college:

“Those costs are what the Queens College, CUNY “uses to keep the lights on,” she said. “[It’s] all of the things that make the science safe for the public, like the air filtration systems, the water purification, the waste management, and then all of the compliance.”

Share your story with us in the links below.

Tell us how the work you do at CUNY upholds diversity, equity and inclusion.

Tell us how your research is being undermined by President Trump’s cuts to NIH funding.

Tell Us You Will March With the PSC!