CUNY Board of Trustees Brooklyn Borough Hearing and Pre-Hearing SpeakOut
3:30 Demonstration | 4:30 Hearing
PSC members are mobilizing to testify about management’s attack on adjunct job security and their proposed amendments to the CUNY Bylaws at the Brooklyn Borough Hearing of the CUNY Board of Trustees on Monday, April 1.
- The bosses want to more than double the time it takes for teaching adjuncts to qualify for any job security (to 12 years!), reduce the appointments from three years to two, and diminish the protection offered within those two years.
- The draft amendments to the CUNY Bylaws shared with governance bodies in early March would further corporatize administration of the colleges, diminish the role of the faculty, especially department chairs, and expand the role of upper administration. The draft changes are posted here.
The in-person hearing will start at 4:30PM and will be held in The Theater at City Tech, 275 Jay Street (map). We’ll be gathering in front of the Theater at 3:30 PM for a brief demonstration and to collect short videos from members who plan to testify.
Persons wishing to testify are required to notify the Office of the CUNY Secretary via email at [email protected] prior to noon on Friday, March 29, 2024. Copy PSC Communications Director Fran Clark at [email protected] when you email the CUNY Secretary, so we know that you will be there. Testimony is limited to three minutes. You do not have to pre-register if you plan to attend the demonstration and observe the testimony, but not testify, but please email your chapter chair to let them know you’ll be there in support. Here’s the official notice.
PSC in the News
Queens Ledger: CUNY Looks to Slash Adjunct Eligibility for Multi-Year Positions Amid Contract Negotiations
The Queens Ledger published an article yesterday, Wednesday, March 20, detailing our strong opposition to management’s counter offer on adjunct job security. The article quotes Queens College adjunct Kate Schnur, Vice President of Part-time Personnel Lynne Turner, and President James Davis. It cites a new PSC analysis that finds that the CUNY counter offer would result in an 87% reduction in eligibility for multi-year appointments.
Send a letter in support of our adjunct job security demands to the chancellor.
Tell Albany to Tax the Rich to Fund CUNY
The final state budget decisions always come down to how much revenue is available to fund the state’s priorities. This state can afford to fully fund CUNY. And it can afford to meet its healthcare, housing and education needs, too, if the wealthiest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes. Progressive tax policies have strong support in the Senate and the Assembly, but the Governor continues to oppose them. Send the PSC’s letter in support of a more just tax system to your legislators right now. The letter allows you to register your support, as a constituent, for requiring the wealthiest New Yorkers to pay an additional 0.5% income tax on their earnings above $5 million. It also endorses a 0.1% tax increase for corporations that earn more than $5 million per year in profits.
SEND REVENUE LETTER
Get on the Train to Albany for One More
State Budget Push
Tuesday, March 26
PSC members are headed to Albany next Tuesday, March 26 for what may be our last chance for in-person member advocacy for CUNY funding in this budget session. Led by PSC officers and members of the Legislative Committee, we will be visiting legislators’ offices, stopping them in the halls of the Capitol, and gathering for an early afternoon press conference. Contact Sam Lewis ([email protected]) if you’re available to come along. It will be a fulfilling and productive day.
CUNY Students Lead March to Demand Full Funding for CUNY, Free MetroCards
With lawmakers entering the final weeks of state budget negotiations and the City Council days away from a hearing on City University of New York funding, dozens of CUNY students, faculty, and staff rallied and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge last Friday to demand full funding of the University.
Led by the University Student Senate of CUNY and supported by CUNY Rising Alliance groups, including the PSC, the “March in March,” was a powerful demonstration of support for a platform of investments in CUNY, including increases in city and state funding for CUNY’s 25 colleges, more robust student support services, full funding of CUNY’s collective bargaining costs, and free MetroCards for CUNY students. Read more.
Higher Ed. Committee Chairs, Legislators and Advocates Say Now is the Time to Invest in CUNY and SUNY, College Affordability
PSC President James Davis and First Vice President Andrea Vásquez joined Senator Toby Ann Stavisky and Assemblymember Pat Fahy, the higher education committee chairs yesterday, Wednesday, March 20, at a press conference in the State Capitol to call for a final state budget with meaningful new investments in CUNY, SUNY and the Tuition Assistance Program. Leaders of United University Professions, our sister union at SUNY, were there as well, along with other state legislators and higher education advocates. Read more here.
With the budget deadline less than two weeks away, the event was an important and timely show of support from key legislative allies. Davis and Vásquez spoke at the event, saying, “We stand proudly with Senate and Assembly Higher Education Chairs Stavisky and Fahy, with our fellow academic unionists, advocates, and legislative allies in calling for significant additional investments in public higher education and financial aid. CUNY changes lives and benefits the state’s economy. A vibrant, well funded CUNY system, accessible to all, with fully staffed senior and community colleges, robust wraparound student supports, and the power to uplift communities is our goal! The final budget for FY2025 can help get us there if the provisions of the Senate and Assembly one-house resolutions are included in it.”
Tell Albany to Pass the New Deal for Higher Education
The PSC’s statewide affiliate, NYSUT, is urging union members all over the state to send letters to their NYS legislators in support of the New Deal for Higher Education, a $4.5 billion initiative to fully fund CUNY and SUNY that expands the scope of our New Deal for CUNY campaign. The state budget deadline is April 1st. So, now is exactly the time that a flood of constituent emails can have a big impact in Albany.
NYSUT Member Action Center letters are very easy to send. Just click the button below, preview the letter if you want to, plug your info into the form, click “next” so it can target your legislators, and click “send” for you Senator and Assembly Member.
SEND NEW DEAL LETTER
Want to Observe Contract Bargaining?
All dues-paying PSC members are welcome to observe a bargaining session after completing an online Orientation to PSC-CUNY Bargaining. If you have not yet attended an Orientation to PSC-CUNY Bargaining on Zoom, your next opportunities will be:
- Thursday, April 4, 6:30-7:30pm. Register for the 4/4 Zoom.
- Wednesday, April 24, 6:30-7:30pm. Register for the 4/24 Zoom.
- Monday, May 13, 6:30-7:30pm. Register for the 5/13 Zoom.
New York City Budget Testimony
PSC President James Davis spoke this Monday, March 18 at the City Council’s preliminary budget hearing on higher education. In his testimony, Davis argued that CUNY enrollment has rebounded, but that we have a crisis of understaffing and student retention that is being exacerbated by the Mayor’s repeated budget cuts and the University administration’s failures of leadership. He called for $94 million to fund the restoration of the Mayor’s “Program to Eliminate the Gap” cuts to CUNY community colleges and $35.5 million to fund expansions of CUNY Reconnect and ASAP, and supported Speaker Adams’s expansion of the Fair Fares program, with a call to screen CUNY students to ensure they receive free MetroCards. Read the testimony. Video of the hearing is linked on this page. President Davis testifies at the 1:42:05 time stamp.
HEOs, Full-time CLTs, and Faculty Librarians
Take the Staffing and Workload Survey, Today!
Deadline: April 1
Attention HEOs, full-time CLTs, and faculty librarians! If you have not yet taken the staffing and workload survey, please click here to complete your survey submission as soon as possible. You have until April 1. Fill out the survey to help us fight in Albany and at the bargaining table for adequate staffing and better working conditions.
BEGIN SURVEY
Published: March 21, 2024
