People’s Budget Campaign | Childcare Subsidy for PSC Members

The PSC was proud to host in our union hall on Thursday, February 13th The Affordability For All Mayoral Forum organized by ALIGN New York and a strong coalition of progressive organizations and unions. Housing, wages, transit, childcare and CUNY funding were among the topics of questions answered by the mayoral candidates who attended: Senator Jessica Ramos, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, and former Assembly Member Michael Blake. City Comptroller Brad Lander and Senator Zellnor Myrie could not attend, but delivered video messages.

PSC First Vice President Jen Gaboury opened the forum. Legislative Committee member Vero Ordaz asked a pointed question about CUNY funding, which was well answered by all the candidates present. Facebook Live video of the whole event is here. And here is a video of the CUNY question:

The union is forming a Sexuality and Gender Working Group to defend the rights and well-being of our members, students, and communities, many of whom are under attack from the Far Right, now via federal policy. Use the form linked here to sign up for opportunities to participate in the Working Group.

PSC members will join a coalition of unions, student groups and community organizations in Albany on Wednesday, February 26th for the annual Higher Education Action Day. Sign up here to join us as we rally inside the State Capitol and meet with over 100 state legislators to lobby for funding to hire new faculty and staff, update our crumbling facilities, and tuition-free education. Lobbying experience is not required. Transportation and lunch will be provided.

Buses will depart from several city locations (location TBD) around 6am and return in the evening.

REGISTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ACTION DAY

PSC members may be eligible for a subsidized child care benefit that is provided through the Child Care Facilitated Enrollment Project. This funding can be used to help pay for various types of child care providers and can save parents an average of $15,000 – $18,000 per year (per child) in child care expenses.

The program, developed by New York Union Child Care Coalition, a committee of the NYC Central Labor Council (NYCLC), aims to make quality child care more affordable for families in New York City with children up to 13 years of age. Parents must be working, live in New York City, and meet income restrictions (e.g. under $108,636 for a family of four).

To learn more about the subsidy, you can read this fact sheet and fill out a pre-screening form. PSC members can also attend an online information session hosted by the PSC at 7PM, Monday, March 10th. Register here for the Zoom meeting.

RSVP: Zoom Childcare Meeting, 3/10

The Trump administration put life-saving research at risk Friday, February 7th when they announced that the Indirect Cost Rate for all National Institutes of Health grants is now capped at 15% for all current and future grants. Indirect costs fund facilities and administration that is essential to grant-funded research. Since the 1960s, they have been reimbursed through negotiated rates that account for the needs and capacity of the funded institutions.

The change, held at bay by a temporary restraining order, would amount to a $4 billion funding cut that would blast a hole in university budgets throughout the country. If the change survives the challenge in court, it will disrupt critical research performed at CUNY and throughout the country. CUNY researchers stand to lose over $6 million in funding, according to a NYT analysis, with significant additional cuts possible to the School of Medicine’s recent $19 million NIH grant, which is not included in the NYT data. Ongoing medical trials will grind to a halt, tens of thousands of jobs will be lost, and scientific progress will be sabotaged. Underfunded universities, unable to support research with such meager funding for overhead, would be priced out of NIH-funded research. The CUNY Research Foundation is posting updates here.

The PSC is preparing to collect and tell the stories of how this attack will affect PSC members, CUNY campuses, and the communities we serve. If the sudden cut to NIH’s Indirect Cost Rate will undermine your research at CUNY, please fill out this form to tell us how. We’ll be in touch about how your story might help our union, and our national affiliates, mobilize and fightback.

Tell Your Story

Long serving adjuncts may qualify for a Multi-Year Appointment under the new pilot (Appendix E) if they have taught 6 or more contact hours in the same department in 12 of the most recent 14 semesters, and if the discontinuity was the result of a class cancellation or illness. Those who may be eligible for consideration under this discontinuity provision must self-identify and provide documentation to their Department Chair and their college’s Human Resources Office by February 28th. The discontinuity provision is detailed in the third bullet below:

Those eligible for consideration for the new Multi-Year Appointment pilot include:

• Teaching adjuncts who have a multi-year appointment and those who would have been eligible as of the conclusion of the 2023-2024 academic year under the expired Appendix E pilot are grandfathered into eligibility for consideration.
• Teaching adjuncts who taught at least six (6) contact teaching hours per semester within the same department or credit-bearing courses in academic program(s) (as set forth in Paragraph 2(d) of a college for the twelve (12) most recent consecutive semesters (excluding summer sessions).
• Teaching adjuncts who taught at least six (6) contact teaching hours per semester within the same department/program or credit-bearing courses in academic program(s) for at least twelve (12) of the fourteen (14) most recent consecutive semesters (excluding summer sessions) provided the adjunct was initially assigned to teach at least six (6) contact hours in the semesters(s) resulting in the lack of continuity and that the adjunct lost no more than:
  • one (1) course owing to insufficient enrollment or reassignment of a course to another faculty member; and/or
  • up to two (2) semesters owing to medical reasons in the semester(s) at issue.
  • The combination of (a) and (b) above may not exceed two (2) semesters.

Only teaching adjuncts who need to self-identify for eligibility are those who qualify under the discontinuity provision. All others with continuous service or grandfathering from previous multi-year appointments are automatically eligible for consideration and not required to self-identify to HR or the Department Chair.

Our NYSUT union siblings represented by the Association Representing Teaching Staff at Manhattan School of Music (ARTS-MSM) are on strike to demand fair pay and benefits that meet basic industry standards. NYSUT locals from across the region are mobilizing to stand in solidarity with them on the picket line Saturday, February 22nd outside MSM’s Morningside Heights building (corner of Claremont Ave & 122 St). Tell us you’ll be there.

ARTS-MSM Picket, Feb. 22

All items in the PSC Swag Shop are manufactured on demand, U.S.-made and union-printed, sold at cost, and shipped directly to you.

Swag Shop